Monday, December 22, 2014

Creating a Miniature Snowman Kit

When it snows, I love to go outside and create snowmen.  It drove me crazy though, when my kids used my good gloves, hat etc. to decorate their snowmen.  Somehow my good stuff became more mundane the longer it was used by the snowmen.  One day someone told me about snowmen kits. It was a package that held everything you would need to decorate a snowman.  So it has eyes, nose, buttons, hat, and scarf for the basics.  Not too long after that, I was told about Mini Snowmen.  No taller than 12 inches, just the right size to sit on my front step.  Something clicked and I created mini snowmen kits.  So here we go, on Creating a Miniature Snowman Kit.

Step 1:

Supplies:
Orange sculpt Clay (to make carrot noses +/- $2 per pkg.)
Black sculpt Clay (to make eyes +/- $2 per pkg.)
Buttons (for buttons)
Fleece (for hats and scarves)
Scissors
Use of an oven
Sewing machine
Parchment paper
Cookie sheet
Zip lock bag (to store the stuff in, between uses)

Step 2:


Nose:  Tear off a piece of orange Sculpt. 

Step 3:


Soften it in your hands and roll it into a small ball. 

Step 4:


Roll the ball into a 1.5 inch oblong cone. 

Step 5:


Use the back edge of a butter knife to make indents into the sides of the cone.  This will make it look more carrot like.

Step 6:


Eyes: When I was a kid we used coal for the snowman eyes, mouth and buttons.  Take some black Sculpt and made ½ inch black balls (these do not have to be perfectly smooth or anything, because they represent coal).  Make 2 for eyes, your snowman will be too small for a mouth.

Step 7:


Buttons:  Make more black clay balls or raid the button tin and use the ones you like.

Step 8:


Preheat the oven to 275°.  Place the orange noses and black eyes on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake in the oven (for 15 minutes per ¼ thickness of the clay) for 30 minutes. 

Step 9:


When the 30 minutes are up, turn off the oven and let the pan and oven cool down together.  Once everything is cool, remove the pan from the oven.  The reason I used Sculpt is because once it had been baked, it can be used over and over again.

Step 10:


Hat:  The easiest hat is to take a 12 inch x 7 inch piece felt and sew it into a tube.

Step 11:


Fold up one end 1 inch, and either sew it, or glue it into place.  About 3 inches from the folded end, tie the hat together with ribbon, string, a rubber band or whatever you have handy. You can also make hats by using left over yarn and knit or crochet or using round loom.

Step 12:


Scarf:  Cut a 1.5 inch wide, two foot long piece of fleece.  Cut a little fringe along each narrow edge on each end.  You may also use yarn and knit, crochet or otherwise create a scarf of the previously mentioned detentions.

Step 13:


Now that you have the items created, now all you have to do is put all the items in a zip lock type bag and wait for it to snow; moist, snowman making snow.

Waiting… I’m still waiting…  Hurry it snowed, snowman snow.  My grandson, helped me ,making sure they had eyes and nose and hats and scarves.  We had fun!  My daughter informed me that she wanted a full size snowman kit.  Sounds like a Christmas gift to me.  Enjoy!



No comments:

Post a Comment