DIY Christmas Decorations: PomPom Robins

This DIY is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me; my two previous tutorials and the final one I have coming up next week are all relatively quaint and substantially fulfil my vision of Kathryn's Homemade Christmas. However this one is goofy, childish and absolutely adorable.  

In primary school, we were kept busy in the weeks running up to Christmas with an extensive amount of festive crafts. Most of these projects eventually ended up in the bin, however my mum always pulls out the pompom robins I made when it's time to decorate the tree. There is something really charming about them, and so this year I decided to make some more.

You will need: Two round objects to draw around, one larger than the other (or a pair of compass'!) // Brown wool // Red wool // Black, white and brown felt // PVA glue // Cardboard (I used a cereal box) // Scissors // Pen.

 Start by drawing around the outline of the larger round object, on to the card.

 Cut it out and place the smaller round object in the centre, drawing around that too.

 Cut out the circle you drew in the centre so that you have a cardboard ring. You will need two of these.

 Place the rings back to back and take your brown wool and start to wrap it around the two rings. I like to do this by wrapping it around my fingers to create a little ball as this makes it easier to feed through the middle of the rings. 

Keep wrapping all the way round, leaving a small section unwrapped for the red wool.

 Ideally, you will keep going until you can barely fit your finger through the hole in the middle, however I ran out of time and had to leave it like this. This can take a good couple of hours depending on how big you want your pompom, so it's a perfect activity to do in front of your favourite Christmas movie. 

 Next, take your scissors and begin to cut through the wool. Try and get your scissors inbetween the two layers of cardboard and cut all the way around. This can be quite tricky so only cut a little bit at a time!

As you cut you will see your pompom slowly begin to spread out, before eventually looking like this.

Take a length of wool and tie it in a tight knot round the middle of the pompom, between the two layers of card. This will keep all the individual bits of wool together. Then tie a knot at the top so your robin can be hung up. Rip from the top to the centre of each bit of cardboard, so you can extract them from the centre of your pompom.

 Cut out two white circles, two black circles, a beak and two wings from your felt... 

 ...and PVA glue them to your pompom to create an adorable little robin! Make lots of little robin friends and hang them from your tree or sit them on your mantelpiece. 

I hope this tutorial was helpful!
KJ xo