Sew Primitive Sock Snowmen Ornaments

       As my children grew, I seemed to loose many matches of socks! But being a thrifty parent, I saved the random selection of socks in a basket just encase I ever managed to find a matching pair. 

      After several years of this ongoing frustration, I decided to use up the matchless pairs in a craft, of course, and now you see the result of my endeavors pictured on the right.

Supply List:

• 

  Very primitive snowman with shell button nose.

  white baby socks
• old white button
• plaid felt (brown tones)
• small wire stem with leaves
• yellow wool
• hook for hanging
• batting
• needle and tan or white thread
• black embroidery thread

Tea Bath Supply List:

• black tea
• small pot of water
• stove top

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Bring a few cups of water to a boil on the stove top; then turn off the heat.
2. Add the black tea bag to the water and let the tea bath steep for ten minutes or more just to ensure that you stain will be dark. Don't remove the tea bag.
3. Now soak the white baby socks in the tea bath for 40 to 50 minutes.
4. Remove the socks and set them outside on a glass surface to dry. Make sure that you don't leave these to dry on top of something that you care not to stain! Do not dry the socks in a drying machine. The tea dye will leave a residue that may stain other clothes. Do not rinse out the socks either, this will remove some of the tea stain.
5. Now stuff the socks with a poly-fill batting. 
6. Wrap a small strand of embroidery around the middle of each sock to create a segmented looking snowman.
7. Sew over this knotted floss, a small clipping of wool for the snowman's scarf.
8. Twist the wire stem with leaves into a wreath shape and tack this element onto the front of the snowman's belly with thread so that he looks as if he is holding the miniature wreath.
9. Sew on his button nose and add two little black "cross stitch" eyes.
10. Cut from the plaid felt two triangle shapes and sew these right sides together leaving the shortest end of the triangle open to fit on top of your snowman's head.
11. Turn the little hat right sides out and stitch the pointed hat to the top of the snowman's head.
12. Push the wire hook through the back side of the knit material to hang up your primitive snowman. 
13. Not only does he look cute, he smells good too!

More Handmade Primitive Ornament Crafts:

• A few homemade Christmas decorations from Simply Prim
• Primitive Vintage Script Bird Ornaments
• Country Candy Cane Ornaments
• The Primitive Handmade Directory

Snip, Stitch and Tuck Snowmen From Notions

What a cute way to recycle old odds and ends from your sewing box!

       Some ornaments are "sew" easy they hardly take much consideration at all to assemble. Make these fun little fellows with your children on a lazy Sunday afternoon. All you need is a treasure trove of old sewing notions and an nice skein or two of white wool yarn.

Supply List:

• white wool yarn
• thimbles and a flexible measuring tape
• pins and needles
• buttons and old hooks
• old wooden spools
• card stock
• hot glue gun and glue

Step-by-Step Directions:

1. Wrap wool yarn around a bit of card stock over and over until the wool forms round balls. 
2. Attach and stack these yarn balls to each other with a long threaded needle using a similar color to the white wool.
3. Hot glue an old wooden spool or a old tin thimble to the top of the snowman's head to serve as a "hat"
4. Sew onto the snowman's face tiny odd notions: buttons for eyes, old hooks for noses, flexible measuring tape for scarfs etc...
5. Weave a thin wire hook into their backs for hanging.

More Ornaments Made From Recycled Wooden Spools:

• Creative Crafts To Make With Old Wooden Thread Spools
• Spool Trees from Silver Boxes
• String wooden spools together to make a snowman
• Tiny birds nesting on top of wooden spools

Sew Snowmen Heads From Frabric Remnants

Two views of the same ornament. His snowy parts are made from fake fur.

      In order to sew these funny little fabric snowmen, all you need are a few fabric remnants and a couple of matchless socks. 

      I traced around a small dish to make circular stencils for both of my snowman heads. I then selected some left over artificial, white fur scraps to use for their faces.

      Use a few matchless socks to dress the furry little guys with caps and mufflers. I didn't bother to measure for the winter wear; I just stitched onto their heads the scraps of fabric that I had on hand. 

      The snowman with a jester cap and a ruffled collar was made in the same way. I recommend that you sew these bulky scraps together with either a very strong thread or with dental floss using invisible stitches. Then you may add a bit of fancy blanket stitching to the finished seams. This will prevent the unraveling of the knit stockings/socks as you are cutting them up and attaching them to the snowman's head. 

