A Thankful Turkey??

 Here is a little something we have been doing around our house for a few years now. The kids will love it, heck even grown ups think its fun. I made this little thankful turkey from supplies bought at hobby lobby. I can’t remember what this cost, I am sure it wasn’t very frugal. My big ideas never are:(. I will try and go through how I made it (no real tutorial though since that was like 3 years ago!), but I threw out the foam ball part when we moved since I was looking to save space. Should have just kept it, those foam things can be so expensive! I think this new one was $4.99 at hobby lobby. I used a coupon though. 🙂  I actually made this for our primary sharing time at church, but it has since been adopted by our family. My supplies: brown paint, foam ball, cardboard, red, brown, and yellow felt, t-pins, 24 feathers (or however many you want), 2 big googly eyes, and hot glue.

I got some paint and watered it down and painted over the entire foam ball. Let it dry thoroughly. I am sure it would be easier with spray paint. I didn’t have brown spray paint so I used what I had.

Then I got a piece of cardboard and cut out a circle for my turkeys face. I covered it with brown felt, just hot glued it right on. (First I used sobo craft glue, but it wasn’t holding the felt down so I went a little crazy with the hot glue.) I cut out the beak from yellow felt and the wattle from red felt (red hangy thing). Glued those both on and some big googly eyes too. I then took the leftover yellow felt and drew turkey legs to attach to the ball.

When the ball was dried, I just took a round tool (screwdriver or whatever you can find) and poked holes to add the feathers on the back of the turkey. I spaced them evenly apart in rows, about 8 holes per row. This helps so that your feathers do not break when you insert them into the foam. Perfect for reusing this year after year, otherwise your feathers won’t last.

Next I took a t-pin (or whatever its called!) and just pinned the turkey face onto the front of the foam ball. Next I pinned the legs under the face, they just hang there.

Now you just take turns “passing” the turkey around naming something you are thankful for while inserting a feather. I use about 24 multicolored feathers. At the end, you see what a beautiful turkey you have to compliment the beautiful life you have and all your blessings!