Thursday, January 16, 2014

Snow Ladies by Under My Umbrella

I, unlike most of the ladies of WYLTC was not singing snowman songs until I read Krystal's post on Monday.  After that I couldn't stop.   If I wasn't singing "Do you want to build a snowman" one of my kids has been.   One of my Facebook friends shared a great link online where you can watch Frozen for free.  We have managed to watch it three times since :)  This whole making a snowman process turned into a musical.  I started with "Do you want to build a snowman" as I was looking for inspiration for ideas.  I decided on a few 6 inch snow ladies.  I was inspired by the Crafty Sister's bunnies (gosh, they were cute!) a while back :)


As I was drawing my pattern I was debating if I wanted a skinny snow lady or a chunky one.  My song turned into "I like big butts and I cannot lie".  Yes, I went from G rated to PG-13 in a few seconds flat.  I knew chunky was the way to go.  I grabbed some wood and cut it out on my scroll saw, which by the way, is on it's last leg.  I can't even tell you how many I have gone through!


Sand that wood and then have your daughter who is now singing, "Would you like to build a snowman" and is so inspired wants to paint your project for you... do exactly that.  My other daughter added the jewels and I got busy crocheting some various items for these girls to wear.  Finally, I dressed these girls up and my song went to "Don't you wish your snowman was hot like mine".  I guess it should be cold but I didn't think about that until now!   And that's the end of the musical!  I did glue these ladies together with some hot glue so they would stand on their own.  They are staggered some forward and some back but the pic really doesn't show it.


Well that's it for me.  I had a fun time creating to music and seeing all the cute snowmen the ladies of WYLTC have whipped up.  Everyone keep warm!




Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Snowman-Craft Goodies


Once there was a snowman, tall, tall, tall!

(Sorry, had to get a new snowman song stuck in my head)

Wendy here today to share my take on Krystal's snowman theme and I must first, thank her. Making my little snowmen brought back a flood of memories that had me laughing at myself, rolling my eyes at how crazy my siblings are, and loving my family all the more. It's been a fun couple of days!

So what had me tripping down memory lane? This did...

 

snowman4.jpg

 

It was finding all the right goodies for the scarf and hat band and more than anything else, trying to get the perfect snow layer on my little snowmen!

I’ll tell you that crazy story in a minute, first here’s how I put this all together.

 

snowman1.jpg

 

I started by cutting out all my pieces: 4 bodies, a base to stand on, a base for the hat, and then the 4 sides of the hat. I got a bit tricky and mitered the edges of the hat as well as the edges of the body pieces so that they would make nice square edges. And last, I drilled through the sides of the snowmen to make a place for the arms.

 

snowman2.jpg

 

Then I glued it all together and waited for it to dry so I could paint and decorate!

snowman5.jpg

I used thick 18 gauge wire, doubled and twisted together to make the arms. To get a fun, textured, snowy look, I sprayed everything white with wall texture spray before painting it and then adding a TON of iridescent glitter, then the standard rosettes, burlap, fabric, etc., and last,  candles in the middle to create the “Cold Hands, Warm Heart” thing.

TADA!!! Done and looking kinds cute outside on the front porch.

So that crazy memory of mine…when I was little, every time it would snow (you know, enough to really cover the yard) I would BAN my family from walking in the front yard! I loved the way it looked and sparkled with no footprints running through it, or big shoveled piles here and there, or dirty muddy gunk from all the boots and cars. It was one of my very favorite things about those long, cold, Utah winters. And bless my sweet family! They would do it! So as I sat spraying texture to just the right level and spot, I realized how ridiculous I was as a child, how great my family is, and that if I had snow in my yard right now, I’d go make a snowman…footprints and all!

Enjoy your winter fun and happy crafting to you all-

Wendy

 

 

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Snowman~Crafty Sisters

Like Krystal I have that "Do you want to build a snowman" song stuck in my head too!
In my house there isn't much shelf space available to it has made me a wall hanger kind of gal.
I love having something seasonal hanging out my front door to greet everyone and this little guy did the trick!

I have always been a doodler and that's how Candace and I really started crafting together.
We'd see all sorts of cute things in stores that were crazy over priced or the image would be on a cute card and we'd think "wouldn't that be cute hanging on my door"?
So with this snowman project I doodled out on a big sheet of packing paper what I wanted out of my snowman project.  Of course I had to ask Candace first since she's my craft co-conspirator!
I cut the main body out of 1/2" MDF so it's not too heavy to hang up.

The hat brim, the carrot nose and the mitten top were cut from 1/8" MDF.  The key to great looking projects is having different textures and thickness.  It's amazing how that snowman nose is so much cuter as a separate piece of wood than just painted on.  It's worth the extra work.
I didn't paper anything this time~can you believe it?  I free handed a few snow flakes on the mitten and some stripes on the top.  The scarf was a piece of fleece that's 50% off this week at JoAnn's.  I drilled two small holes on each mitten side to thread some wire on for easy hanging.  Super easy project I promise!!!

I love it! Can't wait to see what the other gals do!  Thanks for the great theme Krystal!

Snowman built!  Check!  Happy Tuesday everyone!~

Monday, January 13, 2014

Snowman- Sassy Sanctuary

So...

Do you want to build a snowman?!?

Sorry.  Couldn't resist!  (If you haven't seen Frozen yet, you need to.  Its SO cute!)

Anyway, Krystal from Sassy Sanctuary here today to kick off our next round of WYLTC!  We were all itching to create some winter cuteness to fill up the after Christmas emptyness.  And since I got to pick our theme, we will all be sharing some super cute snowmen this week!

Here is mine.


Isn't he cute?!

I was actually inspired by this snowman that I already own.  (It wont let me copy a picture so you'll have to check out the link.  But its a plush snowman that says "families are forever because love never melts."  ahhh!)  I love the cute little saying on the belly and when I came across a sign on Pinterest that read "if kisses were snowflakes I'd send you a blizzard"  I knew I needed to use the quote on a wooden snowman.

The actual snowman is REALLY simple.  You start with a basic shape like this...


(That little block on the back is a trick I use when the wood is to skinny to stand up by itself.)

Then just cut a strip of wood for the brim of his hat and a little carrot nose.

The fun part is paint.  I made this guy right after Christmas and let the glitz of Christmas influence me.  I used LOTS of glitter!  His nose is gold glitter, his hat black glitter, his eyes are black rinestones, and I even glittered the text.


That was a little tricky.  I still used the vinyl stencil method, just instead of painting the text on I used a glittered glue mixture.  It required a bit of touch-up after the stencil was removed but turned out pretty stinkin cute!  Then a ribbon around his neck and he was done!


I think I'll call him Olaf.  ;)

Come back the rest of the week for all the other snowmen.  The WYLTC ladies never disappoint!

Thanks for reading!