The Grinch - The Beginning

During Christmas our office has a Door Decorating Contest which I have won 2 years running.  Last year we made a Frosty the Snowman out of Styrofoam cups after seeing something similar on Pintrest.  

2012 Door Contest Winner

All of the snow flakes were cut out using a Cricut machine and all together took 3 people 40 hours total to make.  I love the way he turned out and since we had won I knew we had to step it up a notch. 

I was all over Pintrest searching for inspiration on a door design.  Everything I saw was ok but nothing that was like BAM this is a winner.  I saw a Grinch door that looked ok but wasn't a winner.  

Then I came across this picture and I KNEW it was a winner:

Since there were 3 of us to do the door I assigned my coworkers the background and the Arrest Plate. I took on the enormous task of pulling the Grinch himself together. 

I spent the day researching what the Grinch's body looked like and started sketching out templates to use for his head, hands, belly, and legs.  I pulled up a full body pic of him and discovered the Grinch has some scrawny legs.  I used our office copy machine to enlarge his head to a good size then went from there.  I sketched out a pattern for his coat since it was going to be the focal piece of him.  From there I did a half oval for his belly.  I used my hands turned sideways on a piece of paper to use for his hands.  The legs were pretty easy.  I copped out on his feet and decided to cover them with booties instead.

I went by Michael's to get green poster board but found bulletin board paper instead.  I got green and red.  Using my templates, I cut out his hands, legs, and head using the green paper.  This really helped because I was all set with my basics and it was time to get supplies.  

I enlisted my mother for help and we hit Joann's Fabric Store to find some green felt or fun fur to use as his body.  I found neither.  I was so discouraged but my mom being the every optimistic light of my life said let's go look at the yarn.  Seriously mom but ok.  We're perusing the yarn section and they have 2 aisles full, who knew?  She found this very weird yarn called Fun Fur in the exact lime green that the Grinch is.  Then she says, "Hear me out, how about we crochet him?"  I said yeah no.  "Trust me he is going to be awesome."  Who am I to argue with the woman who gave birth to me?

We purchased 5 skeins of this stuff.  Thankfully I had a 40% off coupon so it ended up being $15 for the yarn. I also picked up Pipe Cleaners, foam sheets that had sticky stuff on the back in yellow and black, and some felt in red and green.  

My mom and I went back to her house to get started.  I was going to do the hands and feet, mom was doing the belly.  She taught me how to do a single chain stitch so I got busy.  After I had a chain long enough I started hot gluing to the background for his leg.  

Fingers + Hot Glue = OUCH

I burned my fingers more than I am going to admit on this blog.  It took me 4 hours to make his hands and legs.  My mom crocheted his belly for 6 hours.  We did this all day Saturday.  So Sunday we finished up and my mom started a circle for his head.  I had to go so she didn't get a chance to finish it up but my coworker knew how to crochet so she said she would help finish it.  

Go to work the next day and start the task of assembling.  My other coworker put up the background for the police lineup and drew in the lines for his height.  I cut out his coat using felt and lined the edges with cotton balls.  Using the head template as a guide, I used double sided sticky tape to put up the coat, belly, legs, and his booties. 

 
I started assembling his face using the head template and got a little silly

Then got it back together and this was the outside of his head.

His eyebrows and mouth are pipe cleaners that I shaped.  His eyes are made from the foam I purchased from Joann's.  My coworker was finished with the middle of his face so this is it put together.  

I used hot glue for the eye brows and mouth.  The foam for his eyes, nose, and forehead were already sticky.  So now came time to put his head on. I used a cheap dollar store hat embellished with cotton balls for his Santa hat. 

Next up was the sign.  My coworker made it at home and I strung it using satin cording.  This is the finished Grinch.

He is FABULOUS!  We won first place again!  I was out of town during the announcement of the winner so I received a text from my mom asking who won.  She had really gotten into it since she was a huge contributor to making this happen.