While decorating my tree, I knew I had to make some snowmen, but I had no idea how to go about making them. After much thought, I took out an unopened block of paperclay which I had bought a while back and got to work. I absolutely love how they came out and thought it would be nice to share these ornaments with you!
Supplies 1- large paint brush 2- white and orange acrylic paint 3- wire tinsel ribbon 4- embroidery thread in red and black and needle 5- white glitter pom poms, miniature black pom poms or tiny black buttons, and small red sequins 6- black felt/ red crushed velvet fabric 7- white coarse glitter 8- decoupage glue 9- gloss sealer 10- glue gun 11- paper clay 12- scissors
Step 1 - A block of paper clay will yield 6 snowman heads including their noses. Cut the block into 6 even pieces (separating a small piece for the nose). Wet your hands and knead the clay first, then mold into balls. Wet your hands as much as you need to achieve smooth and well-rounded balls(*). Mold your smaller pieces into cones (your carrots!) and attach them to the heads. It's important that both pieces are wet, especially the base of your cone since the moisture will help glue both pieces together. Add texture to your carrot by etching lines on its surface with a needle. Set your heads aside and let them air dry for a full day. *Note: Make sure that you knead your clay with enough water, if not the clay will tend to crack upon drying.
Step 2 - Once your snomen heads are completely dry, apply at least 2-3 coats of white acrylic to each head and orange acrylic to each nose (let dry 15 min. between each coat). Now comes the fun part, apply a thin layer of glue to your snowman's head only (not the nose) and sprinkle a generous amount of glitter. Do the same with the rest and shake off the excess glitter; set your snowman aside to dry for at least 30 min. To avoid chipping from the snowman's nose, I sealed the color using a gloss varnish. For the eyes I used mini black pom poms (tiny buttons work great too), and then attach them with a glue gun. Finally, create a happy smile for your snowman by cutting about .5" piece of black embroidery floss, cover the thread entirely with decoupage glue and shape it into a smile directly on the face. Let dry.
Step 3 - To make a top hat, cut two circles (1.5" wide and 3/4" wide) and 1" h x 2.25" l rectangle. Assemble the hat (you can use felt glue or stitch it together). Grab a bit of green felt and create holly leaves using pinking shears. Add a red sequin to the leaves and glue gun it to the hat.
Step 4 - To make a santa hat, cut out a triangle (sides are approx. 3.5" while base is 4" long) from some red velvet fabric. Sew, stitch or glue the right sides together.
Step 5 - Turn the santa hat inside out and cut about 3.75" of tinsel wire ribbon. Starting from the back of the hat (where the seam is), glue-gun the ribbon to the outer edge of the hat, then glue a glitter pom pom to the hat's tip.
Step 6 - Still with me? Good, because that means you're almost done! The last thing you need to do is add a hanging string to your snowman. Cut some red embroidery floss (7" long), and thread your needle with it (do not knot!). Create a loop that emerges from the outside of your snowman hat by taking your needle to the seam at the back of your santa hat(*), bring it through the inside of the hat and then rethread the needle with the other end of the thread and do the same. Both thread ends will now be inside the hat. Tie the ends together into a tight knot. Glue the knot to the top of the snowman's head, along with the hat. *For the top hat, take the needle through the top!
Pull the loop of the string and your snowman is ready hang on your tree! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and give it a go with your own cute snowmen ornaments. If you have any questions about this tute, please don't hesitate to ask! Talk soon, Sue
