This is a sponsored post.
Let’s talk Guardians of the Galaxy. My three favorite things in this movie are as follows: (1) Awesome Mix Vol. 1 (and 2), (2) Rocket and (3) Groot. Specifically sweet little Baby Groot dancing at the very end. It’s my favorite part in the whole movie. Sidenote: fourth place? The Howard the Duck cameo. But I digress…
I scored the DVD and a Rocket on my last shopping trip. A Dancing Baby Groot, however, wasn’t to be. So what’s a crafty girl to do? Obviously she’s going to make one herself.
I started with a wooden dowel and used floral wire to create arms in the shape that I wanted. Any wire will do. Even a pipe cleaner. You just want something to help hold the form of the arms for adding clay. 
I created a base form for my Baby Groot Puppet with brown polymer clay. Confession time: I’ve never used polymer clay. I was scared. No need, though. It was totally easy. I just took off small sections from my block, rolled them in my hands to soften them up and then pressed into place. Make sure you’re using a surface that’s safe for clay. 
I baked my form for a few minutes according to the directions on the package. I wanted it to firm up but I didn’t want it completely dry, since the new clay won’t stick as well to baked clay. I rolled more brown clay into tiny vines and placed them all over the body of my Groot. I promise you can’t mess this up.
Once I was done adding all of my brown vines I worked on the face. I made it smooth at first, pushed in two black beads for the eyes and then used a toothpick to carve the mouth. I then pressed the toothpick lightly over the entire face to create the wood grain. I finished it all by adding some green vines and leaves. Everything went into the oven for 15 minutes to completely harden. Your package of clay will give you the appropriate temperature.
I cut a round piece of fleece to use as the potting soil “skirt” for my Baby Groot puppet. I made a hole in the middle of the fleece and pulled the dowel through. I used hot glue to attach Groot to the fleece.
I drilled a small hole in the bottom of a white plastic cup to serve as Groot’s pot. Rubber bands on the wooden dowel stopped it from sliding down too far into the cup. Finally, I used more hot glue to secure the fleece to the inside edge of the cup. The fleece was larger than the mouth of the cup so I needed to pleat a bit as I glued. This gives the puppet lots of room to wiggle around and dance.
I’ve also got your Baby Groot playlist ready and waiting to go!
Hours of puppet fun and movie watching await! Planning a Guardians Of The Galaxy party? Make sure you check out the amazing party plan over at Horrible Housewife!