Snow People from Recycled Mittens

In December of 2000, I made a bunch of these little snow people from recycled mittens and wooden balls. They are super easy to make and so much fun to give personality to! You can embellish them however you like, I made an entire family and placed them in a metal sleigh (pictured in the sleigh below).


Snow People from Recycled Mittens
by Amanda Formaro

[printable version]

You will need

children's mittens
rice
cotton batting
11/4" diameter wooden balls
buttons
mismatched infant or children's socks
small pom poms
scrap material for scarves
silk florals (holiday springs, berries, flowers, etc.)
sleigh or basket
tiny black plastic eyes or black acrylic paint
rosey lipstick
black marker

What you do

Basic Snow Person

Fill the hand portion of a child's mitten with one or two handfuls of rice, fill the rest of the way with cotton batting, be sure to fill thumb as well. Cut a scrap piece of material for scarf and gently tie around the mitten where the ribbing of the cuff meets the plain material of the mitten (end of the cuff). (When tying scarf, point the scarf material away from the thumb to make it appear as if the scarf is covering the person's other arm.) Fold down cuff to cover scarf and form a turtle neck. Hot glue on wooden ball to top of turned down cuff. Glue on tiny plastic eyes or paint on with black acrylic paint. Use black marker for mouth. Gently dot on lipstick for cheeks by applying first to your finger and then dotting onto face. Glue 2 or 3 buttons to tummy area. Glue a stem of holiday florals or greenery tucked into the arm (thumb), and glue arm to the mitten body.

You can personalize each snow person with different hats, scarves, florals, and more. Our examples show how you can create an entire family of folks by simply using different colored mittens, scarves, and different styles of hats and ear muffs.

Grandpa
Our Grandpa (pictured above) wears a top hat that is fashioned from a scrap of scarf. Lay your basic snowperson face up on your work surface. Lay a rectangular scrap flat and place under ball head. Fold a flap of the material up to form the brim of the hat (see photo) and begin gluing in place, wrapping around the head as you work. Glue final seams in the back of the hat so they are not visible.

Brother & Sister

(pictured at top)

Amy and Peter are wearing snow hats. These hats are both fashioned from infant socks. To make Amy's hat we simply fit the cuff of the sock onto her head and rolled up the edge of the cuff to form her hat brim. Then trim the end of the sock off and fold over neatly then glue in place. Glue a pom pom to the top. For Peter's hat, put sock on head the same way as Amy's, trim toe portion off, then cut the end of the sock into three sections. Pull those three sections together to form a cone type tip, glue three pom poms to that tip.

Little Sister
Little Jessica is wearing earmuffs instead of a hat. We simply cut a scrap piece from the cuff of an infant's sock and glued it across the top of her head. At the ends of the headband, glue two pom poms for the muffs.

Mom & Dad
(pictured below)
A slightly larger mitten was used for Mom and Dad. Because the cuffs of the mittens were much larger and thicker, we formed parka hoods by simply gluing the ball inside the cuff and gluing the "chin" to the mitten itself.

You can display these snow people in a basket with sprigs of greenery and holly berries, or place them in a sleigh. Fill the sleigh with cotton batting and place each family member in their seat. Place these cute little people on your fireplace mantel, or attach a piece of gold cord and hang from your tree or in your doorway.

Country Wooden Santa

I'm starting to feel the pressure of Christmas, and all the craft projects that come along with it. There are so many to share with you and so little time!

Here's another project I made in 2001. We had been working on our deck and had lots of scrap wood left over, so I put together several different little decorations.

This Santa is made from a triangular scrap of wood, but you could even use a small cardboard box (maybe from pasta or granola bars, etc). Just cut the box on an angle, tilt sideway, insert a zipper bag or rice, rocks or sand for weight, and tape up the opening. Then just follow the instructions as outlined with the wood below :)

Country Wooden Santa
by Amanda Formaro

[printable version]

You will need

triangular block of wood
sandpaper
acrylic paint in black and pink
muslin material, enough to cover entire piece of wood
holiday material scrap for hat
gold accent holiday ribbon
gold button
white curly doll hair
small holly & berry leaves
blush & blush brush (make up)
white craft glue
textured snow paint
small paintbrushes

What You Do

Begin by sanding all rough edges around the wood to eliminate the possibility of painful splinters while working. Cover the entire piece of wood with muslin material, gluing as you go and keeping seems in the back (and to a minimum).

Use the holiday material and wrap it around Santa's "head" to fashion his cap. Use craft glue to tack down as you work your way around, keeping seams in the back. Use ribbon to create the cap rim, again, keeping seams in the back, gluing as you go.

