We hope you’ve already got your stash of pompoms for this week’s projects so you won’t have to battle the pre- and post-Thanksgiving crowds.

As mentioned in last week’s Craft Corner, we’ll be focusing on kid-friendly projects again this week in hopes that the younger set will get creative over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Pompom critters take center stage this time around: Christmas sheep, a Christmas bear, playful poodles from a kit and a pair of wolf cubs. We made the wolves cubs so our sheep would have nothing to fear.

Since our poodles came from a kit, let’s begin with them. Even though we can’t give you the step-by-step instructions here because of copyright laws, we liked the poodles so much we wanted to feature them, and we can show you the finished product and tell you how to go about getting the kit.

The kit is called “Crafts to Go” and is manufactured by Westrim Crafts, which also has kits for making other dogs, bears, zoo animals and monsters.

The kits come a container that looks like a Chinese takeout box and include everything needed to make several animals. We found our kits (we also got the bears) at Craft Mart in Marysville for $4.99 each.

The white and pink poodles looked different from the brown one. The reason is that the brown fellow is one we made using the kit instructions – which are clear and very easy to follow – and pompoms we purchased in bulk at the craft store.

We’re not unhappy with the results, but the kit pompoms are easier to work with and more uniform than the bulk variety, so the finished poodles will vary in appearance, depending on the pompoms used.

You can browse the Westrim catalog (www.westrimcrafts.com), but you’ll have to go to a retailer to purchase the kits.

Check your favorite craft or hobby shop to see if they have, or can order, the kits for you. You can contact Westrim through its Web site or do a search on your own for an online source.

Now on to the instructions for the critters we made on our own. In addition to the text, we’ve included photos of the finished animals as guides.

Christmas sheep

Materials: a small foam ball, an ample supply of white pompoms in various sizes, white and red felt, small black pompoms, white pipe cleaners, scissors, and a hot glue gun with lots of glue.

* Cut four lengths of pipe cleaner for legs (1 to 2 inches, depending on the size of the sheep – we used a 3-inch ball for the small and a 4-inch for the large). Glue a small black or white pompom to one end of each pipe cleaner to make a hoof. Insert legs into the foam ball so that it stands properly.

* Cover the entire ball with smallish white pompoms.

* Make the head by gluing a small pompom to a larger one to form muzzle. Use small black pompoms to make the eyes and nose, and cut ears and a tongue from felt. Glue the head onto the body, placed as desired.

* Tie a ribbon and bell or another embellishment of choice around the neck. We used small, sparkly red and green pompoms to make a collar.

Wolf cubs

Materials: one large pompom (we used a 2-inch) for the body, one smaller pompom (1-inch) for the head, five small (1-inch) pompoms for the muzzle and feet, tiny black pompoms for the nose and eyes, red or pink felt for a tongue, felt (color of choice) for the ears, and a piece of pipe cleaner for a tail.

* Glue the large and the smaller pompom together to form the head and the body and then glue on a small pompom for the muzzle to the front of the head.

* Glue four small pompoms to the bottom of the large pompom to make feet.

* Add tiny black pompoms to make the eyes and nose and cut felt for the tongue and ears; attach with glue.

* Curl pipe cleaner to fit the body and so that it shows from the front a bit; attach with glue.

* Add holiday adornments if desired or leave plain.

One thing we like about our little wolves is that they will each be different from their “litter mates,” even when using the same instructions.

Christmas bear

Materials: a large pompom for the body, a smaller pompom for the head, five small pompoms for the legs and muzzle, two very small pompoms for the ears, tiny black pompoms for the eyes and nose.

* Glue the large and the smaller pompom together to form the head and the body. Add one small pompom to the front of the head for the muzzle and four to the body for legs and then add two smaller pompoms to the head for ears.

* Add tiny black pompoms for the eyes and nose.

* Add a tongue and holiday embellishments if desired, but we left ours plain (we figured the red and green colors were enough).

Hanging ornaments

All of these pompom critters can be made into hanging ornaments if you wish, although you might want to keep the size and weight of the sheep in mind.

* Using a very long beading needle or a slender sewing needle, run a double strand of gold thread – knotted at one end – from the bottom of the animal to the top. Leave the end at the top long enough to make a loop and then tie it off to form the hanger.

* Make sure the knot on the bottom is large enough not to pull through.

* The exact placement of the hanger will vary depending on how you want the ornament to hang.

Contact Jonetta Coffin at jrocoffin@aol.com.