We're filling the house with Christmas cheer at the moment and I think my favourite new addition to this year's decorations is the cardboard Christmas reindeer head. You can buy these deer busts online, however this seems silly to me when you can make them yourself with just a cardboard box and this free downloadable template.
I've added a wreath to give it a Christmas theme, however, you can have these busts as is and just hanging up in your house as an eclectic environmental and animal friendly wall hanging.
Materials:
Cardboard
Craft blade
Pencil
Blue Tac
Steps:
Download and print off the deer head template (This download is an adaptation of a template that was designed by Soupraok on Instructables).
Cut around the paper template and blue tac it to some cardboard (make sure the fluting is all going in the same direction and the split templates line up).
Cut around the template on the cardboard.
Cut the slit (make sure you cut the slits to the same width as the cardboard).
Take the paper template and re number each piece of cardboard with a pencil.
Pull all the cardboard slits out.
Using the main body of the deer (neck to nose) slot in the numbered shapes from small to big numbers.
Slot in the neck sides.
Glue the two mount boards together.
Glue the deer head onto the mount boards (I used PVA but you could also use a glue gun).
Tips
I printed this at 100% on A4 paper but you could also enlarge to A3 and make a larger deer head.
Make sure you take your time especially with the slots and getting the right width to them. It will make a big difference to the assembling.
To make the deer head a part of your Christmas decorations you can make your own wreath. Here is a link to some great tutorials on how to make a wreath by Martha Stewart.
When putting on the wreath you will probably need to remove the antlers and ears so as it fits over the head which is easy enough to do as they slot in and out really easily.