Use blush brush to gently add blush to Santa's cheeks. Dot on eyes with small paintbrush and black paint, dot on nose with pink paint.

Glue the holly leaves & berries in the bottom corner before adding the beard hair. Glue the doll hair in place to crate the beard, working small sections at a time to ensure full coverage. Fill in empty sections where necessary.

To finish, glue gold button to the top of the cap and add a few flecks of textured snow paint to the holly berries and leaves.

See more fun ideas on the We Made It Friday Showcase!

Clay Pot Elf

I have made many different clay pot crafts. I went crazy one Christmas and made snowmen, Santa and Mrs. Claus, reindeer, and this cute little elf. I originally made this in 2001 for FamilyCorner.com, he's definitely among my favorites!

If you would like to make one of these cuties, follow the instructions in the tutorial below:

Clay Pot Elf
designed by Amanda Formaro

[printable version]

You will need

1- 1 1/2" diameter wooden ball
1- 2 1/4" diameter clay pot
wide ribbon with holiday pattern
thin green ribbon
green felt
two red buttons
two wooden hearts for ears
gold button
2 small gold bells
purchased embellishment, such as our "Believe in Santa" bag
acrylic paints in flesh, red, pink, and black
white craft glue

What you do

Place newspaper down on work surface. Turn clay pot over and glue wooden ball to bottom of pot. Glue hearts upside down to the sides of the wooden ball to create pointy elf ears. When glue is dry, use large paint brush to paint the outside of the clay pot green and the entire wooden ball and ears with flesh colored paint. Let dry and apply a second coat.

Body
Tie ribbon around the neck, fashion a bow and trim ends. Thread thin green ribbon through the button holes and tie bows, trim ends. Glue buttons to the front of the clay pot. Spread a thin coat of white craft glue around the bottom rim of the clay pot, place a border of thin green ribbon all the way around the bottom of the pot. Glue purchased "Believe in Santa" bag, or other embellishment, to the side of the body.

Hat
Cut a tall triangle out of green felt. Apply some glue to the elf''s forehead. Position the bottom of the felt triangle over the glue. Wrap around to the back of the head. Glue in place. Glue back seam of the felt together, bring to a point at the top (trim if needed to make it fit). Gently tie a piece of thin green ribbon around the top of the hat, about an inch from the top. Tie in a know loosely so that it does not bunch together. Carefully thread bells onto the ends of the ribbon that you just tied in place. Tie bells on and adjust height. Tighten knots and trim ends off. Glue a gold button above the ribbon. Position a piece of thin green ribbon around the brim of the hat (see photo) and glue in place.

Face
Using a small sponge, gently dab on a thin amount of pink for the cheeks. Use black paint to dot on eyes and put on mouth. Use red paint for the nose. You may also sponge on a small amount of red over the pink cheeks if the pink is too light.

Rustic North Woods Ornaments - moose, bear, fish, cabin favorites

I have a very good friend who absolutely loves that up north, log cabin look.

You know the decor...

Bears, moose, deer, logs, mountains, wolves, anything up north-y with a rustic cabin feel and she's in Heaven.

This year for Christmas, she really wanted to deck out her tree with bears, moose, and other up north type ornaments, but to her dismay the prices were outrageous.

With ornaments starting at $5.00-7.00 a piece, decorating an entire tree would have been a rather expensive undertaking.

So she passed on the idea and hung a few older ornaments along with some pinecones instead.

Of course, my creative gears started turning and I knew I had to make her some. I hated hearing how bummed out she sounded when she was talking about it, and there's no better way to spread Christmas cheer than by making someone else happy, so I set about my task.

The first design I thought of was simple enough.

I looked in the backyard at the pile of limbs sitting next to our fire pit from the trees we had trimmed this year. Surely there had to be a decent limb in that pile that I could slice into disks.

With the help of a kind neighbor, who just happens to be a carpenter, I found myself with about a dozen 1/2" round slices, ready to decorate.

The other design in my head involved twigs, burlap and flannel or gingham of some sort.

I knew I would need something sturdy, but I'm sooooo not into complicated, so cardboard was my medium of choice.

And from these two ideas, these ornaments were born.

My friend loved them, so did her family. It made me happy to be able to give them to her, knowing how much she appreciated it. It's the giving. The warm feeling in your heart that you get.

That's what Christmas is all about. :)


Rustic North Woods Log Ornaments

designed by Amanda Formaro

[printable version]

1/2" disks of wood
black paint
thin paint brush
pencil
ribbon for hangers
jute, gingham ribbon or checkered material for bows
Clear glaze spray
hot glue gun

If bark around wood is healthy you can leave it in place. Mine were weak and falling off, so I just removed the bark all together and tapped the disks on the table to knock off any excess dust and grit.

