DIY Wooden Snowmen

Bethany, our guest blogger today, is one crafty mamma!  Just at home with her table saw as she is with her knitting needles, Bethany loves making gifts and things for her home!  She’s also Mommy to one very cute little boy, and according to her husband’s facebook posts, “the best wife ever.”  Thanks for sharing this neat project with us!

I have always loved the Snowman decorations at Christmas
time.  Something about them, they have
just always been my favorite.  So I
decided to create some wooden snowmen and share the process with you all.  It is not as complicated as you may think and
is totally customizable depending on your child’s age and involvement, or your
own taste.

So the first step is to gather your materials: wood, paint,
sandpaper, glue, nails

Optional supplies: buttons, stick arms, scarves (ribbon,
fabric, knit), fabric or knit hats, scrapbook paper, markers, etc.

The primary element is 3.25×3.25 wood posts, and ½ thick
inch MDF (medium-density fiber board) or plywood.  Don’t let this scare you off right away if
you have never gone shopping for wood. 
Any person at a hardware store will help you.  What’s more, if you do not have the tools (or
feel you do not have ability to cut the wood yourself), someone at the hardware
store can help you with that as well.  Or, ask a friend who may have the
tools.  The great news is these are
relatively inexpensive to make and could even make a great gift for someone for
Christmas.

These ½ inch thick MDF squares are the bases for your
hats.  They each measure 5 ½ inches
square and were cut with a circular saw. A jigsaw or hand saw would work as
well, though they are a little less controlled and you might find it hard to
get them square if this is your first time sawing wood.

These 3.25 x 3.25 x 3.25 cubes are the tops of your
hats.  They are completely square, so no
complicated measurements there.  I made
these cuts with a miter saw, but you could always use a simple hand saw.

These 3.25 x 3.25 pieces are varying heights as you can
see.  You can make them as tall or short
as you want.  These are 8, 10, and 12
inches tall, all cut with a miter saw.

After all your cuts are made, you want to give all the wood
a run over with the sandpaper.  Medium
coarse sandpaper is fine.  Once
everything is sanded and feels smooth, you want to wipe everything down to get
the excess dust off. 

The next step is to assemble your hats. 

I used some wood glue and then to ensure that everything
remains adhered, I put a couple nails into the bottom of the hats in the center
of the wood.  You could also use hot
glue, liquid nails, or gorilla glue – no need to buy something if you will not
use it again, but it will need to be strong enough to maintain the bond.

The next step is painting, and at this point you want to
decide if you want a clean solid look or if you want to do some
distressing.  Distressing just means
leaving rougher looking corners and edges. 
This is entirely up to your taste, but I mention it here because you
have several options for “distressing” your snowmen.

Option #1: Apply Vaseline to the corners and edges so that
when you apply the paint, it will not adhere to those particular spots and when
everything dries all you have to do is wipe it off. I do not think this works
quite as well, but some prefer it and think it is easier.

Option #2: The method I used was to paint everything and
then with my medium coarse sandpaper, just gave all the corners and edges a
rough going over.

Option #3: This is the more than one paint layer distressed
look.  So for example, on the snowmen,
you could apply a layer of silver, and then do your black and white on top of
the silver once it dries.  Then when you
sand all the corners and edges, you will be able to see the wood, the silver,
and the top layer of paint in your distressing. 
It just adds a depth to it, and everyone will be impressed with your
distressing capabilities. J

So here is everything painted.  I used black acrylic craft paint and white
latex paint since that is what I had at home. 
It took two coats and you want to allow ample time to dry between coats
and after.  Yes, you want to paint the
bottom of the hats.  No, you do not have
to paint the bottom of the snowmen bodies.

It was much easier to paint them with the hats and bodies
separate, that way you do not have to worry about any paint drips or having to
be anal about paint lines.  This will
make distressing easier as well. 

Once the paint is dry and if you are doing the sanding
distressing method, here is where you want to run all the corners and edges
with your sandpaper.  This will take
time, I won’t lie.  And it will be a little
dusty, so do it on a surface you do not mind getting dirty. 

Once everything is distressed, give it a good wipe down to
get the excess dust off. My hats still look dusty and you can see my
fingerprints, but it just adds to the character.

The next step is the faces. 
Here you can see I traced mine on with pencil.  This is totally your call.  If you don’t feel confident in your painting
skills, maybe you want to use buttons for the eyes, markers, or even cut out
pieces of colored scrapbook paper and glue them on.  Whatever is easier!

Then once your faces are dry (or attached), you can assemble
your snowmen.

I opted to just use a blob of hot glue to attach the hats to
the bodies.  I wanted the option of being
able to change these easily in the future if I decided next year I wanted to
decorate them with santa hats or ski caps.  

And at this point, you can customize your snowmen further however you
want:

  -Add some ribbon, holly, and berries around the
top hats. 

  -Drill some holes in the sides of your snowmen
and add sticks for arms.

 -Tie a little ribbon or fabric around the base of
your snowman to make a scarf.

The options are endless. 
So that’s it! Hopefully you enjoy making some indoor snowmen this
season.  And you don’t even have to worry
about them melting! J

Thanks for sharing this neat project with us, Bethany!  Do you think that since we can all have such nice indoor snowmen we could tell it to stop snowing outside already?!