Christmas in July Tutorial

A special thank you to Willa at The Old Cupboard Door for the Snowmansicle Ornament Tutorial.

Snowmansicles:

Supplies: plastic icicles (I found them at Dollar Tree), homespun fabric, red fleece fabric or red flannel, chenille (for the trim around the hat), hot glue, glamour dust, ( by Deco Art, you can find it at Michaels) rusty bells, rusty wire, small round tags, 38mm stryofoam balls, spray adhesive (non-yellowing), cardstock snowflakes ( I cut them out with a snowflake punch), joint compound mix ( you can find a small container of this at Walmart in the paint section), ultra fine Sharpie, Kiwi brown shoe paste.

Americana paints: Buttermilk, Cadmium Red, Lamp Black, Burnt orange.

Prepping the icicle: I have done this two different ways. 1st option: take the cap off the icicle. Spray some adhesive into the icicle, add the glamour dust ( you can also use glitter) and shake to coat it. 2nd option: take the cap off the icicle and pour about 1 Tbsp of Buttermilk paint into the icicle. The paint is a little thick so add a drop or two of water to it. Shake the paint around the icicle until it is coated. I don’t worry about coating all of it, I’ll tell you why in a second. Turn the icicle upside down and allow the paint to drain out. Give it a couple of hours to dry. Ok, the reason I don’t mind if the icicle is not completely coated is I spray the adhesive into the icicle and add the glamour dust. It adds a sparkle to the areas that were uncoated and gives it an icy look.


Center the Styrofoam ball over the icicle and push it down on to the top. Remove it and add hot glue to the indented area, push it onto the icicle and hold it until it is glued firmly in place. With a spatula add the joint compound to the Styrofoam ball. Don’t make it too thick or it will take forever to dry but don’t make it so thin you can see the stryofoam. Allow to dry about an hour and then smooth it out by dipping your finger in a cup of water and tapping the mud with your wet finger. Tap and then smooth, tap and smooth. Keep your finger wet so the compound doesn’t stick to your finger Don’t worry if it isn’t completely smooth, mine never are. Now allow the compound to dry for a few hours.
Once it is dry, paint the head with Buttermilk. Give it a couple of coats. Once that is dry, add the eyes. I use a large stylus or you can use the end of a paint brush. Dry brush the cheeks with Cadmium Red. To do this use a small stencil brush or a scuffy brush. Pick up a dab of Cadmium Red (don’t add water),dab, dab, dab it onto you palette ( I use a Styrofoam plate). Now wipe most of it out onto a paper towel. It’s similar to stenciling. Lightly begin to brush the color onto the cheeks. Go lightly because it is hard to get the paint off that compound if you are too heavy with it. You can always add a little more but uuggh it’s a pain to take it off. Now paint in the nose with Burnt Orange. I don’t sketch the nose in but if you need to …sketch it in. Make sure the top of the nose is in between the eyes. That’s the reason I add the eyes first. I don’t like to see a nose that isn’t centered between the eyes…just looks weird (now you are going to be inspecting noses). Add the mouth using dots of Black with a stylus or the end of a paint brush. Dot a high light of white on each cheek. Awww, isn’t he cute?

For the hat: You will need to make a pattern. Don’t worry, I’m going to tell you how. On a piece of paper or cardstock, draw a vertical line that is 6 ½ inches long. At the bottom of that vertical line, draw a horizontal line 1 ¼ inches on each side for a total of 2 ½ inches for the horizontal line. At each end of the horizontal line (at the bottom) using a ruler, draw a line up to meet the top of the vertical line. Do the same for the other end of the horizontal line. This will give you a cone shape. Cut that shape out as your pattern for the hat. Cut two pieces from the red flannel or red fleece. With a ¼ seam allowance, sew down each side. Leave the bottom open. Turn right sides out. Click on the photo for a closer look


Rip a piece of homespun for the scarf. Cut a small piece of Chenille to fit around the hat for the trim. Stain and stiffen the hat and scarf. I don’t stain or stiffen the hat trim. I stain and stiffen using a mixture of coffee, water and Elmer’s glue. You can find my recipe on this posted in a previous “how to” dated Oct 6th, How to stiffen prim fabric ties. Time to get the tags ready. Add the words with the ultra fine Sharpie. Antique the tag with Kiwi brown shoe paste or your favorite antiquing medium.

Pulling it all together. Hot glue the hat onto the head. Hot glue the Chenille trim around the hat. Fold the hat over and hot glue it down. Tie the rusty bell on the end of the hat with a piece of homespun. Tie the scarf around his neck and hot glue in place. Add the tag with a piece of rusty wire. Since the fabric is stiff, I use a large needle and pull it through first so the wire will go through easily. If you don’t have rusty wire, a small safety pin will work. Hot glue the snowflakes on. Attach a rusty wire hanger (or regular wire ornament hanger) to the top of the hat. Pull the large needle through the hat fabric first so it’s easier to get the rusty wire through Spray the piece with adhesive spray or matte acrylic sealer (gonna need some ventilation for this step), dust the snowman liberally with glamour dust. The top hats used for the Jack-o-lantern pokes will also fit these guys. You can find this how to in my blog archives dated October 11th.

OK, you are done. Isn’t he cute??? This is a copy righted pattern so please do not copy it to sell as your own pattern and please give credit where credit is due. Make as many of these as you want for yourself, for friends; sell them in your shop or online. I firmly believe that when we give something, something comes back in return. We can enjoy blessings when we freely give something so someone else can enjoy it. So enjoy making these guys, enjoy giving them as gifts and if you put them in your shop, I hope they do so well you won’t be able to keep up with the orders.

I found some plastic tree light ornaments at the Dollar tree and basically followed these same steps using them instead of the icicles.