Monday, January 24, 2011

No food here tonight. Sorry.



Well, folks, this week’s “Yummy Monday” will actually be held on Thursday.  So there are no recipes for you right now.  Sorry.  
To make up for it, I threw together this little tutorial for a fun craft you can do with your kids.  Ok, so you can’t eat it for dessert.  But maybe you can do it on your next family night?  Without further ado, here are my Simple Snowmen:
You’ve gotta have:
three styrofoam balls (all of different sizes) for each snowman you want to make
one wooden skewer for each snowman
pins with colorful ball heads
a glove with no mate
some scraps of felt (in a strip)
buttons
a bit of cardboard (white, or painted white)
hot glue gun
orange marker
scissors
steak knife (not pictured)


Here’s what you gotta do:
Take the smallest of your styrofoam balls 

and skewer it.   

 Slide it down the skewer to the other (flat) end.

Now skewer the medium ball.  

And slide it down to meet the small one. 

And skewer the big ball. 

Slide it on down too.   And it looks like this. 

Just a note.  I did discover that it’s best to place your styrofoam balls on a flat hard surface and skewer them that way.  If you hold the ball in your hand, your hand will most likely become skewered as well.  Just sayin’.
Take your scissors and chop off the pointy end of the skewer.


Save this piece.


Have your kiddo pick out his favorite buttons. 

And hot glue them on the front of the snowman, however you would like, really. 

Pick out your desired eye color from your pin stash.

  
Poke them into the small ball, about where eyes should ordinarily go.   

*Tip: You will want to poke your pins in on a downward angle so they don’t go sticking out the back of the small ball.


Now pick out the pins for your mouth and stick them in around the mouth area, using the same downward angle method. 

Aw, he’s smiling!


Have your kiddo color the pointy end of that piece of skewer you cut off orange (with a washable marker.  Because we all know what happens if you give kids UNwashable markers, i.e. you need a new couch and a lot of paint on the family room walls.)


Stick the pointy end in the small ball, right where the nose should go. 

Cut the skewer off so that only a small portion is left for the nose.  Unless you’re making Pinnochio Snowman.  In which case, cool.


  
Color the cut off end of the skewer orange to match. 

*Note:  Silly me just realized that you could stick the skewer into the snowman’s face FLATSIDE IN and let the pokey side stick out - so it looks more like a carrot!  But, I guess it’s ok I didn’t do that since the 3’s would have used it to put puncture marks in everything.
Cut a strip of your felt scrap, long enough to wrap around your snowman’s neck.  (Snowmen don’t really have neck’s, have you noticed?  Why are they always wearing scarves?)  And cut the ends into fringe. 

Now, glue the scarf to the back of the snowman’s “neck.” 

Wrap it, cross the ends, and glue the front down where it touches the “neck.” 

Cut a finger off your glove. 


Fold the unfinished edge into the inside of the finger, all the way around. 

Squirt some hot glue inside. 

Stick it on the snowman’s head.  Pull it down as far as it will go. 

Shave a little off the bottom of the big ball with the steak knife.  (Your scissors would probably work too).  Just to flatten it out.


Take your cardboard and cut a circle just big enough for the base of your snowman. 

Hot glue your snowman to the circle.  

(And you can use the little styrofoam shavings for snow!) 

You could make a family of snowmen, like we did.


A mom and dad... 



And the baby snowman is bug’s favorite.


Cute enough to eat!  Right?  Well, if that doesn't satisfy, I promise yumminess on Thursday!





*Be sure to check below for all the fun parties I link to!

3 comments:

Mandy England said...

Such a cute idea! I bet your kiddos had fun with this! :]

Unknown said...

so cute Kimberly! great idea to make a little family. Each snowman represents a person in the family. Love it!

Courtney @ {not so homemade} said...

How cute! I wish we had real snow down here in Louisiana so that I could make a real one :)

Oh and your clickable comment link worked! Made it very easy for me to head on over to your blog and become a follower!

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