Paint your pipe black, or another color of your choice. Your snowman pipe is ready to be “smoked.”
Here’s How to Make a Dress-Up Felt Snowman
Don’t wait for snow to make this play dress-up felt snowman—or snowwoman! This DIY snowman costume craft offers lots of options for dress-up, and kids can have fun adding hats, mittens, a beard and whatever strikes their fancy to add to their snowman’s costume.
What You’ll Need
Felt, in white and other colors
Two or three pieces of felt or fabric, preferably in a dark color
Scissors
Fabric glue or spray adhesive
Tape
Make your snowman by cutting out three circles—one medium, one large, one extra-large.
Use the glue or adhesive to attach the snowman to the large piece of felt.
Tape the large felt piece and snowman on the wall.
Cut out eyes, a nose, arms, and clothing from felt.
Dress up your snowman. (Felt sticks to felt, so there’s no need for any other adhesive!)
Extend the Fun
Youngest kids: Turn the activity into a listening game. Clear everything off of the snowman. Name an item and tell your child where to put it on the figure. Make sure to use words like left, right, on top of, below, next to and so on. If she doesn’t get it right the first time, give her an example and help her work on it. Once she’s put up five pieces, switch roles and have her tell you where to put the clothes.
Younger kids: Dressing the snowman can help you talk with your child about weather. If it’s really cold outside, ask your child to help you put the layers on the figure, like a jacket, scarf, hat, mittens—or an entire outfit. Or if it’s a milder day, maybe the snowman needs only a scarf! Learning about weather and climate is part of science.
Older kids: Encourage your child to cut out and decorate a variety of clothes for the snowman. This could mean anything from a polka-dot sweater to a grass skirt. When your child has put together a really fun or funky look, ask him to write a story about it. Help him type it, print it and hang it on the wall next to the snowman.
The Best Type of Snow for Building a Snowman
It’s not true that “snow is snow.” There are different types of snow, in terms of consistency, just as there are different types of soil. You can’t roll sand between thumb and forefinger to form a dirt ball: you need soil of a different consistency. Well, neither can you build a snowman with just any kind of snow.
Do a test first. Scoop up a handful of snow. Try to make a snowball out of it. If you can easily make a good, tight snowball, then it may be time to build a snowman. There’s a delicate balance: the snow has to be wet enough to be sticky, but it can’t be slushy.
The other factor is amount of snow. If there’s just a dusting, it will be difficult to roll enough snow together to build a snowman. Wait till there’s at least a few inches of the white stuff.
Technique for Building a Snowman
It all starts by making a snowball, which you then put on the ground and start rolling. Sounds simple? But it’s not that easy to make a good snowman ball.
The idea is to have more snow accumulate on the snowball as you push it around, till it gets big enough to start building a snowman with. But if you push in just one direction, you won’t end up with a globe-shaped object: It will look more like a jelly roll!
So start rolling it one way, then reverse directions and roll it another way. As you go, pack down the snow with your gloved hands, which will make for a tighter ball. Shave off areas where it’s becoming uneven. When this bottom ball gets big, you’d better start pushing it towards its final resting place, before it gets too heavy. Repeat for middle ball, only make it smaller.
No matter how you get the second ball up, you’ll want to provide a seat for it first on the bottom ball. Scoop out snow on top of the bottom ball to make a rounded indentation, in which the next ball can rest.
Make the snowball for the head the smallest of the three, but not too small because the head has to support the objects you’ll be inserting into it for facial features and accessories. Scoop out a seat on top of the middle ball on which the head will be able to rest securely, then mount it up there.
Tip
If a snow ball is too heavy to lift, there are still ways to get it where you need it to go. If you’re building a snowman with someone, roll the ball onto a tarp; then the two of you can get on either side of the tarp and lift. If you’re alone, build a ramp from plywood. Stick anything you can find under the plywood, like some bricks, to support the weight of the giant snowball.
