It may seem like an odd time to be talking about Christmas, but stay with me because this funny story could happen to anyone regardless of the time of year. Did you ever buy something without noticing a major flaw? I did, and it actually took a few days to notice. I purchased several wintry figurines for use in a Christmas centerpiece. There was a cardinal, a penguin, and an adorable polar bear. I also chose a cute figure of a boy building a snowman, which resembled one of those warm family scenes in a Norman Rockwell painting.

I set up the sleigh centerpiece and surrounded it with the new figures. There it sat in our family room for a few days. Occasionally I would look at it, but didn’t notice anything amiss. Then one night, while watching television, I picked up one of the figures for a closer look. There appeared to be a snow-covered object leaning against the base of the snowman. What could it be? Maybe it was a tree stump or a rock?

Curiosity got the best of me. I held it under a lamp and was shocked by my discovery! It was a headless dog! Unless you happen to be Tim Burton, a headless dog is a little too macabre for such a festive season. The store where I purchased it was closing, and all sales were final. Maybe I could fix it myself, but how? I considered breaking off the rest of it, but that would most likely damage the snowman. I began wondering if I could create a new head using three-dimensional paint.

Because the white dog was leaning against a white snowman, it was very difficult to see. To correct that problem, the first step was painting the dog’s body with acrylic brown paint. What a big improvement! He was actually a cute little dog if you overlooked the missing head!

Next, using white three-dimensional paint, I built up a small head in proportion to the body. Because the dog was looking up at the snowman, the head needed to be angled upward. After allowing it to dry, I added the muzzle and the pointed ears with the same dimensional white paint.

The last step was painting the new head with brown acrylic paint to match the body, and a toothpick was used to add black eyes and a nose. The completed dog looked pretty happy to be in one piece again!

The repaired snowman figurine had been restored to a Rockwell worthy appearance. Sorry, Tim, maybe next year – lol!

Did something like this ever happen to you? How did you fix it? Please share your experiences in the comments section.

Thanks for reading and Happy Crafting!