13 Dec – Dismembered Lucia

Today is Lucia day in Sweden. It is the day when we celebrate our only remaining saint with Barbie blond girlie girls with light in their hairs. The true way to celebrate Lucia is by gauging your eyes out and  putting them on a tray, but you dont see that much now days, strangely enough.

We celebrate December 13 by keeping close to the martyrdom in the original story by simply dismembering a couple of Barbies and we’re in for a two for one craft Cat toys and Barbie Mobile! Enjoy!

1. What you need for this double craft is a couple of old Barbies (use your own old ones or get them at a second hand store or steal them from a siblings toy chest), cat nip, heavy duty yarn, fish line, some beads and wire hangers. Tongs are good to have around as well as a pair of scissors, a big needle, and the worlds best tool the glue gun.

2. We’re starting off with the cat toy. Step one is simply removing the heads from the dolls. It’s usually really easy.

3. Take the needle and punch a bunch of extra holes in the Barbie head. This so the fragrance from the cat nips gets out easier.

4. Make a funnel out of a paper and use it to pour cat nip into the Barbie head.

5. This is about the right amount.

6. Get out the glue gun and glue around the edges.

7. Press together and hold until the glue sets.

8. Take your needle and sew a few big stitches to hold the catnip and glue in and to get the proper macabre look. This is easier said then done so use the tongs.

9. Make a knot, think rough surgery look, and voila! Barbie transformed into a cat toy!

10. If it looks like a cross between CSI and Terror on Elm Street you’ve done it right. Finish off by rubbing some cat nip into the Barbie hair.

11. Finished cat toys.

12. Fia-Lotta’s rough love with Barbie.

13. Saida loves her new toy.

14. Part two of today’s craft is making a Mobile out of the remaining pieces from the Barbies. Start by dismembering the bodies. Legs are easy, arms harder. We let the arms stay on the Barbies.

15. To get a proper Mobile you need some kind of sticks. We found old wire hangers in our storage. With the tongs we cut the middle section from the hangers. If you don’t have any wire hangers you can use, twigs or sticks of any kind.

16. How long and how many stick you use will decide how big your mobile will get.

17. We saved one of the hooks from one hanger to use as the top part of our mobile. With the tongs we made loops at the ends.

18. On the straight sticks we glued pearls which made the mobile look nicer and also protects us from the sharp edges made by the tongs.

19. Tie fish line to the doll parts. It’s easy to get it all tangled. We hung our mobile up from the start and worked on it hanging which made it easier.

20. The different doll parts differs in weight so you have to balance your mobile by sliding the fish line along your stick. It’s tricky but the end result is great.