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)

Make Tinsel Chenille Stem Ornaments

Tinsel chenille stem ornaments are both affordable and simple to make. 

Supply List:

• tinsel chenille stems
• tiny glass baubles pre-wired
• small craft pliers
• scissors or wire cutters

      Bend chenille stems into any geometric shape that you like, twisting firmly into place and clipping sharp ends as you go. Then wrap pre-wired glass baubles/beads into place. These simple little Christmas ornaments will sparkle, shine and twinkle between any branches you hang them on. They are also extremely light weight so they may be hung on the most delicate pine branches!

View More Tinsel Ornament Crafts:

• Ornamental Tinsel Filled Glass Balls
• Tinsel Rosette Victorian Ornaments
• Miniature Tinsel Wreath Craft
• Tinsel Bell Ornaments

DIY Cotton Batting Mushroom/Toadstool Christmas Ornaments

Left, the largest cotton batting mushroom was finished with iridescent white glitter. The Center and Right cotton batting mushrooms are finished with glass glitter. The effect reminds me of morning dew.

Left, I've selected a vase with an unusual top to help me "mold" my largest mushroom form. Center, I've designed three prototype mushrooms to photograph for this blog. Here you can see that I have almost finished the sculpting process and have drawn polka-dots on top of two toadstools. Right, the third toadstool/mushroom will have a solid red cap with a frosty trimmed edge instead of spots on top.

 Supply List:

• masking tape
• white school glue and white tacky glue
• newsprint
• white cotton balls
• modeling paper mache pulp (optional, for one of the cap polka-dots)
• glitter, glass glitter and or mica flakes for decorative finishing
• red and white paints for finishing
• wire for inserted hooks
• a small selection of wine glasses for the top shapes of mushroom caps
• acrylic sealer or non-yellowing fixative 
• large embroidery needle and wire for hanging

Cotton batting mushroom ornaments painted.

Step-by-step Directions:

1. Below I have pictured the detailed process of crushing newsprint while wrapping it into shapes with masking tape. This is the first step in the process of sculpting cotton batting mushrooms. Of course, the tighter you wrap and crush the newsprint, the denser it becomes and consequentially, the stronger your ornament will be.
2. The masking tape should be applied to every part of the newsprint's outside surface in order to  ensure that the form may be layered with much glue and paint. The masking tape is the modern replacement for the former use of wheat paste and strips of newsprint. This substitution is superior in many ways: it is easier to manipulate, cleaner to work with and rodents/insects are not attracted to it's odor.
3. You will need to crush two elements; a cap for the top of your mushroom and a stem to attach to the cap underneath. As you can see from the photos below; I have designed three variations of a mushroom in order to emphasize how one object may be interpreted in so many ways.
4. After you have constructed your form, you will then need to untwist the cotton balls so that you have long strips of cotton batting to work with. These strips are ideal for wrapping or "spinning" with when covering the mushroom stem. 
5. Use a generous amount of white glue on top of the form as you wrap the cotton batting around the stem. Let this step of coverage dry.
6. Now cover the cotton wrapped surface with glue again and wipe it into the cotton's surface with your finger tips. You may add several layers of glue and cotton in order to achieve the desired surface on your ornament. There will be bumps and you will learn to smooth over these with additional glue, pressure and small thin sheets of the cotton as you go. Give yourself time to accomplish this and work near a warm vent or sunny window so that you may speed up the drying time of the craft.
7. Some of you may choose to use cotton batting sheets to cover larger surface areas in a more uniform manner. However, I chose not to do so for this particular project because: I knew that I would be adding texture to the mushroom cap for the polka-dots and I also want my students to see that such elements may be successfully sculpted with little more than a skillful light touch if one is dedicated to learning the craft the hard way.
8. Below you can see by the photos how I have wrapped the mushroom with cotton batting and also how I have marked with a red tipped pen where I will add my polka-dot details to the mushroom caps. One mushroom's dots are made by rolling bits of cotton between the finger tips with glue in order to shape small balls. The other dot detailing on my larger mushroom sample was made by mixing modeling mache and dabbing it directly on to the drawn surface to create a rough raised texture.
9. If you should decide to use the miniature rolled cotton balls to decorate the top of your own mushroom ornament, I would also glue an additional layer of cotton batting over these and then a final layer of glue on top of this batting surface to trap the balls into place. This kind of attention to the practice of sculpting with cotton batting is what ensures that your handwork will not only survive but will some day be another person's heirloom.
10. Before painting your cotton batting mushrooms, be sure to wipe down the finished sculpture with a final coat of white glue. I use my finger tips for this process but some of you may prefer to use a soft brush instead.
11. Use a large embroidery needle to dig a small whole in the top of each mushroom cap. Then insert a wire hook along with a generous portion of tacky white glue to the whole. Leave this to dry so that you may have a way to hang the mushroom from a tree branch. If you prefer, you may wish to add a long wire to the bottom of the mushroom instead, by the same means, so that the ornament may be attached to branches from underneath the stem.
12. Use acrylic or watercolor paints to decorate the surface of cotton batting ornaments. Do not paint with oil based paints when working with cotton batting as these will corrode the ornament's surface over time.
13. After adding a few red and white touches of paint,  glue glittery powders, glass beads and mica dust to the surface of your mushrooms.
14. Finally spray the entire surface of each cotton batting ornament with either an acrylic sealer or a non-yellowing fixative.

