Snowman Decorations

This little project reminded me of decorating sugar cookies at Christmastime as a kid. My family had a snowman-shaped cookie cutter and we would spend a good couple of hours decorating snowmen cookies every year– painting on scarves and boots with different colors of frosting and making faces and buttons out of sprinkles and candy. I’m sure that half of the ingredients ended up in my mouth instead of on the cookies. And my uncle would inevitably decorate a few headless snowmen cookies; he’d bite off the head and drizzle some red frosting on the neck wound. Festive!

These snowmen are made out of wood slices and felt instead of cookie dough, but their cheerful, wintry vibe is the same (and there’s no chance that their heads will go missing during a family member’s midnight snack). They’re easy to make, and would be a fun craft project for all ages. We made ours while watching The Santa Clause and we finished them before the movie was even over.

Supplies:

Felt in assorted colors, including white
Round wood slices, 2 to 4 inches in diameter (available here)
Ribbon or fabric scraps
Pompoms and/or small buttons
Scissors
Hot glue gun
Twigs for the arms

To begin, choose your wood rounds. You will need four rounds for each snowman- a head, a middle, a bottom, and a base to help them stand up. I used a 4 inch diameter piece for the bottom, and slightly smaller pieces for the head, middle, and base. Try to choose a bottom piece with a somewhat flat side, as this will help it to stand up on its base.

After you’ve chosen your wood pieces, trace the three snowman segments onto white felt.

Cut out the felt circles, cutting about 1/4 inch inside the line you have drawn. You want the felt to be slightly smaller than your wood rounds so that the bark of the wood shows around the outside. Then glue the felt onto your wood rounds using a hot glue gun.

Glue your three felt-covered wood rounds into a snowman shape, with each segment slightly overlapping the one below it. Remember to keep the flattest edge of your bottom segment facing down towards the snowman’s feet.

Next, glue the bottom of the snowman perpendicularly onto your base piece so that he stands up.

Your snowman is ready for you to add some personality! Use felt, fabric scraps, ribbon, buttons, and pompoms to decorate him/her/them. Collect small twigs from your yard to glue on for the arms.

I made scarves for my snowmen by tying strips of fabric around the necks, and folded felt into cone shapes to make hats. Buttons, pompoms, and small felt shapes all make cute facial features. We made carrot noses by cutting oblong triangles out of orange felt and gluing them just at the base, so that the tip is free to protrude forward off the face.

Have fun watching your snowmen come to life (unless they are of the headless variety…). I think they look really cute with the rest of our holiday decor!