Adding the Face
A carrot is a classic nose for a snowman. Make a pilot hole for it with a sharp object rather than trying to force the carrot in. In fact, it’s good policy to make such pilot holes prior to inserting any objects into your snowman (for eyes, arms, etc). Use as big a carrot as you can find, so that you can shove it in really deep, making it less likely that it will pop out on a warm day.
For the eyes and mouth, charcoal (two pieces and three or more pieces, respectively) is the classic material. Small, dark stones are an alternative and have the advantage of not discoloring the snow the way charcoal will do.
But whether you use charcoal or stones for the eyes and mouth, these features will pop out on warm days, because they can’t be anchored into the head. Alternatively, use big metal washers, sprayed black. Secure them with bolts, pushed into the head at a downward angle.
Crooked branches are best for the arms: You can imagine the crook is an elbow.
Reinforce With More Snow
This will bring out the sculptor in you. Step back and evaluate the figure. Does it look a bit lopsided somewhere? Did one of the balls come out too flat? “Corrective surgery” is possible. Just add some of the white stuff to areas that could use more, to correct the figure’s proportions. Pat it down well to pack it. Likewise, shave off areas that could use a little less.
Since the waist and neck are joints, reinforce them by packing extra snow around them.
How to Dress a Snowman
There is, of course, no snowman shop, so you’ll have to make your own items to dress your snowperson with. Indeed, most of the fun in building a snowman is lies in getting creative with accessories. Anybody can stack up three snowballs and call it a “snowman.” But the way you accessorize your figure gives you a chance to put your own unique stamp on it.
Supply your figure with a snow shovel, rather than a broom. Jam the blade of the shovel down into the snow on the ground underneath one of the arms. This will stabilize it at the bottom. At the top, it’s probably sufficient just to lean it against the branch, although you can tie it if it doesn’t stay put for you.
1. Dress the Snowman’s Head and Neck
The biggest part of dressing a snowman occurs in the head and neck areas, usually, and consists of a hat, pipe, and scarf. If a top hat and pipe aren’t available to you, we have instructions for how to DIY one below.
If you don’t want to dress your snowman with a scarf of your own (for fear that it will be damaged or stolen), you can make a snowman scarf by tying colorful rags together.
As a creature of the winter, the traditional snowman must be dressed with a scarf.
2. Add the Buttons
To dress a snowman traditionally, run a string of “buttons” vertically down his torso (the middle of the three balls that comprise a snowman). They don’t have to be real buttons: just use small dark objects that represent buttons. In fact, pieces of charcoal or black stones will probably show up better than real buttons, because it’s hard to find buttons big enough to be noticed from a distance.
Push the the charcoal or stones into the snowman’s torso to stabilize them, otherwise they’ll fall out too quickly. “Pre-drill” with a sharp object (for example, a stick) to make a pilot hole, so that it will be easier to push the “buttons” in.
Tip
Can’t find any stones for the buttons? Raid your water garden for some river rock. Stones make better buttons than charcoal, because the latter stains your snow black. Alternatively, use big metal washers. Secure them with bolts, pushed into the snowman at a downward angle (spray both black).
3. Dress the Torso
Traditionally, one doesn’t dress a snowman below the waist, but you could if you wanted!
Snowman arms usually consist of branches, which are allowed to show (no sense in covering up such a charming feature). Dress a snowman’s hands with a pair of old gloves. Try to find a branch with “fingers” at the end, and put a glove over them. You don’t actually have to insert the branch fingers into the glove’s finger holes; the idea here is simply that the glove is less likely to blow off such a branch or flop around, because the fingers provide resistance. A glove might blow off a straight, unforked branch.
If you decide to dress a snowman in a vest, apply the vest before you insert his stick arms. Once the arms are on, you can fasten the vest to the arms so that it won’t blow away. If the vest is old (and you don’t care if it becomes damaged), make holes in the fabric, insert copper wiring through those holes, and wrap the wiring around the snowman’s branch arms.