Note: I was lucky and my disks had natural holes in which I ran the ribbon through for the hangers. You may need to drill a hole. Run ribbon through the hole and tie to create a hanger.

You can either freehand your designs with a pencil like I did, or use mini cookie cutters for stencils. Another idea is to google some north woods decorations and print out a few designs to use. You can even use black transfer paper to add the designs to the wood.

Paint the designs black and let dry.

The beauty of this craft is that silhouettes require no details, you just have to make sure your outlines are recognizable.

When they are dry, spray with clear glaze. Repeat on the other side. Do a total of 2-3 coats.

Create bows out of jute or ribbon.

I used material strips from the leg section of boxer shorts that my boys had outgrown.

Hot glue to the front of the ornament, above your design.


Rustic Twig Framed Pine Ornaments
designed by Amanda Formaro

[printable version]

thin cardboard (from the back of a writing tablet, cereal box, etc)
gingham material (again, I used the legs of recycled boxer shorts)
glue stick
scissors
burlap
black acrylic paint
thin paint brush
twigs
hot glue gun
jute
gingham ribbon or fabric
small woodland buttons (optional)

Cut rectangles and triangles from cardboard, mine were roughly 2" x 3".

Cut a piece of gingham or flannel fabric twice the size of your cardboard. Cover one side of the cardboard with the glue stick. Place sticky side down on to the fabric and smooth it out with your hand. Cover the exposed side of the cardboard with glue and fold the remaining fabric onto the glued side. Smooth out with your hand. Trim the excess fabric, feeling the sides of the cardboard as a guide.

Cut a piece of burlap about 1/3 the size of your cardboard. The idea is to be able to see the flannel fabric background after your twig frame is attached. Cover one side of the burlap with white glue, gently spreading it out with your finger. Glue on to the center of the flannel fabric.

Use a thin paint brush and a generous amount of black paint to add a vertical line up the center of the burlap. Because burlap is not a smooth surface, you will need a fair amount of paint and the least amount of detail. Add simple limbs on both side of the "tree trunk", finishing with a point at the top.

Cut a piece of jute for the hanger. Break twigs to fit along all four sides of your fabric, you will need enough for both sides of the ornament.

Hot glue the twigs onto the fabric, make sure you insert the jute hanger as your are adding the twigs so that it ends up sandwiched between the twigs. Tie a bow from jute and add to the bottom of the ornament with hot glue.

You can use mini north wood themed buttons to decorate the edges of your ornaments as well.

Easy Santa's Belly Ornament

You can literally make this ornament in one minute. I was inspired to make this when I was on my pilgrimage to Michael's last week. There's a Pier One next door and you could see through the windows that they had all their Christmas ornaments on display.

So I went in and saw something very similar to this, though their belts were made of a black vinyl with a plastic buckle. They were selling them for $7.99 each! Sheesh!

I went into Michael's and they were having a sale on ornaments. There was a box of 8 red ball ornies for $4.99, regularly priced at $7.99. I already had the felt and chenille on hand, so these are a very inexpensive alternative! Even with the ornaments at full price, you are talking about $1.00 each as opposed to $7.99 each.

Because of the ornament sale and having the felt and chenille on hand, this ornament cost me $0.62.

Here's what you need:


Easy Santa's Belly Ornament
by Amanda Formaro

[printable version]

you will need

red ball ornament
black felt
gold chenille stem
hot glue gun
scissors

what you do

Cut a strip of black felt, about 3/4" wide, long enough to fit around the center of the ball ornament. Using the width of the felt as a guide, bend the chenille into a rectangle for the buckle and trim off the excess. Glue the buckle to the center of the felt strip. Glue the strip to the middle of the ornament and all the way around it, trimming excess and gluing in place.

That's it! Have fun :)

Christmas Tree Light Bulb Ornament

I made this light bulb ornament the same year I made the angel, snowman, and penguin , in December of 2000.

However, I never wrote a tutorial on this version. In fact, I made several of these, gave a couple as gifts and sold the rest in the craft store I used to own.

I'll do my best to give you some general instructions in case you want to make one, but it's been a while, so bear with me!

I'm not going to write the instructions out formally as I usually do, only because I might miss a step as it's been 9 years since I made it.

So here goes.

I usually prepare my light bulbs by making sure they are free of dust, rinsing in water, wiping off, then giving them a rinse in white vinegar. Usually I paint them with a brush, but this particular one I used spray cans. The reason I did that, and you can hopefully see in the photo below, was the create a sunset effect that would be more difficult with a brush (not impossible, just more difficult).

