how to make over a dollar general nutcracker

The other day, I saw a cute little nutcracker at my local Dollar General store for $8.00. I thought it was a little basic, and it wasn’t totally my style…so I decided to give it a facelift. I have been wanting to try to make one over sometime, so this was the perfect chance!

There is nothing “terrible” about this one, as it is…but I just wanted it to have a little more pizazz (and why is the scarf in his mouth?)!!

I didn’t take a ton of process pictures, and what I did was really very basic, so I will just do my best to walk you through it.

Supplies Used:

Apple Barrel Paint (picture included with colors)
Scrap Ribbon of your choice for embellishing
Mini Peppermint embellishments from Hobby Lobby
Hot Glue Gun
Paintbrushes

First, I took off the scarf or whatever was covering his teeth. That exposed the true nutcracker look that everyone loves (or finds super creepy!)

I then started painting some of the areas that I wanted to change. I painted the spoon white, and I painted the legs key west and pink! It took about 3 coats to fully cover. You can see after the first coat that it would need a little more. Just wait for it to dry before applying the next coat, so that it covers better.

I told you I didn’t take a ton of process pictures! Oops! But, let me walk you through some more that I changed!
As I mentioned, I painted the spoon white. I also painted the legs pink and key west. The little part that connected the top and bottom was painted a darker turquoise (I forgot to include it in the picture of the paint- sorry!)
I painted the base that he is standing on black. It covered pretty easily.I also painted over his eyes, mustache and eye brows with black paint. I think I should have used a paint pen, because it is a little sloppy, but in the end- it looked fine.
To finish his face, I accentuated the nose and cheeks with a little extra light pink.

Now you can see some more details!
I painted the red part between his teeth with turquoise, and I put a new fun ribbon around his hat.
I also added the white dot in the eyes and red stripes around the spoon so that it wasn’t so boring.
Little polka dots around the connecting piece of his legs added some extra cuteness, and of course…more polka dots on the feet!

To top it all off, I added a peppermint piece on his hat and his apron! I just hot glued them on.

I think he turned out SO CUTE! For just $8 and a little work, he is perfect!

Well, do you think he went from drab to fab???

Be sure to PIN FOR LATER!

Last Updated on November 27, 2023