Christmas Traditions: A new Dusty Crophopper Ornament

This Disney Planes Dusty Christmas Ornament tutorial and shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #PlanesToTheRescue #CollectiveBias

Since Sebby was born in 2008, I've bought him at least one Christmas ornament for him so he would have his own assortment when he had his own tree. I have done the same for Quincy and Edison too. I try to find something that is representative of each of my kids for the particular year. Last year, for Sebby it was Disney Cars, okay, and the year before that too. But this year? For Edison? He's all about Planes. Like, he will CLIMB the bookshelf, get the Planes Fire and Rescue Blu-Ray disc down and bring it to me. Let's just call him a fan.

It goes without saying that under our tree this year will be a ridiculous amount of Planes characters. My mom sent some and I've been ~~hoarding~~ buying Planes for a few months. Santa may even be bringing TALIKING Dusty Crophopper for Edison this year.

But back to the ornaments. I've gotten the kids their ornaments this year, and yes, Edison has both a Lightening McQueen AND a Dusty Crophopper on the tree this year, but I thought it'd be fun to make the kids ornaments too. I've started with a special one for my littlest guy because he really does love the Planes movie.

On a recent trip to Walmart, I picked up some Planes toys that were on Rollback (yay saving money!) including a super cool TALKING Dusty for Edison that would be from the man in the red suit. Lots of the Planes toys are on rollback right now, including Disney Planes Flight to the Finish Speedway Rollback to $24.97, Disney Planes Fire & Rescue Die-Cast Vehicles, 3-Pack Rollback to $14.97, Disney Planes Fire & Rescue Deluxe Talking Vehicle Assortment Rollback to $19.97, Planes Character Assortment die-cast set, plus Disney Planes: Fire
and Rescue Character Assortment die-cast set are both on rollback at $4.97). After the toy aisle, I wandered over to the crafts and picked up the supplies to make some special Christmas ornaments. (Total side note here, I loved that they had EVERYTHING I needed for this project!)

I've been crafty with clothes pins for as long as I can remember. There's a ton of crafts that you can do. But today? How about some clothespin airplanes? The cool factor is the clothes pin is what attaches the planes to the tree. No hooks to mess with. I'm just going to pat myself on the back right now.

How to make your own Dusty Crophopper Ornament

1.) Gather your supplies. You'll need:

- 1 spring loaded clothes pin
- several craft sticks of various sizes for your wings, rudders etc.
- permanent fine tip markers in orange, blue, black, and silver
- a pair of googly eyes
- wood glue

2.) Prep all your "plane parts" before you start gluing them together. Trust me it's much easier.

3.) Using kitchen shears, carefully cut the craft sticks to make your cockpit and tail rudder. Use care as the wood splits easily.

4.) Put your googly eyes on your cockpit piece and start gluing your plane together.

5.) Use care to not use so much glue or assemble your plane in a way that the clothes pin doesn't function properly. You'll need the clothespin to put the plane on the tree.

Allow your ornament to dry throughly before placing it on the tree. Wood glue takes about 24 hours.

Confession: I totes made these ornaments all by myself, but they are definitely easy enough to have little ones help. With the different size craft sticks it's easy to make any kind of plane you want! In face, you could make ALL the Disney Planes characters if you wanted to!