This snowman head is a dressed like a court jester.

      I mixed together a bit of baker's clay to shape a couple of orange carrot noses. This kind of clay is easy to mix together but if I were to make these fabric snowmen again I would purchase a small package of low fire clay at a hobby shop to sculpt their facial features instead. Each of these snowmen have tiny pom-pom smiles and old white button eyes sewn to the furry heads. 

      I love the old-fashioned charm of ornaments like these. They always seem to turn out a bit quirky.

      It is also nice to have a selection of stuffed, plush ornaments to hang around the lower sections of a Christmas tree because they can not be broken by curious little hands and an occasional sniff from the family dog. I suppose you could say it is one of the many odd little habits of our family.

More Snowman Crafts for Christmas:

• Stuffed Snowman Ornament by Mel Designs
• Stuffed Snowmen from Cotton Candy
• Primitive Snowman Head EPattern
• Primitive Snowman Ornament from Anna Wight
• Pointillism Snowman Art Project
• Placeholder Snowmen made from clay (video)
• Sock snowmen ornaments using foam balls (video) 
• A nice collection of different snowman crafts from christmasdecorationcrafts.com
• Dress the snowman activity sheet for kids
• Easy sock snowman tutorial using rice (video)

An Adorable Snowman Craft Using Pine Cones

       This is one of my favorite pine cone ornaments! An aunt to our children gave each of my girls one of these handcrafted pine cone decorations for Christmas. The snowmen are made with paper clay, their arms are twigs and their noses tooth-picks painted orange. The craftswoman glued a tiny bottle brush Christmas tree to the center top of the pine cone before adding the snowmen. Then she  glued some artificial looking powdered snow around the tiny vignette and also onto the tips of the pine cone as well.

• Christmas critters from Pottery Barn
• Retro Style Glittered Pinecone Snowmen Ornaments
• Pincone mice and glittery pinecone birds
• Pine cone owls
• tiny pinecone elves

Craft a Snowman From A Paint Stirring Stick

      When my girls were very small, they brought all kinds of quirky, cute little snowman crafts home during the holidays. This funny little guy has been hanging on one of our Christmas trees for fifteen some odd years. He is made from a paint stirring stick. One of the children's preschool teachers probably picked up a dozen of these at a paint store where they give them away with a purchase. Some stores give them away without a purchase. 

      The little ones then painted the lower larger half with white paint and the shorter, upper half with black. The teacher then hot glued a few simple trims on and each child dipped his or her finger into pink paint to fingerprint the rosy cheeks!

• Paint Stick Snowmen
• Re-Cycled Stick Snowman Snow Ruler
• Snowman Thermometer - I really like this concept for teaching kids about temperature.
• Wood Snowman Ornaments Christmas Craft
• A Snowman Fence
• A snowy owl ruler
• 20 paint stick DIY projects

More things to make with discarded wooden rulers and yard sticks:

•  Mamie Jane's Christmas Star Ornament - excellent.
• A wooden ruler desk caddy 
• Meet The Steel Ruler Mirror's Sister
• a vintage ruler rack
• an old metal cupboard upcycled with discarded yardsticks
• charming ruler frame
• You Rule! Yardsticks and Rulers Upcycled
• vintage business cardholders

Search also Kim Pearson's "Repurposed Crafts" pinboard for new ideas!

Craft a Christmas Paper Plate Snow Globe

       Children will delight in crafting this simple Christmas snow globe during the holidays. Because it is made with stickers, parents or teachers may choose any winter theme to accompany the project. Public school teachers may choose snowman stickers to include with it and private school teachers may select religious themed stickers such as nativity figures for the pleasurable activity.

      I made this particular snow globe to mount onto a flat sheet of paper that may be displayed on a wall instead of a table top. You will need the following supplies per student:

• blue and brown construction paper
• blue and brown crayons
• white glue
• a snowflake hole punch
• white typing paper
• white cotton (two balls)
• two small white paper plates
• stickers
• one sheet of fancier blue printed paper for the lining of the snowglobe interior
• one sheet of plastic slightly larger than the hole that you will be cutting in the center of one paper plate

Step-by-step Directions for the Snow Globe:

