Quirky Christmas characters, a cute angel and Father Christmas himself, come to life thanks to a wooden spoon, some felt and a little paint...

For the angel:
- a a wooden spoon 12 inches long
- thick white felt (to give added stiffness to the dress), yellow felt and a little red felt
- 'Capelli di angelo', literally 'angel hair' pasta (very appropriate here!)
- golden embroidering thread
- thin brass wire
For Father Christmas:
- a 12 inch long wooden spatula with an angled blade (longer on one side than the other),
- air-hardening modeling clay (or salt dough)
For the two characters you need: a little paint and a thin-tipped black marker pen suitable for use on painted wood.

Start by painting the upper part of the two spoons a light pink shade (you may need to apply two coats). While the paint dries, start to cut the shapes from the felt...

Cut out the angel's 'dress' in two separate, identical pieces of white felt, then cut out the wings (in one single piece of yellow felt) and lastly a red heart and a little yellow heart for  decoration.

On both sides of the dress, punch holes at regular intervals using eyelet pliers, making sure that you make a hole in both halves of the dress at the same time, with a piece of thick cardboard underneath.

The holes will make it easy to thread the golden embroidering thread (which is a little bit stiff, because of its 'metallic' content) but which plays a part in the decoration of the angel.

Make 4 holes in the piece of felt that will be used for the wings; these holes should line up with the 4 holes that have already been made in the top part of the dress. Fix the wings to the back of the dress by threading the embroidery thread through these 4 holes.

Sew the angel's dress, starting from the bottom, using a blunt-tipped embroidery needle.

With the brass wire, make a short spiral (by winding it round a small pencil...) and a longer spiral with a bigger diameter. Attach the little heart to the bigger heart using the short spiral. Attach the longer spiral to both sides of the large heart: it will then be hung around the angel's neck.

Draw on the eyes, eyebrows, a little nose and a big smile using a fine-tipped black marker pen (practise beforehand on a sheet of paper until you find the facial expression that you're looking for). Using a small ball of rolled-up paper towel, apply a little red paint to the cheeks. Glue on a 'tuft' of capelli di angelo onto the top of the spoon. After it has dried, give the figure a hair cut using a small, fine-tipped pair of scissors! Put the dress on the spoon and place the spiral attached to the two hearts into position.


If you are using thick felt, you can cut off the part of the spoon handle that juts out below the dress and set the angel directly on the Christmas dining room table ...

Paint the upper part of the spatula and the spatula handle bright red (the angled shape of the spatula makes a good head for Father Christmas with his woolly hat...).
Draw on the eyes, nose and mouth. The whites of the eyes are painted white, obviously, and the mouth is painted red.
Add the modeling clay to form the turn-up of the woolly hat, the pom pon on top of the hat, the beard (which starts at the hat turn-up and goes right down the spatula handle) then the moustache above the beard. Prod at and work the clay a little to create a 'fur/hair' look.
Let the clay dry. It will harden with contact with the air.

Why not take a look... a little Father Christmas made out of beads...