Hockey player craft made from recycled plastic caps

Hockey Player from Plastic Caps

Nora requested an ice hockey theme for her 10th birthday. We are going skating, of course. She wants a red velvet cake with vanilla icing sculpted into a hockey rink (photos coming later). And she requested one hockey craft.

I researched across Google and Pinterest, and learned:

1) There are not many hockey-themed crafts and

2) There are even fewer that would interest a group of 10 year old girls.

So I developed our hockey player form plastic caps. This one sports Nora’s long bangs hairstyle.

How Is Our Hockey Player Put Together?

The hockey player uses similar principles as the other plastic cap creatures I have made in the past, relying on a loop of string to make the spine.

I had a picture of her in my head, but I struggled to make her real. Thank goodness Bob acted as my sounding board. It was a lot of trial and error to get our hockey player to look the way I imagined. Yeah for a patient husband who thinks making a hockey player from plastic caps is a perfectly reasonable endeavor!

First, we drilled the caps in various strategic spots (sometimes the center, or the side).

Next, I tied a large knot in stringString coming down from her helmet down through the body pieces and looping back up to the top.

The hair is yarn looped 3 or 4 times and made into a bunch with a piece of tape. Then I sewed through the loops when sewing from the helmet and face.

We tried a loop of string for the arms and legs too, but she was very floppy. Instead, we found that a wire pipe cleaner would make her more “pose-able” and give her some structure. One wire pipe cleaner goes through the arms and shoulders, and one that goes through the legs and hips, in something like an upside-down U shape.

The hockey stick is made from a popsicle stick – taped up as all hockey sticks are.

The skate blades are made from large paper clips. The first blade is easy to put on, but the second blade proved more difficult. I had to thread the pipe cleaner through the clip back and forth with needle-nosed pliers to keep the tension across all the caps.

The only glue is used for the eyes.

Hockey player from recycled plastic caps
Hockey player from recycled plastic caps

Our craft might prove too challenging for Nora’s guests. I’m going to do a test run for Nora this week to see how it goes. Generally though, the challenge is up-front, figuring things out. Once you have a prototype, it should be fine.

What do you think of our recycled plastic cap hockey player?

Nora wants to make them in various team colors and sell them on Etsy as kits. I’ll have research team colors first.