EASY SNOWMAN CRAFT

I have a special box in the basement...

It's probably my favorite box of ornaments...and that's saying a lot...

If you only knew how many ornament boxes there were... you would know that these hand made beauties must be something special...

....And they are.

Even some of my very own grade school ornaments have made their way into the "homemade" box here at our house...

I remember my first grade teacher carefully writing '79 onto the back of the construction paper ornament I had painstakingly cut out... and then...

The magic...

I was allowed to use the drippy white glue..."all by myself" to add a "few" accents on the front.... this must have been a monumental moment... to have this memory stay with me all these years.... (How was I to know in 1979, how far my crafting skills might take me...)

Finally, I was allowed to sprinkle copious amount of kelly-green glitter all over the perfectly written '79...and with a quick shake... my ornament was a glistening work of art...

I was thrilled...

I remember being instructed not to touch the wet glue numbers... "Let it dry"

... but I touched it anyway... I couldn't resist touching the glittery green globs... you can still see the little indents on the 7 and the 9, where the glue had been especially puffy....  

....and I made quick work of the puffy spots with my first grade patience...

... I was beyond excited to present my very special gift on Christmas morning....

...Oh, the anticipation of having something so special to give to someone you love....

We wrapped our handmade ornaments up in red, white and green tissue paper... I can still remember not being able to decide which piece of tissue paper to choose... Those were some big decisions... I had never been asked to choose wrapping before...

Looking back, we spent what seemed liked days working on all those masterpieces during my grade school years... it was probably more like an hour or so... but it always felt very special.

Currently, in my special collection of hand crafted originals, I have  an assortment of salt dough ornaments, yarn dolls, wreaths made of sugar gum tree pods... macaroni angels, beaded candy canes and the list goes on...


...and on....

This might be the kind of ornament only a mother could love...

Think of all those teachers who managed it all   ...and without the use of Pinterest...

...Bless their hearts...

Not only for herding a classroom of children through the rigors of making treasured keepsakes, but for putting so much effort into helping me (and all of us) to make something so heart felt that Christmas morning....  could never get here soon enough...

 ...waiting...

....just to give my gift.


Now that I'm all grown up, I love nothing more than receiving my children's hand-crafted holiday decorations....works of art.

....As a dutiful "room-parent" last holiday season, I fashioned a special party keepsake for the children to make:

A Snowman

I used the help of Pinterest--for the initial inspiration and then used the Ellison Letter Machine at our school for the rest.  Many, many schools have die-cut machines and hopefully yours does too... it helped in making this a very easy endeavor....

... Even if you don't have access to a die-cutting machine, tracing shapes wouldn't be too involved...after all...you are making a treasured keepsake...

No Ellison Letter machine??...no worries!! 
The card stock/paper shapes needed are:

• Black square-hat
• Black rectangle- hat
• Orange small triangle-nose
• White circle-body
• An "s" shape for a scarf...you could also choose to use chenille stems (pipe cleaners) or lengths of thinly cut felt to fill in for the scarf...all are very cute options.

HOW I CREATED THE SNOWMAN:

1. First I took close-up, side profile photos of the children in the classroom and had them printed.  It cost maybe 2.50 for the 25 photos.

2.  I pre-cut the kid's faces... as a time saver...if you choose to have the children cut out their own  photos, I'd be sure to have doubles printed...just in case of unwieldy scissors...

3.  Using card stock I cut out large circles in white, black squares and long rectangles, orange commas and using a "curly" font, I cut out the letter "S" in varying colors.

4.  I made an example snowman as a pattern for the children to follow.

5.  On party day, each child assembled their snowman with glue sticks.

6.  Add a hole punch to the top for a string... and Taaa Daaa... You have just helped to make a childhood memory!

Be sure everyone writes their name on their snowman and mark the date ...the years will fly by and the memories will be fuzzy...so mark the year and even add the grade/teacher...it can be thoughtful reminder down the road.

These cute snowmen would also make darling gift tags...

Wishing everyone a holiday full of love and homemade treasures... and don't forget to "let it dry!"