My bugs! My bugs! My bugs!...said Oogie Boogie!

Happy Christmas to my hubby!!!! It's no secret to anyone that knows us, we LOVEEEEEEE The Nightmare Before Christmas!
Hubby's favorite character is Oogie Boogie, but we also really adore Lock, Shock and Barrel.

Anyhow, I wanted to make something for hubby for Christmas that was related to the movie, and what better than an Oogie Boogie, himself? NOTHING! So, that's what I did. I made him a miniature Oogie Boogie doll.

Here is a sneak preview, click below to see the rest of the pics and read the details.

Here he is....

 This little guy stands just over 6 1/2 inches tall and he is stuffed...WITH BUGS!!!!!!!!!!

 For the most part, he is pretty flat, because there was no way to "stuff" him with stuffing stuff because his arms and feet have wires in them so he can bend. Ya know, in case one of his bugs tries to get away and he has to catch them!!

The Mouth and tummy both have holes for the bugs to be stuffed into. the mouth hole isn't very big, so none of the larger bugs or animals, such as a snake, centipede or frog would fit into his mouth.

Even though his feet are flat, and have wires, I was having trouble getting him to stand up. So, my mom helped me bend some heavy duty wire and she made a little stand for him. I know it doesn't look all that great, but we just hot glued that sucker onto his back. LOL It's not like we'll be looking at his back so I wasn't worried about it.

Here you can see how big the bugs are and just how much was stuffed inside his tummy patch.

The tummy hole is pretty big and goes the whole length of his body.

His mouth hole is pretty small. There wasn't much room to work with here....It's bigger if I were to stuff the bugs in a "downward" position, but I tried it, and it didn't look near as cute as shoving that lizard in there! LOL

This is what he looks like with no bugs in his belly. these little beasties better try to run away while they can, or slither? LOL Oogie is HUNGRAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY. 

I found this idea when I was searching for oogie boogie doll patterns. It wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but I thought it was really cute and would be simple. I actually started this project about 2 months ago, but was having trouble finding "bugs". I finally found these at the dollar store, of course, the LAST dollar store I looked at.

You can find the info and pattern here: Oogie Boogie Doll

I changed my pattern up just a tiny big, and I made him quite a bit bigger than the pattern that printed out.
And, I was also having issues using "pipe cleaners" for the wire in his arms and feet, so my mom gave me some really heavy duty wire.

And, I used the thickest felt we could find, and he was pretty see through. I could almost see my hand behind the 2 layers of his body...so I beefed him up and put a layer of black in between the 2 green layers (in addition to his black head patch and tummy patch...I just cut the black felt in the same shape as my original enlarged pattern, but I cut it a bit smaller.

The directions didn't say to stitch him all the way around, but I think he's SOOOOO cute this way, because originally, in the movie, he's stitched all the way around. Can't leave ANY room for those buggies to escape! He has to reinforced, Remember, originally in the movie he felt defeated when he lost his bugs!!
[after having his sack body ripped open] "Now look what you've done! My bugs! My bugs! My bugs!"

Anyhow, this was a really tedious doll to make, and even though the Disney site says it's only a 30 minute craft, that is probably true IF you follow their directions exactly, and use ONLY felt, pipe cleaners, hot glue and very minimal stitching.

The stitching on him only took me about 30 minutes to do, but the hot gluing, the making the wires, etc. all in all I would say it took about 2 hours to make this little guy.

I know hubby is going to LOVE him, and I can't wait for him to open his box on Christmas Eve. :)

Yes, Christmas Eve... it's our tradition, we do all our gifts on Christmas Eve. We are adults, we can do it whenever we wanna!!! :p actually, this came about because hubby and I exchanged 1 gift the first year we were together for Christmas eve, and then he said, oh wait, that's the wrong gift, you weren't supposed to open that until tomorrow. Well, he forgot which package it was that i was "supposed" to open on Christmas Eve and he ended up having me open them all. I think I only had 2 gifts left by the time I found the right one. haha.

It's ok, not a big deal, we get it out of the way and can sleep in Christmas day, watch the Macy's parade, and eat. :)

Well, I hope that you liked my cute Oogie Boogie doll! Come to visit me again soon, I've been craftin' like a mad woman making cards this past week! :) I have lots to share!
This is all for tonight...well, this morning (OMGosh, it's 3:50 am). :-/
I still have SO much to do! I have 3 quilted mug rugs that I have to finish for him. The hand stitching is taking foreverrrrrrrrrr. TTFN!

Keep on Craftin'
~Melisa Marie