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A Snowman Christmas Tree Ornament / Tutorial

December 3, 2012 By Laura 32 Comments

Winter used to be my least favorite season, here in New England.  But I have chosen to embrace it, for there is no doubt that there is beauty in every season, and things that I love in all of them, too.  For winter, snowmen are one of those things, to me!  I’ve just always loved them. So I thought it would be fun to make a snowman Christmas tree ornament.

  It was not only more fun than I expected, I think it came out absolutely adorable. So I’m going to show you how easy it was to create!

Here’s the simple supplies that you’ll need:
Crayola Model Magic, in White.
Craft wire: 20 gauge or so
Wire cutters
An old sock for the hat
Yarn – Homespun Style. (I used Lion Brand, in Waterfall)
(The sock & yarn will be your snowman’s clothing, so you’ll want to pick co-ordinating or matching colors that you like.)
Embroidery thread (*optional accent for buttons)
Black beads for the eyes
An orange bead for the nose
Flathead pins, small, like used for tailoring
Pinkish chalk
A tiny brush for the chalk.
E-6000 or a good glue, may come in handy.
Black and Orange permanent Sharpie Markers


This is the Crayola Model Magic. It’s ‘modeling material’.  It’s lighter and softer than clay. And yes, it’s for kids, I guess.
Have you seen it? Have you ever played with it? It’s great stuff!
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Take a chunk of the Model Magic into your hands, and roll three balls each smaller than the other. These are the body parts of the snowman: lower body, middle, and head. So size accordingly. My bottom body ball is about 1-1/2″.  Now I’m sure you’re dying to, but don’t build a snowman yet!!  You’ll put them all together in a couple of steps.


Cut about an 8 or 9 inch piece of wire.
Straighten it out as best you can, and then bend it into an L-shape, folding at the middle.


Now, thread the wire up through the center of the big ball first. then middle size, then head, really trying to keep it though the center of the ball and piling them neatly, as shown in the photo above.  Why are we using the wire? Well, the modeling material actually sticks together pretty well. But the wire, which will be cut again in the coming steps, serves two purposes: It gives the whole snowman core stability for years of use and packing and unpacking, and we’ll also be making a loop at the top to hang the ornament from at the top.
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Using your wire cutters, cut the wire at the top leaving an inch or 1-1/4″ or so.
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Then using the nose of the pliers, twist the wire into a loop.
There is still the long wire off of the bottom, but let’s leave that for now. I felt like it just helped the snowman stand up while I was working on him.
Let’s make his hat now. Shall we?

Cut the ankle part of your sock off of the foot. The ankle/ribbed part of the sock will be the hat. Lengthwise, cut about 1/3 off, as shown in photo.  This makes the hat narrower, as you need.  You can check for sizing on your snowman head first before you get sewing.  Now, fold it the opposite way to get ready to sew it closed along where you just cut, because you’ll want to sew it inside out so the stitches later will be on the inside.
Now you all may use a sewing machine if you’d like. But I just stitched it by hand quickly.


I tied off the cut end of the hat, with a matching piece of yarn.  And put the finished edge over the head.
But first, I put some thread through the wire loop, and then threaded a needle with both ends of the thread, to pull it up through the hat, so it can be hung on the tree.
And I also did something else before putting the hat on . . . . . .


Do you see that light pencil line right under the hat brim?  Right above there I put a dab or few of E-6000 (you can use any glue), before carefully pulling that hat over the head. Just to secure the hat, so it doesn’t keep slipping off the head while being handled over the years.
The needle can be taken off now, and just tie the ends in a knot. As I said, you’ll use the thread loop to hang it on the tree.

Face time!

Call me an over-planner, but I laid my face out in beads on the table first. Hey, it’s the distance of our features, and the curve of our smiles,that make us uniquely looking like US.
Same thing with snowmen! They are individuals too!  What a perfect orange bead, for a pointy nose, huh?

For every bead you have, cut a flat head pin to shorten the unnecessary length.


Again I laid out in pencil dots, exactly where I wanted each bead, to form his face.
Much like Mr. Potato head, just put a pin through a bead, and stick it into the snowman head.
(Mr. ♪ Snowman ♫ head ♪ , I-love-you! ♪)

I waited on the mouth, so it wouldn’t be in my way to apply some pink blushing cheeks!

You can use any pink colored chalk dust. I just happened to have this chalk palette, and used a tiny pointed brush.

Have you ever heard the saying, that you can always tell someone’s age, by looking at their hands?
Right.  I’m like, 106.


The mouth is all added.
Now here’s another tip:  The flat-head pins are silver, right?  So, my snowman looked like he had braces! Nothing wrong with braces. But it wasn’t the look I was going for. So I used a black permanent Sharpie marker, to color it. And an orange Sharpie for the nose. Worked well enough for me!

Buttons:  I used some teal colored embroidery thread, to thread my buttons. Then, because my holes were filled and I couldn’t put pins through them, I just used a dab of my E-6000 again, and just pushed them right into the soft modeling material.
Scarf: 3 equal length pieces of the homespun yarn, knotted on both ends, and tied around his neck.

