How to Make a Snowman Without Any Snow!
Some people see snow and immediately want a snowball fight. Me? I’m not really into that, but I do love a good snowman! I made an igloo one year when we had a ridiculous amount of snow. These days, however, we don’t get much and I’m not expecting anything decent this year when last year was one of the mildest winters recorded and this year is shaping up to beat that. So I decided I needed to find a way to make a snowman regardless of the fact that there’s no actual snow around!
First of all, I have to point out that this project didn’t go exactly as I wanted it to. You can probably tell from the title picture that the body of my snowman is slightly squished – that wasn’t intentional. I think the weight of the head was a little too much unfortunately. But despite the weight issue, I still think my snowman is super cute and I had a lot of fun making him!
This craft project is a lot more complicated than my Super Simple Christmas Card Tutorial, you’ll need more materials, a lot more time (seriously, your snowman won’t be ready for a couple of days) and more of a tolerance for making a mess so be prepared.
Here’s a full list of materials and tools needed to make a yarn snowman…
White cotton yarn/string (lots of it)
PVA glue (again, lots of it)
Water
A bowl
A plastic container
Extra-large balloons
Scissors
A pencil
A compass
Black card
Orange card
Double-sided sellotape
Ribbon
Two big black buttons
A spare scarf
Making the Snowman Body
Step One: Prepare your work area for a mess! I covered my table with an old PVC table cloth and then put a thick layer of newspaper down on the area where I was mainly going to be working. You should also put on an apron – there will be splatters.
Step Two: Pour a good amount of PVA glue into your plastic container and mix with an equal amount of water. Don’t worry too much about how much you put in, you’ll probably have to mix some more later on anyway. Put your ball of yarn into the mix to soak it up.
Step Three: Blow up one of your extra-large balloons to the size you want the body of your snowman to be. If you want to keep it round, blow it up a little larger than you’d like and then let some air back out.
Step Four: Take the end of your yarn and start wrapping it around our balloon, leaving the rest of the yarn ball in the glue mixture still. Have your bowl at the ready in case you want to set your balloon down at any time.
Step Five: Keep wrapping your yarn around your balloon until it reaches the density that you would like your snowman to be. After a while it’ll become heavy enough for you to place down on your bowl and you can use both your hands to guide the yarn and make sure it goes over any gaps. Remember to leave a circular area free at the bottom of your balloon so that your snowman will be able to stand.
Step Six: When you’ve reached your desired density, take the end of your yarn and wrap it around a piece of yarn already on your balloon and smooth it down so it’s flat. For some extra sturdiness, you can pour some left over glue mixture over your balloon.
Step Seven: Repeat the process with a second balloon, slightly smaller as this will be the head, and leave your two yarn-covered balloons to dry. It will take a couple of days for the yarn to dry completely so put them somewhere out of the way.
Step Eight: Once your body and head are dry, use a pin (or your compass point) to pop the balloons. Peel away the balloons from the inside and the yarn should hold in place. Run a bit of glue over the edge of the hole you left at the bottom of your snowman’s head and attach it to your snowman’s body. Now to turn your simple yarn balls into a snowman!
(I’m sorry there is no picture of this stage, I got excited wanting to put him together and forgot to take one)
Decorating your Snowman
Step One: Take your pencil and compass and draw a curve around one of the corners of your orange piece of card. Cut along this line to give you a quarter of a large circle.
Step Two: Place a strip of double-sided sellotape down each straight side of your quarter circle but with one strip on the back of your card and one strip on the front (see in the picture below). Twist the card to make a cone. That’s your ‘carrot’ nose sorted!
Step Three: Take your compass and pencil and draw a large circle on your black card. This is going to be the brim of your top hat so its size depends on how big your snowman's head is. Cut out that circle and draw a slightly smaller (probably around 2 or 3cm in from the sides) in the middle of that circle. Cut out the smaller circle. This will be the lid of your top hat.
Step Four: Take another piece of black card, place it landscape and draw two lines – one 2cm in from the top edge and the other 2cm in from the bottom edge. Now wrap this card to make a cylinder with a diameter as close as you can get to the diameter of your small, inner circle. Attach one end to the other with double-sided selotape. (I had to attach two pieces of A4 black card to each other to make a piece of card long enough to wrap around the whole way).
Step Five: cut several tabs round each end of your black card cylinder, only cutting 2cm in – up to the lines you drew before. At one end, fold those tabs out and at the other end fold them in.
Step Six: Glue your top hat’s lid onto the tabs which you have folded in and glue your brim onto the tabs which you folded out – you’ll have to push the brim down over your cylinder so that it is on top of the tabs not under them.
Step Seven: Attach a ribbon to your top hat. I chose to use sheer ribbon so I used a technique which I learnt here but if you have opaque ribbon then I would suggest using a stronger glue than PVA glue and just gluing the ends of the ribbon onto the hat.
Step Eight: Glue around the edges of your carrot nose and the back of two big black buttons. Press them onto your snowman to make his face, place his hat on top of his head, wrap your spare scarf round his neck and you’re done!
I'd love to see how your snowmen turn out! Share your pictures on instagram or twitter and tag me in them @mindofabadger :)