Make a Bleach Bottle Santa Face

You see Santa everywhere during the Christmas season. Now you can make your very own Santa face to decorate your home. This jolly Santa is made with a bleach bottle or similar sturdy plastic bottle as the base. You cut it and then add felt for his face and yard for the beard, hair, mustache, and eyebrows. The red hat finishes it off.

I've included two videos so you can follow the steps in making this. Also, I've included still photos so you can examine the structure. My parents made dozens of these over the years and gave them to all their children and even sold them at craft shows.

I treasure mine and look forward each year to getting it out of my Christmas storage and putting it on display.

Rinse the bottle out well and let it air dry. Cut the bottle in half from top to bottom using a craft knife, like an Exacto or box cutter knife. Once you've made a initial cut into the side of the bleach bottle, you could use sturdy scissors for part of the cutting. Scissors don't work so well on the curved part or the thicker bottom of the bleach bottle.

Be very careful not to cut yourself and not to cut into the surface below the plastic bottle. I recommend putting a thick piece of corrugated cardboard under it to protect your counter or table.

I'm featuring several videos to help you understand the process. Please watch all of them to have the steps clearly in your mind before you start.

• Get two skeins of white yarn to use for the beard.
• You also need white pipe cleaners. They come in bundles of 50, 100, 175, etc. Fifty is enough for a single Santa. Get the larger packs if you are making multiple Santas.
• Red felt for the hat.
• Flesh-colored felt
• 2 googly eyes
• A white 1/2 inch pompom for the hat
• A small red pompom for Santa's nose
• Scissors
• An ice pick to punch holes for the pipe cleaners
• Glue

• Bleach Bottle Santa - Blogger Kristii tells how to make this craft.
• Making a Bleach Bottle Santa | ThriftyFun - This is a guide about making a bleach bottle Santa. Clean plastic bleach and detergent bottles are great to use in craft projects. Make this cute Santa for the holidays.

I've had mine for years and store it away carefully so the soft yarn doesn't get crushed. The safest storage is a box just for it.

I put mine in with other holiday decorations but put it so nothing rests on it or crushes it.