Since the very first tree - I have been thinking about making a Paper Snowman. I actually started him weeks ago ..but we all know how life can get in the way of creating. So I started working on him last night to unwind a bit from a hectic day....and hours later we found ourselves searching for twigs in our front yard at 1 a.m. in the morning. Yes my DH went out and found me twigs at that hour. And at that hour the twig arms became quite the topic of conversation for 2 very design weary people. The first twigs had all these great nubs and my DH broke them off until they had two ordinary V's.. (Which are the arms from last night's photo post). I explained that I liked the character of the original twigs before they were trimmed and of course he went and found me new twigs. Here is the snowman with his revised "naturally nubby twig arms" (yes we are perfectionists- to the nth degree). While photographing the snowman, my husband wanted the hat to be slightly tilted as a tilted hat signifies a happy go lucky snowman, whereas a hat that is put on straight denotes a very serious snowman. Now remember it was after midnight by this time. Anyway we were both thrilled with the end result. And actually the most difficult part of designing the snowman was the scarf...which my husband finally figured out the best way to make the scarf.
So here is our very Jolly Snowman. He stands 12 3/4" high and now I might need to make a larger Paper Tree..since he towers over my forest.
If you have already made my cuttlebug paper pumpkins for Thanksgiving this snowman will be a snap!!
Supplies you will need:
3 sheets of White Cardstock, 6 dark blue snowflake brads,15 dark blue pearlized straight pins, 2" Dowel, Bamboo Skewer, Tonic Snowflake punch and Tonic Border System, Snowflake and Snowman Epoxy's from Best Creations, Golden Rings Christmas Paper from American Crafts - real twigs for arms, Cuttlebug and A2 Snowflake embossing folder, Obsidian Elan Metallics from WorldWIn. 2- 4" Styrofoam Balls and 1- 2" Styrofoam Ball.
To Make the Snowman Body:
Cut 2 sheets of White Cardstock into 1/2" x 3" strips. Fill your A2 Snowflake Embossing Folder with a layer of white cardstock strips and dry emboss. Repeat this step until all your strips have been dry embossed. Next shave a hair off the bottom of both 4" styrofoam balls. Place paper strips around ball until you have covered most of the ball. I have 4 layers on each of the 4" balls.
To make the scarf:
Cut a 3" x 12" strip of the Golden Rings Christmas paper from American Crafts. Using a scor-it board score, make score lines at 1/2" and at 1 1/2". Place the scored paper in your paper trimmer and cut a 1" x 12" strip (which will be scored at the 1/2" mark). This becomes the neck section of the scarf. Fold on the score line and make a circle big enough for your 2" styrofoam ball to sit in. Trim off excess. Use the remaining 3" x 12" strip to create the tails of the scarf. Fold the scarf on the score line and fringe both ends of the paper. ( you may curl the fringe on a pencil if you like). Fold in half making a V and place under the snowman head. To hold the styrofoam balls in place we inserted a bamboo skewer into the top of the snoman's head and pushed it through all 3 balls.
To make the eyes and the buttons I used navy blue snowflake brads from Creative Impressions. I found this really cute sheet of epoxy snowman, snowfalkes and trees from Best Creations and I placed the snowflake circles on top of the brads. I thought it really dressed them up and made the eyes twinkle.
For the nose we cut a dowel and widdled it with a knife to a point and them colored it orange with my copic marker. For the mouth I used 15 navy blue pearlized straign pins.
To make the hat:
I cut a 2 1/2" x 9" piece of Obsidiam Elan Metallics from Worldwin and I placed one end into my snowflake A2 embosssing folder and then I flipped the paper around and embossed the second half of the paper. Then I made it into a tube. Next I cut a 2" strip of red cardstock and I used my new tonic snowflake punch to create a snowflake border. (Note you have to start with a wider strip and then trim it to 1" after you have punched it in the border system). To make the snowflakes standout I backed the red cardstock with white cardstock and added these epoxy snowmen. To make the brim of the hat I used 2 nested circles from my nestabilities set, make sure the smaller one will fit on your styrofoam ball and will fit the base of your tube. Now using a third size circle nestabilities cut out a circle for the top of the hat. I used Scotch Tacky Adhesive to glue my hat pieces together. Since the petallic paper is pretty thick, I decided to staple together my tube, I placed the staple in a location that would be covered by the red hat band. Have fun Creating!!