Once you’re done crafting your snowman, or sooner, you can take your wire cutters, and cut the wire extending way out from under the snowman. Leave the L shape, so your snowman doesn’t slide off.  But it doesn’t need to be so long. Cut it short enough so it’s hidden underneath.

So how does he look?

Cute, right?
I added little stick arms, because seeing snowmen with no arms gives me a little anxiety.
I mean….HELLO!  What if he had an itch?

Let’s try him out in the Christmas Tree.


I think he looks right at home!
And he is.

Another cute idea if you’re ambitious: You could make a whole family of snowmen, and put them all together on a tabletop.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my ornament, and how I made him.  It really was fun, just like building a snowman really is. Without the cold. ; )
You can do this!
What do you think?
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Filed Under: Crafts & Creations, Holiday Crafts, Seasonal Crafts and Creations, Tutorial, WINTER Crafts and Creations Tagged With: Christmas decorations, Christmas-crafts, Christmas-ornament-crafts, Crayola-Model-Magic, Crayola-Model-Magic-crafts, handmade-Christmas-ornaments, handmade-Christmas-tree-ornaments, holiday-crafts, snowman-crafts, snowman-ornaments, snowmen

A Christmas Fan Pull | Crafts

December 15, 2009 By Laura 6 Comments

The other day,  I found myself gazing at this tiny,  intricate, beautiful little ceramic egg, that I spontaneously hung from our fan pull in our sun room one day, quite awhile ago.

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I wondered why it never struck me as a little Easter decoration until then, and how it really didn’t look quite right hanging there, the way it was.

Christmas fan pull craft

It bothered me a tad more, when I realized Christmas was really coming very soon.   I needed to do something about the egg, hanging there.  I had a little more time on my hands than I have had for the past few months, so I decided I would make a Christmas fan pull, to replace the egg.

Then I thought about the year ahead, and my imagination ran wild.  You all know I love holiday and seasonal themed ‘anythings’, and especially for my home decor.  So, if all of the ideas in my head come to be, you all will be seeing some more themed fan pulls crafts around here, as the coming year progresses.  I’ve got a whole array of a collection of fan pulls in my head, and I think it’s a lovely idea to have that collection, to change my fan pulls with the holidays and seasons as we roll through the year.

So here is my first fan pull craft, for Christmas.  It’s not quite the vision I had in my head, only because I didn’t see the beads in the store, that I created in my head. (I don’t get why I can never find the stuff I make up?  I mean, if  “I”  thought of it…..). I also sort of winged the construction of it this time around, but I am sure with experience will come…near perfection.

Here’s all I needed at the store for this craft:

Christmas fan pull craft

Some pretty beads that said ‘Christmas’ to me.  I love the ‘strands’ of beads found in the craft stores….because you can really take a good look at them, without them being in a container and such. Also needed, was some thin but strong gauged wire.  I went with 26 gauge.  And then…..I wanted a ‘star of Bethlehem’ of some sort.  Whatever form I could find one….which was found in a back aisle in the way of a tree topper.  I think.  But I could fix that.

beads

So first I cut the string and spread my beads out on the table.

ornamental star

Then Michael cut the star off the wire spring, leaving some wire to twist into a circle, which I covered with the small beads that came on my strand, and closed the loop more tightly.

Christmas fan pull craft

Next I measured how long I wanted my pan full, doubled that length and added a couple more inches to that, and started stringing the beads, alternating between the larger color-faceted beads, with the clear crystal ones.   Once through all of the beads, I slid the wire through the loop of the star, and back UP the whole wire of beads, until both ends were coming out of the top.

As an after-thought, I could have just hung the star on the center of the wire, grabbed both of the other ends of the wire, and fed them together through all of the beads, until they came out the top.  But that would have been too easy I guess. lol

christmas-fan-pull-craft-4

For security, I took both ends of the wire, and re-routed them again up the bottom of the top bead, so they came back out the top once again. So yes, 2 thin wires are now showing on the outside of that top bead.

Christmas fan pull craft

With the excess wire coming out of the top of the strand of beads (with the star on the other end), I balled up the remaining wire, and just worked it into the clasp on the piece of chain hanging on the fan.  Then I gave the whole thing a yank.  It was nice and strong, and the fan turned on and everything. : )

I noticed a bit of wave to my hanging piece, and realized it was from the doubled wire.  Perhaps I could bend it more here and there to try and straighten it a little more, but I rather like the bit of wave I think.  It adds a little character and design.  I decided to pass it off like I totally did that on purpose.

Fan pull chain and clasps can be found at hardware stores, etc.   So in the future, if my current project involves beads with large enough holes, I may just decorate the chain itself.  I already have some craft items for my plans for a new fan pull come January, as a winter theme.

Christmas fan pull craft

But for now, I’ll enjoy my Christmas fan pull.  I wondered if midnight blue beads would have been more appropriate, with the star of Bethlehem, but I still thought this looked rather pretty and Christmas-sy.  It really twinkles, and displays such beautiful colors, when the room is filled with sun!

It was fun to make.  I’m really going to enjoy creating this collection.

Oh, the possibilities!

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Filed Under: Crafts & Creations, Fan Pulls, Seasonal Home decor, The Homestead, WINTER Home Decor Tagged With: Christmas decor, Christmas-crafts, Christmas-decorating, fan pull crafts

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