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Valentine’s Day DIY Teddy Bears

For this month’s trash to treasure challenge I will be making two crafts for Valentine’s Day. The miniature teddy bears will be perfect for the kids to make and give to their friends and teachers. The “Secret Safe” teddy bear is a great gift for anyone. Because it requires hot glue, you’ll need to help the kids with that one. As always the links, patterns and a bunch of free clip art is at the bottom of the blog. I’m new at adding the replay to the blog, so please excuse the small on screen flaws. I thought it would help you to get all the detailed instructions both written and visual.

First, we will be making miniature teddy bears. You can make these with just paper and they hug a piece of candy the size of a miniature Hershey’s chocolate bar perfectly. The furry ones don’t hug the candy without glue. You can do a lot with these little bears. You can add them to a picture frame. You can put them on a gift tag. You can glue them onto a pencil holder or makeup bag. You can put them on top of a gift box. You can put them on top of a card or make them into a freestanding valentine. The possibilities are endless.

Supplies

Fuzzy socks (Dollar Tree)

Cardboard from a cereal or food box

Permanent or regular markers

Hot glue or white glue

Glue stick

OPTIONAL ITEMS: picture frame, altoids mints tin, a toilet paper roll, a gift box, a valentines day chocolate candy heart box, or a greeting card.

OPTIONAL DECORATIONS: glitter, ribbon, Glossy Accents by Ranger (to make the eyes shine)

Instructions

Cut a cereal box so you have 2 flat sheets of cardboard.
Using a glue stick, glue a piece of colored paper to the printed side.
Push the card down with a card or a rolling pin so you won’t have any bubbles.
Cut the fuzzy sock at the heel, back to front.
Cut the front up to the toe.
Open the sock.
Cut your bear patterns and measure over the sock.
Cut the toe seams out if you want.
Put a layer of white glue on the card board.
Place the flat sock over the glue. Press out from the center to make sure it’s flat.
Press down with a rolling pin or glue bottle so everything is flat with no bubbles.
Cut the basic pattern of the bears. Then you can cut the exact shape by placing the pattern on the BACK SIDE.
Glue on the ears of your choice. I have a few to choose from.
Cut the eyes, snout and paws out of paper.
Glue on the eyes and snout. Then color them with markers. You can glue on paws or color them in.
You can use Glossy Accents over the eyes to make them super shiny.
Comb the fabric so it gets super fluffy. Glue the edges. Add blush on the cheeks if you wish.
If you want to add candy, download the graphic and add washi tape on the back.
Glue the candy to the back side.
Add a ribbon to her hair and place the valentine in her hand.
I added fake eyelashes to this one.
I glued the one on the right to a decoupaged Altoid mints tin. For the kitty on the left, I covered a toilet roll with fancy paper and glue her to the front.
Here they are! Stinkin cute? I hope so. The patterns are below.

Secret Safe Teddy Bear

Supplies

Recycled plastic or glass jar with lid

Plush teddy bear or other stuffed animal *stuffed animals that are NOT jointed are the easiest to dis-assemble.

Hot glue

Cardboard box

Seam ripper or exact-o knife

Instructions

Locate the neck seam on the back of the teddy bear. Using a small pair of scissors cut a very small hole the back of the seam. Use a seam ripper, razor blade or sharp knife to cut the threads all the way around the seam of the neck.
 
Now the head and the body are two different pieces begin to take some of the stuffing out of the body.
I would say about 50% is good. Save that stuffing because you may need it later.
Take your jam jar and measure it against the hole of the neck opening to see if it will fit. Then insert the jam jar inside the body of the teddy bear.
 
Mark the front of the jar, and the lid of the jar with a sharpie marker to locate the front of the jar. This way when you unscrew the bear, the head will fit properly.
Trace the lid 2x on a cereal box or cardboard. You are going to want to cut two of those.
Cut one slightly larger.
Mark the larger circle to match the front lid.
Place the circle inside the head and see which one fits best. If the head is fluffy, use the larger one for a good grip.
Pull the fur over the circle.
Glue around the outer edge and push into the head. Now glue the lid to the center.
Glue around the outside of the lid, pulling the fur over and pressing it down.
Mark the inside center to match the outside center line. Trim off any glue bits off the fur.
Insert the jar into the body.
Center up the mark with the front seam.
Screw on the head lid on the body, holding the jar tight. Once it’s centered, place ONE dot of glue inside the front of the fur and press down.
Remove the head and place a line of glue at the base, pulling the fur up as you go.
Press the fur into the jar as you go.
Glue all the way around making sure you stay away from the area where the lid screws on.
Trim off any glue on the jar and the fur.
You can add a ribbon if you need to to cover the jar seam. He is ready to be filled with candy and small gifts!

If you have a hard time getting to the store or are short on funds, feel free to email or call me at:

[email protected] or 413-512-3714 and I’m happy to send you a *free box of supplies. *Massachusetts residents only, all others just PayPal or mail me $10 to cover the shipping at the email/ address shown at the bottom of the page. As you can imagine I have a house full of this stuff and don’t mind sharing.
PATTERNS

Right click on the pattern and open it in a new window. They are also in the google drive.

 

IMAGES LINK

Google Drive

The images you will want to download first have MASS APPEAL in the title.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1oTExQtHzWdEZ_aV9uCvkbB2YP9zirr0C?usp=sharing

VALENTINE’S DAY YOUTUBE VIDEO PLAYLIST

This project was inspired by the teddy bears Cindy T makes on youtube. Here’s a link to her video.

Ok my friends, I will see you tomorrow. Hopefully with makeup on and looking fancy, which is quite a process for this vampire nerd. Now to go pack the car. 🙂 Let me know if you need any help.

Big hugs from the Berks!

Mrs. Chipps

 

 

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