My Neat Blog: Recycling Meets Rudolph

Have you ever thought, hey I really want a deer head on my wall? No? Me neither, but when I ran into this adorable Christmas project I couldn't resist. I had been admiring it on the Good Housekeeping website and Pinterest for some time now and tonight was the night that the reindeer was to be made!

Picture by Michael Partenio/Good Housekeeping

This little deer is considered a Scandinavian Christmas Decoration. When I was looking up decorations for the office the article leading up to this suggested to use other holiday traditions and decor. Which seems like a neat way to celebrate since in office settings we sometimes have to focus on 'holiday' rather than Christmas. With that said, I still Americanized it and Christmas'd it up.

Click here for instructions and template.

A little printing tip: Change printer setting to 11 x 17 and print on tabloid size paper. I also should warn you that the reindeer is way tinier than the picture looks.

So here's mine!

I can't believe it turned out so well. I free cut the scores because I thought that would be easier than marking before assembling. I also did the brace part c out of order too. I'm excellent at following instructions! ha.

Then came decorating! I used red tissue paper for the nose and sharpie for the eyes. Googly eyes would be precious too! Then to really American Christmas it up I added bulbs to the antlers. I would've put real bulbs but I didn't have any extras and I feared it would be too top heavy. Instead I cut these out from wrapping paper.

Then I wrapped some garland around and done! I think you can also place him inside of a pre-made wreath. I actually adore him and think he could be out year-round minus garland and bulbs. I've seen those inflatable deer heads for $20-30 in stores but these was essentially free.

YAY! and because it's fairly small I put it on a small section on my wall or else it could be overwhelming. I also was thinking about making 3 and putting them on the wall v-shaped. I think that would be cute! Bonus the shadow it creates on the wall is also spectacular.

I have also made an adorable sign/garland that says Merry, Merry! Pinterest inspired and again, once I find my camera cord i'll take a picture but since it's too big to cover with my phone I can't. I hate losing things!

Are you in the Christmas spirit yet?

I am! Here's a sneak peek of my garland on the banister. I love a banister wrapped in garland.