1. Students will need to cut a large circular opening in the center of one of their two paper plates. They may use a stencil, plastic lid or even an old CD will do for a template. If your students are younger, teachers may wish to do this part of the art project in advance.
2. Then students or the teacher should cut a slightly larger circle from a piece of transparent plastic.
3. Glue the transparent plastic onto the inverted side of the paper plate with a hole at it's center. (see photo below)
4. Set this paper plate aside to dry; it will serve as the top half of the paper snow globe after it has been assembled.
5. Draw, cut and glue a base for your snow globe from brown construction paper onto the lower half of a blue piece of construction paper.  
6. Take the uncut paper plate and glue it down on top of the brown base.
7. Glue into the inverted side of this paper plate a decorative blue background covering the entire surface of it's interior.
8. Add stickers and cotton at the bottom of the Christmas scene. 
9. Then punch multiple snowflakes using the white typing paper. Glue some of these to the background of your scene.
10. Glue some of the punched snowflakes also to the interior of the top plate to illustrate the illusion of falling snow.
11. Glue the top paper plate on top of your scene using a generous application around the edges only of the two paper plates.
12. Use the brown crayon to add a wood grain to the base of the snow globe and the blue crayon to shade underneath the globe's base in order to add a bit of depth to the table.

Left, is an example of the top paper plate before gluing it inverted side down on top of the mounted paper plate containing the Christmas scene. Right is a photo of the snow globe in progress prior to the mounting of the top half of your snow globe.

        "Paper Plate Snow Globe - http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf/Christma... I absolutely love homemade Christmas decorations. This video shows you how to make a snow globe out of paper plates. This snowman snow globe is a great kids Christmas craft and can be easily customized with your favorite holiday scene!"

 Find Additional Snow Globe Projects:

• If I Lived in a Snow Globe
• Winter Snow Globe Place Cards
• Paper Plate Winter Snowglobe Kits
• The History of Christmas Snow Globes
• How to Make a Miniature Gingerbread House Snow Globe (video)
• Free digital Christmas stickers by Sarah Titus for your child's crafts

Eatable Snow Globes:

• Snow Globe Cupcakes from pure & yummy
• Snow Globe Coca-Cola Cupcakes
• How to decorate a snow globe cookies (video)
• Snow Globe Cake

Make a Marshmallow Math Placemat to Count On For Christmas!

If you don't have access to a laminating machine, you may purchase alternative kinds of materials from many hobby stores and office supply outlets. These stores do sell individual sheets and/or packs of transparent adhesive covers for this kind of project. Just describe to them what you need to make with the craft project. Contact paper can also be used to waterproof children's placemats.

      How about assembling a cute little Christmas placemat for your early learner for the holidays? Parents or teachers can pre-cut the shapes from fun printed papers in advance. Then your young children can assemble and paste the large mug of Christmas cocoa onto a festive sheet of paper before laminating the entire mat. I also added a few Christmas stickers to my cocoa mugs. 

       Count how many marshmallows can fit inside your cocoa cup, or how high you can stack them before they fall! Try rolling dice to count out equivalent numbers of marshmallows too. Be careful, marshmallow math is not always so very reliable; the props often disappear the moment a parent's back is turned!

Above is a template, mug for hot chocolate or cocoa, that I have designed for this counting placemat project.

Make More Christmas Placemats with The Kids:

• My "Time for Tea Version" for those of you who simply prefer tea or who live in England
• Free Printable Child's Chalkboard Placemat
• Holiday Table Setting Placemats
• Christmas Craft: Christmas Placemat
• Artful Place Mats
• Recycled Christmas Placemats

 

Wicked marshmallow experiment!

Sculpt a Snow Scene With Clay

A young student chooses to sculpt something unpretentious.

      Children don't need much to inspire their imaginations. Give them a bit of clay and read to them a story or two about winter. Before you know it, they are creating their own little vignettes from whatever materials are made available to them. 

      In school, art teachers often let young students draw after they have completed their art assignments. We call this 'a free draw.' This little clay vignette on the left was made during a student's free time. He used a few simple stamping tools and bright glazes to enhance his beloved  characters, a snowman and a penguin. 

      Children are not inhibited about embracing the simpler activities in life, activities like building snowmen or reading stories about ice skating penguins. They suffer from no need to craft "high art." Although this does not mean that children shouldn't be taught about fine art, it does mean that teachers should feel free to also let young students live out their childlike fantasies in the making of art. This kind of latitude will indeed inspire them to create more sophisticated work later in life.