Step-by-step photos of me crushing and wrapping the cotton batting mushrooms.

Detailed photos of me wrapping the mushroom forms with cotton batting.

Two ways to finish details on top of the cotton batting mushroom caps.

Cotton Batting Toadstools hanging among the evergreens.

More Mushroom/Toadstool Christmas Ornaments:

• cotton batting mushrooms from Miniature Mice and she visited martha stewart to get a tutorial here
• A toadstool ornament crafted from leather from le blog de Gedane
• little felt mushrooms and elves
• handmade felt toadstools from smurfberries
• toadstool doll among others by The Purl Bee
• textile vignette of toadstools with zippers
• embroidered toadstools with wine corks for stems!
• tiny toadstools inside real acorns by Lisa Jordan
• How to crochet a Christmas mushroom

Old-fashioned papier-mâché toadstool ornaments from a 2012 Craft Fair by Kathy Grimm. These little guys have the traditional faces applied to their stems.

      A mushroom (or toadstool) is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus; hence the word "mushroom" is most often applied to those fungi (Basidiomycota, Agaricomycetes) that have a stem (stipe), a cap (pileus), and gills (lamellae, sing. lamella) or pores on the underside of the cap. These pores or gills produce microscopic spores that help the fungus spread across the ground or its occupant surface. Read more...

Left, Amanita muscaria, the most easily recognized "toadstool", is frequently depicted in fairy stories and on greeting cards. It is often associated with gnomes.

More Links to Mushrooms:

• Mushroom Observer, a collaborative mushroom recording and identification project
• An Aid to Mushroom Identification, Simon's Rock College
• Online Edible Wild Mushroom Field Guide
• North American Mycological Association
• Pacific Northwest Fungi Online Journal

Fly Agaric toadstool growing time-lapse

Wrap A Cotton Batting Christmas Bell

Click directly on the jpg. to get a closer look at this cotton batting Christmas
bell ornament.

Supply List:

• white cotton balls
• Christmas colored ric-rac
• artificial holly leaf and berry pic
• one large silver jingle bell
• wire
• white glue
• masking tape
• old egg carton (paper)

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Cut out either a dome or pyramid shape portion of a paper egg carton to form and wrap with cotton batting strips.
2. Reinforce the outside edges with masking tape and also cover the entire paper shape with masking tape. 
3. Insert a wire through the top of the cone to the inside and twist it's end firmly around the metal loop of the jingle bell.
4. Glue and wrap first a thin piece of cotton around the top part of the wire on the outer tip of your bell form in order to prevent the wire from slipping during the process of crafting your bell. I went ahead and wrapped my entire hook with glue and cotton. Then I twisted it into an eyelet shape. (see below, far right)
5. Unravel the several cotton balls at a time so that you may work quickly.
6. Now wrap your bell using layers of cotton batting and white glue. With each layer of glue let the bell dry. Always smooth down layers of glue into each application of cotton batting and end finally with a glue layer.
7. Wrap Christmas colored rick-rac around the bell shape to decorate while the outside surface is still wet from the last application of glue.
8. Twist and wrap the artificial holly leafs and berries for a finishing flourish.
9. Don't forget to wrap a narrow row or two of cotton batting on the inside edge of your Christmas Bell ornaments as well.

