Make An Adorable Deco Mesh Turkey

 Happy Veteran's Day to you all!  Hope your weekend was spectacular.  Ours was lots of fun.  We had three of the Nashville grandsons spend the night with us Friday night and Saturday we all went to the Elves' Faire at their school.  The weather was beautiful and everyone had a great time.

We all know that Christmas is coming because ALL the stores are playing Christmas music and have their decorations out.  Ugh.  I hate that we almost completely skip over Thanksgiving now.  The holiday has become Hallowthanksmas.  It's like was start celebrating at the end of October and it all runs together.  Yes, I am old and I miss the days of very separate holidays.  There was  a time when no Christmas decorations went up until the day after Thanksgiving and I have to say I truly preferred it that way.  I love Christmas, but it seems to be featured about 1/3 of our year now.  I think it's too much and it looses it's meaning, becoming just a retail holiday.  That's my rant for today.  Sorry.

Now, let's talk about Thanksgiving which will be celebrated on the last Thursday in November.  President Abraham Lincoln  proclaimed Thanksgiving would be celebrated on the last Thursday in November in 1863 and ever year thereafter.  There had been celebrations since President George Washington, but it was celebrated at different times.  President Lincoln's proclamation is the one that we use to this day.

A sweet friend of mind sent me a picture of this adorable turkey and asked me how hard it would be to make.  Well, I looked at it and it didn't look too hard.  It seemed to be made on cardboard with strings for legs and the feathers were made from deco mesh.  It was really cute.  So, of course, I decided to make one for our dining room, but I did it my way.

If  you have been making deco mesh projects and have a lot of extra laying around like I did, the expense of this project is very small.  I bought a styrofoam ring at The Dollar Tree that is 7 7/8 inches by 1 15/16 inches thick.

I covered the ring with a piece of 9 x 12 brown felt and anchored it with greening pins that I always have on hand.  You can buy small packages of greening pins at most any craft store with a floral department.  They are metal two pronged pins that are U shaped.  You just push them through the felt into the styrofoam and it will hold it in place.  Easier than trying to hot glue it.

Next, I cut out the head from a piece of glitter craft foam that you can buy in packages at The Dollar Tree.  I just googled images of turkeys to get an idea for the shape.  I hot glued it to the brown felt.  I cut two small circles from some white felt and hot glues a rhinestone in the middle of each "eye."  You can use google eyes if you have them.  I cut a beak out of gold felt and the red waddle from a scrap of felt and hot glued them to the head.

For the "feathers," I cut strips of deco mesh about 2 feet long.  Then, I laid the strip on the counter and pulled on opposite corners to make it curl up.

Twist the middle of the strip and cut it in half.  Using a greening pin, I started at the bottom of where I wanted the Turkey's tail and pinned each half on either side of the turkey's body.  I continued with different colors until I reached the top.

You can use any colors you want.  I happened to have green, orange, gold, red, and brown, so that is what I used.

For the legs and feet, I wrapped two brown pipe cleaners around a pencil and poked them through the felt into the styrofoam ring using a dab of hot glue to hold them in place.  For the feet, I used two little felt sun flowers that came from a package of table scatter.  You could just cut a couple of pieces of felt and hot glue them to the bottom of the pipe cleaners.

To give the edge of the body a more finished look, I hot glued some orange sequins around the felt next to the feathers.  Done.  

I hung it in the middle of my big tobacco basket and it looks so cute!  Makes the dining room feel very festive and ready for a big Thanksgiving celebration.

If you don't want to rush right in to Christmas, try making one of these adorable turkey's for your wall or door.  You could also make smaller ones using small semi circles of styrofoam and use them as table decorations or place card holders. The bottom with just sit on the table with the legs extended to the front.   Hmmmm, may have to give that a go.

You've still got several weeks until we have Thanksgiving day to remember how thankful we are for all the blessings we have been given.  Try making your own turkey and let me know how it turns out.

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.  W.T. Purkiser