I sprayed the bulb with a mauve first. Most of it won't show in the finished product, but it's still an important factor. After that was dry, I sprayed the top half with a dusty country blue, putting a thicker layer toward the top and just a dusting near the middle. The idea was to blend the blue into the mauve.

Note: You have to be careful with spray paint as it will run if you have a heavy trigger finger. Better to err on the side of caution and use several light sprays, letting them dry in between.

Next I painted the Christmas tree. That seems to be the "wow" factor of this ornament, and people comment on what talent I have, but really, the trees are very, very simple. I could go into how to create trees on this post, but there's a wonderful step by step tutorial in PDF format right here that you can refer to.

After adding the tree, and then the snow on the branches, I used a small paint brush and dabbed off all the excess paint, then gently dabbed on the "lights". They blend into the snow and look like they are really glowing. :)

To add the "falling snow" I splattered it with watered down white paint using a tooth brush.

I glued some rick rack around the neck of the bulb, gluing a loop of ribbon underneath the rick rack.

Lastly, I used Sno-Tex snow paint to cover the top of the bulb and to coat the bottom of the bulb as well. And of course, the finishing touch was 2-3 coats of clear acrylic sealer (I used matte, not gloss).

How's that for a tutorial? I feel like I could go make another one now! ;)

Light Bulb Snowman Ornament craft

I've already posted my light bulb angel and penguin, so here's my snowman too. :) Again, I made this guy in 2000, 9 years and going strong. If you wrap them carefully, ornaments made from light bulbs will last a very long time! The photo at the right was taken right after I made it, the photo toward the bottom was taken last week when I hung it on my tree. :)

I have one last light bulb ornament t show you, but I've never written a tutorial on that one. Hopefully I can put that together this week :)

Light Bulb Snowman

[printable version]


You will need

burnt out light bulb
rubbing alcohol
white acrylic paint
gold cord or ribbon
child's sock
scrap material
two buttons
4 toothpicks
Fiberfil cotton batting
hot glue
scissors
black marker

What You Do

Wipe bulb down with rubbing alcohol, this will help the paint adhere to the bulb. Let dry. Paint entire light bulb with white acrylic paint and let dry. Apply a second coat. If finish appears streaked, you can use a large paint brush or a sponge to blot on a "stucco" look. It is not necessary to paint the socket. Allow bulb to dry completely.

While bulb is drying, cut off the ribbing from the child's sock. Roll up a brim at one end and tie off the other end with gold ribbon or cord, tie in a bow. Leave about half an inch of sock above ribbon for the fluffy top, fringe ends. Add a bit of Fiberfil to the inside of the hat. Cut a tiny square of fabric and glue to the front brim of the hat.

From the remaining material on the sock, cut a rectangle, about 2 inches wide and 1 1/2 inches long. Place a small amount of Fiberfil in the center, roll up jelly roll style and glue together. Glue ends closed. Take one of the toothpicks and carefully cut/break in half. Insert pointed side of each toothpick into the muff on either side.

Once light bulb is dry, glue the muff to the belly of the bulb, below the neck and above the fattest part of the bulb. Glue the toothpicks to the bulb. Using another toothpick, cut into fourths. Using the sections that do not have pointed ends, glue to the toothpick arms that are already in place on the bulb. This will create the elbow to the shoulder. Glue to the elbow and to the bulb (see photo for guide).

Fit hat snugly over socket of light bulb and glue in place. To create the hanger, tie a long piece of ribbon into a loop. With the hanging ends, tie around the hat underneath the brim (roll it down out of your way). Loop tie should be positioned at the back of the hat. Tie ribbon tight and snip off extra ends. Roll brim back up to cover ribbon.

Fashion a scarf from scrap material and tie carefully around neck, glue in place. Fringe ends of scarf with scissors. Glue two buttons to belly area, tuck top button underneath muff halfway. With one of the remaining pointed toothpicks that you cut into fourths, glue on for nose. Carefully dot on eyes with black marker. Hang!

Special note: You may not use all the toothpicks that the instructions call for. They are easily split when broken or cut, so we allowed for that with extras.