       Not every art project needs an elaborate agenda, alternate the way that you look at art making as much as the way you use art materials. Choose to give young people a chance to interpret ideas and/or develop alternative solutions for some of the ideas you suggest to them. And if they just want to sculpt a snowman, then by all means, let them make one without feeling guilty! After all, they are only children once.

• Play Dough Snowmen
• Gone Snow Mobile-ing!
• Faux Snow Day
• snowman art

"This is the wonderful penguin story, narrated by David Attenborough in Bringing Up Baby from BBC Natural World. The film is edited by Mark Fletcher and the music is composed by Jennie Muskett"

Cutting snowflakes and drawing snowman...

Wilson Bentley and the children's book written about him called, "Snowflake Bentley"

 

      Bentley was born on February 9, 1865, in Jericho, Vermont. He first became interested in snow crystals as a teenager on his family farm. He tried to draw what he saw through an old microscope given to him by his mother when he was fifteen. The snowflakes were too complex to record before they melted, so he attached a bellows camera to a compound microscope and, after much experimentation, photographed his first snowflake on January 15, 1885.
       He would capture more than 5,000 images of crystals in his lifetime. Each crystal was caught on a blackboard and transferred rapidly to a microscope slide. Even at subzero temperatures, snowflakes are ephemeral because they sublime.
      Bentley poetically described snowflakes as "tiny miracles of beauty" and snow crystals as "ice flowers." Despite these poetic descriptions, Bentley brought a highly objective eye to his work, similar to the German photographer Karl Blossfeldt (1865–1932), who photographed seeds, seed pods, and foliage.
      Bentley's work gained attention in the last few years of the nineteenth century, after his work was first published in a magazine by Henry Crocker of Fairfax, Vermont; who consequently ended up with the largest private collection of Bentley's works. Harvard Mineralogical Museum acquired some of his photomicrographs. In collaboration with George Henry Perkins, professor of natural history at the University of Vermont, Bentley published an article in which he argued that no two snowflakes were alike. This concept caught the public imagination and he published other articles in magazines, including National Geographic, Nature, Popular Science, and Scientific American. His photographs have been requested by academic institutions worldwide.
      In 1931 Bentley worked with William J. Humphreys of the U.S. Weather Bureau to publish Snow Crystals, a monograph illustrated with 2,500 photographs. His other publications include the entry on "snow" in the fourteenth Edition of Encyclopædia Britannica.
      Bentley also photographed all forms of ice and natural water formations including clouds and fog. He was the first American to record raindrop sizes and was one of the first cloud physicists.
      He died of pneumonia at his farm on December 23, 1931, after walking home six miles in a blizzard. Bentley was memorialized in the naming of a science center in his memory at Johnson State College in Johnson, Vermont. Shortly before his death, his book Snow Crystals was published by McGraw/Hill and is still in print today.

• Snowflake Bentley.com
• Bentley Snow Crystal Collection of the Buffalo Museum of Science
• Works by or about Wilson Bentley in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Inventory of Wilson A. Bentley Photographs, Special Collections, University of Vermont Library
• Inventory of Wilson A. Bentley Photographs, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Smithsonian Institution
• Wilson A. Bentley Photographs at the Vermont Historical Society
• Smithsonian Photography Initiative, click! photography changes everything project story on Wilson A. Bentley
• Bliss, Segment on Bentley Snow Crystal Starts at 34:00

      I designed a set of twelve, six-sided snowflake templates based upon the photographs of Wilson Bentley. Visitors may print these out and use them to design their own paper snowflakes, cookie cutter patterns or perhaps even some lovely fabric applique' designs. Remember to agree to the Terms of Use before using them; the templates are copyrighted. Not every design is exactly symmetrical; the jpgs. were created from handmade, snowflake paper cuttings.

      Below is a video by Kita Navo showing the detailed steps involved in cutting a six sided paper snowflake. You should use very sharp scissors to cut these. My scissors were not as sharp as they should have been when I cut my six pointed snowflakes out. You also might try to use finer paper as well. I used typing paper because that was what I had at the time.

Now that you've cut a snowflake, why not draw a snowman? Here is a step-by-step way to make two little children playing in the winter weather. Draw them with their snow friend by first drawing 7 circles. Then draw more details - a broom, a shovel, a top hat and faces...

Simple steps to draw children building a snowman.