Melting Snowman Craft
This melting snowman craft made from a wood slice is SO CUTE and really easy to make! You can use a large branch from the yard or buy your wood slices on Amazon. Then decorate the rest of your snowman with simple dollar store supplies.
Hang your wood slice snowman ornament on the Christmas tree, or leave off the twine and use it as a mantle decoration. These snowmen also make really fun homemade gifts!
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DIY Melting Snowman Ornament
Materials:
- Wood slice
- Cardstock
- Felt(black & red)
- Orange Sharpie marker
- Toothpick
- Styrofoam ball(1-1/2 inches)
- Black Sharpie marker
- Twigs(from the garden)
- Button stickers(or regular buttons)
- Twine
Equipment:
- Paint bottle(or other circle to trace)
Instructions:
Step 1: Find what you need
- Gather your supplies and materials.
Step 2: Cut out the parts of the melting snowman
- Trace the wood slice onto white cardstock.
- Draw a wavy line inside the circle to represent a melted snow puddle.
- Cut out the snow puddle.
- Make two circles on the white cardstock. One should be about 1 inch in diameter and the second should be about 1-1/4 inches in diameter.We traced the bottom and the cap of an acrylic paint bottle (2 fluid ounce) to make our circles.
- Cut out the circles and use them as a guide to cut two black felt circles (1 inch and 1-1/4 inch in diameter).Then cut a rectangle out of black felt, 1 inch wide and 2-3/4 inches long.From red felt cut out a rectangle that’s 1/4 inch wide and 2-3/4 inches long.
- Finally, cut another rectangular piece from red felt, 1/4 inch wide by 6-1/2 inches long.
Step 3: Make the snowman’s top hat
- Add a line of hot glue to the bottom of the black rectangle and attach the red rectangle to it.Then add hot glue to one of the short edges of the black strip. Line it up with the other end and connect it to make a cylinder. This will be the top part of the snowman’s top hat.
- Apply hot glue to the bottom of the cylinder you just made, on the edge where the red band is. Press it down in the center of the larger black felt circle.Then add hot glue to the top of the cylinder and place the smaller circle on top.
- Use sharp scissors to cut around the top felt circle, trimming it as close to the glued edge as possible.You’ve just created an adorable top hat for your snowman!
Step 4: Make the snowman’s face
- Colour about 1/2 inch of the end of a toothpick with orange Sharpie marker. Cut the toothpick off at the end of the coloured part.
- Use the other sharp edge of the toothpick to poke a hole in the center of a styrofoam ball. Then insert the orange part of the toothpick in the hole, sharp part sticking out.
- Draw two dots for eyes with a black Sharpie, just above and to each side of the toothpick nose.
Step 5: Put the melting snowman together
- Attach the snow puddle to the wood slice with hot glue.
- Place a dot of hot glue on the top of the snowman’s head and attach the hat. We made our hat slightly off center but you could center it on the head if you like.
- Use hot glue to attach the snowman head to the top center of the snow puddle. Wrap the long red felt strip around the snowman’s neck as a scarf and secure it with hot glue.Trim the edges of the scarf where they meet the edge of the wood slice. Then cut a little fringe at the ends of the scarf, cutting two to three lines that go up a bit over 1/4 inch.
- Cut your twigs to be about 2 inches long. Try to use ones that have little “V”s at the ends to represent the snowman’s hands.Add hot glue to the straight ends of the twigs and attach the arms by the snowman’s head. Try to hide the hot glue under the snowman’s scarf.
- Attach three button stickers (or glue on regular buttons) below the snowman’s head. These don’t need to be in a straight line, since they have fallen off into the melted snow.
Step 6: Add a twine ornament hanger
- Cut a 9 inch piece of twine and tie it into a knotted ornament hanger.
- Apply hot glue to the knot and loose ends of the twine hanger.
- Press the hanger onto the center back of the wood slice.
- Your melting snowman ornament is complete!
Where can I get wood slices?
If you know someone handy with a saw you can cut your own wood slices from large branches from the yard. The branch would need to be 3 inches to 5 inches in diameter and the slices should be about 3/8 inch thick.
No problem if you can’t cut your own! You can buy wood slices on Amazon or find them at a craft store.
What size wood slice should I use to make my melting snowman?
Our wood slices were 4 inches in diameter and 3/8 inch thick. Ours didn’t have any holes, but you can buy wood slices with pre-drilled holes to tie the ornament hanger through.
What size styrofoam ball do I need for the melted snowman head?
Our styrofoam ball was 1-1/2 inches in diameter, but you could use anything from 1 – 2 inches in size. We found ours at the dollar store.
What if I don’t have a wood slice?
If you don’t have wood slices, or don’t want to purchase them, you could also cut cardboard into a circle to use as the ornament base. You can even skip the base and just use the white card stock snow puddle as the base of your ornament.
What else can be used for the snowman’s arms?
If you can’t go for a nature walk to pick up some twigs, you can use a brown pipe cleaner for the snowman’s arms. Check out our Pinecone Turkey post for help with bending the pipe cleaner into the right shape.
What other supplies can I use for my melting snowman ornament?
If you don’t have button stickers, you can glue on real buttons – matching or not. Or instead of buttons, use pom poms or rhinestones to add some sparkle to the ornament.
You can use googly eyes instead of drawing eyes with Sharpie, or you could also draw on a mouth. And if you don’t have cardstock, you can make the melted snow puddle out of white felt or a craft foam sheet.
This poor melted snowman has clearly seen some warmer weather, but he’s still hanging in there!
It can be a bit finicky to work with the small felt pieces to make the hat, but overall this is such a fun winter themed craft.
Choose your favourite colour for the snowman’s scarf. And don’t forget to write the year on the back of your wood slice snowman ornament!
Here’s even more snowman craft ideas:
Our book Low-Mess Crafts for Kids is loaded with 72 fun and simple craft ideas for kids! The projects are fun, easy and most importantly low-mess, so the clean up is simple!