Light Bulb Penguin Ornament craft

As promised, I will be sharing the different light bulb ornaments I have made. This penguin, along with the angel, is one of my favorites. I made him in December of 2000 and he's still hanging in there. Just hung him on my tree yesterday in fact! This is probably one of the easiest ones to make, just involves some simple painting and a few small embellishments. But isn't he just darling with only a little fuss?? :)

Light Bulb Penguin

[printable version]

You will need

burnt out light bulb
rubbing alcohol
acrylic paint in white and black
gold cord or ribbon
orange toothpick
shiny gold ribbon
gold chenille twist tie
finger from a child's glove
white iridescent pom pom
Fiberfil cotton batting
hot glue
scissors
black marker

What you do

Wipe bulb down with rubbing alcohol, this will help the paint adhere to the bulb. Let dry. Paint entire light bulb with black acrylic paint except for an hour glass shape in the front. When the black paint is completely dry, paint the hour glass shape white and let dry. Apply a second coat. If finish appears streaked, you can use a large paint brush or a sponge to blot on a "stucco" look. It is not necessary to paint the socket. Allow bulb to dry completely.

While bulb is drying, prepare hat and mittens but cutting off a finger from a child's glove. Use the longest finger on the glove, cut a small section for the mittens. The mittens are simply small triangular shapes. To make the hat, put a small amount of Fiberfil into the glove finger and roll up end for a brim. Glue pom pom to the top. You can bend the hat to one side by bending it down and gluing in place.

Fashion a bow tie from 1/2" or 3/4" wide shiny gold ribbon (about 3"-4" in length). To do this, lay the ribbon, shiny side down, onto your work surface. Fold both ends into the center, doubling up the ribbon. If this gives you the length that you want for your bowtie, then glue those ends down to hold in place. Take a piece of shiny chenille twist tie and manipulate it around the center of the ribbon, scrunching the ribbon together, thus creating your bowtie. Hint: these ribbons and twist ties are found on many premade ornaments, some with angels others with flowers.

When bulb is completely dry, pull hat over socket and glue in place. Glue bowtie in the front at the neckline and glue mittens at the edge of the white where the hourglass shape widens. Using black marker, dot eyes onto face and five tuxedo buttons down the front of the bulb. Carefully cut 1/4 of the toothpick off at the pointed end, glue in place for beak.

With a fairly generous amount of hot glue, fasten a loop fashioned from gold ribbon or cord to the back of the bulb. Hang!

Light Bulb Angel Ornament

Over the years I have made several light bulb ornaments. When I mentioned that during Thanksgiving, several of you asked that I share them.

This pretty little angel is one of my favorites. I made this in December of 2000, hard to believe it's been 9 years and she still hangs on my tree every Christmas! If she ever breaks, I will be devastated. My family knows NOT to mess with mom's light bulb ornies, and no one tries to wrap them up, they hand them off to me when it's time to take down the tree. ;)


Light Bulb Angel

[printable version]

You will need

burnt out light bulb
rubbing alcohol
acrylic paint in white, pink, and flesh
gold cord or ribbon
gold craft wire
wire cutters
handful of tiny white silk flowers
gold scrap material
Fiberfil cotton batting
three plastic white or iridescent flowers
lace curtain remnant with a floral pattern
hot glue
scissors
black marker

What you do

Wipe bulb down with rubbing alcohol, this will help the paint adhere to the bulb. Let dry. Paint entire light bulb with white acrylic paint and let dry. Apply a second coat. If finish appears streaked, you can use a large paint brush or a sponge to blot on a "stucco" look. It is not necessary to paint the socket. Allow bulb to dry completely.

While bulb is drying, cut out two large flowers from the lace curtain and fashion a halo from craft wire (leave enough wire to wrap around the bulb socket).

When bulb is completely dry, wrap craft wire around bulb socket and manipulate wire upward so that halo is above the socket (head). Using gold fabric strip, glue in place all the way around the socket (almost at the end of the socket where it meets the bulb). Cover any remaining socket with Fiberfil. Prepare Fiberfil by taking small amount and rolling it between your hands to create "tubes", glue in place. Above the gold band, one at a time, glue tiny silk flowers in place until entire socket is covered.

Carefully paint face area on with flesh colored paint. Fashion a small bow from gold ribbon or cord and glue to the front of the bulb, about halfway down where the round part begins. Carefully glue iridescent or white plastic flowers around the bow (as pictured). Use the two lace curtain flowers to create a shawl by starting up behind the angel's neck and working your way frontward and around. Do this for both sides, overlap where needed.

Turn angel over in your hand, being careful not to put any pressure on the embellishments on the front, and glue angel wings to the back. Tie a loop in gold cord or ribbon and glue securely to the back of the angel just above the wings.

Use black marker to draw on eyes and mouth. Using a small paint brush, blot off excess pink paint onto paper towel. When all excess paint is off of the brush, carefully and gently blot on cheeks. Hang!