Here you can see that I chose to use the pyramid section of a discarded paper egg carton in order to "build" my wrapped cotton bell. I used a bit of wire to twist and attach the jingle-bell to the interior of my bell. Thread this wire to through the top, outer tip of the form and then twist it into a loop for a hook to attach to. This will also insure that your bell is firmly attached to the inside of the paper form.

More Jingle Bell Crafts:

• Jingle Bell Wreath
• Jingle Bell Christmas Banner
• Jingle Bell Ribbon Rings
• Silver Bells Wreath

Make a Vintage 1950s Popsicle Stick Angel

A gold trimmed and painted Popsicle Stick Angel ornament from the 1950s.

      I believe this Popsicle Stick Angel ornament was handmade in the 1950s. All you need are a few simple craft supplies to make one similar to the one depicted here. She does, however, have a cotton batting head that could just as easily be substituted for a wooden bead if you would prefer.

Supply List:

• three large Popsicle sticks
• tacky white glue
• a large wooden bead or a cotton batting bead for the head of the angel
• permanent markers (black and red)
• gold trims and braids
• gold sequin stars
• white and skin colored acrylic paint and a paint brush
• gold cord for hanger
• an Exacto knife or very sharp scissors
• hot glue and hot glue gun or tacky white glue

Step-by-Step Directions:

1.  Cut one of the Popsicle sticks in half using the Exacto knife or sharp scissors. Do so with a diagonal cut so that the two pieces will resemble the simply shaped wings of the angel ornament shown above.
2. Paint the Three sticks white on all sides and edges. Let these dry.
3. Paint the head of the angel a flesh color of any variety that pleases you.
4. Draw in the facial features using the permanent markers.
5. Using a hot glue gun or tacky white glue, glue the gold cord for hanging your angel ornament to the very top of her head.
6. Now glue around this gold cord a gold braid trim to cover the center hanging cord and the top of the angel's head. This should mimic a cap.
7. Next take each wing cut from a Popsicle stick and mount these two with glue onto one of the Popsicle sticks, see the picture above to copy.
8. Now glue the third remaining stick on top of the two wings so that the angel's wings are sandwiched between the two uncut sticks.
9. Decorate the finished Popsicle body with gold trims, sequins, beads etc...
10. Hot glue the head to the top half of the finished body and then glue a piece of gold trim between the shoulders and head to emphasize a fancy collar for the angel. 

More About Angels:

• Read and download patterns about angel Chrismons at http:christianclipartreview.blogspot.com
• Angel Christmas Ornament video from Danielle's Place
• More angel crafts for kids from The Christian Montessori Network

My Belznickle Doll Dressed in a Old Quilt Coat

I crafted this Belznickle from clay, sheep's wool
and old quilt scraps.

I sculpted his face mask using Sculpey and I painted his features with acrylic paints.

I glued long strands of wooly looking mohair to his face mask to imitate a realistic looking beard.

I dressed this old-world Santa in a pair of real leather doll shoes. Then I sewed his remaining garments by hand from a selection of grey and plaid wools, sheep skin trims and a very old quilt that my great grandmother had made. The quilt was very tattered and worn. There was barely enough of it remaining for the doll's cloak! Some of the patterned fabrics in this old orange quilt were once used as feed sacks.

Yesterday's Santa, Limited Edition Belsnickles Sculpted by Kathy Grimm

I sculpted a face mask for this particular version of Belsnickle and then created a mold from it in order to produce a Limited Edition. Each Belsnickle, i. e. Santa Claus, also carries a small unadorned bottle-brush tree.

The body shapes of my belsnickles are made with paper mache pulp; a substance that is extraordinarily durable when layered properly.

Front and profile views of these limited edition Belsnickles.