Crafts & How Tos,  DIY Crafts

Snowmen family made from empty toilet paper and paper towel rolls

snowmen Final

This year I am on a budget for the holidays, so I had to get creative. I decided to make these primitive looking snowmen made from empty toilet paper and paper towel rolls, and they turned out adorable! These would make a perfect gift for a neighbor, teacher, friend, anybody really. I am going to walk you through the step by step process to making these cute little snowmen families.

What you will need:

* a few tsp. of Instant coffee granules

* bowl

* old socks

* scissors

* hot glue gun & glue sticks

* whole cloves

* whole peppercorns

* buttons

* material for hats and scarfs

* empty toilet paper roll

* empty paper towel roll

* few pieces of twine

* blush

* Q-tips

Step 1.

First find 3 pairs of socks (if you are anything like me, you have plenty in your stash of mix matched socks that you can’t bring yourself to throw away). Make sure the ridged part of the sock is long enough to cover the tp and pt rolls. After you are sure they are long enough snip them to fit the rolls. After they have been snipped put them in a bowl and fill it with water, add about 2 to 3 tsp of instant coffee granules and swoosh the socks around in it till the water turns the to coffee, soak socks for a few hours. Once they are done soaking ring them out and hang them to dry.

 

snowman 6

 

Step 2.

Once the socks are dry slip them over the empty rolls. For the family you will need one toilet paper roll and 1 paper towel roll, leave the toilet paper roll as is but cut the paper towel roll in half but so that one half is slightly bigger than the other (the taller one will be the dad, and the shorter one will be the mom). Take any excess sock that is hanging up over the ridge of the roll and  glue it to the inside of the roll.

snowman 7

 

Step 3.

Now it’s time for the fun part, the decorating! to make the scarf cut a small slit into the fabric you decide to use then rip it (this will fray the sides of the scarf) You want the scarf long enough to wrap around the roll twice and still have enough material left over to let it hang.

snowman 3

snowman 5

 

 

snowman

 

Step 4.

Once the scarf is on, it’s time for the hat. To do this cut a square out of your material, make sure the square is big enough that it will wrap the whole way around the roll, and is long enough for a little to stick up after the twine is tied around it. Secure the hat with hot glue gun. Then tie a piece of twine around the base of the hat. Leave about 1 inch of material sticking up, you may have to trim it some if its too long. A second way to do the hats is to use the sock. to do this leave an extra 2 inches of sock and then tie with twine instead of gluing the sock like in step 2.

snowman 4

snowman8

 

Step 5

once the hat and scarf are on, glue on the eye’s and buttons. I used peppercorns for the eye’s; and cloves and buttons for the snowmen’s buttons. I also took a Q-tip and dipped it into my blush and applied it to the snowmen to give them  rosey red cheeks.

snowman 2

snowman 9

These are so fun to make! You can make just one or make a family like I did. Be sure to give each snowman their own personality. I just used what I had around the house; 2 of the scarves were old tea towels that I coffee dyed like in step 1. Whole cloves make for great buttons and whole peppercorns are awesome for the eyes, they are also cheap! I pick them up at discount stores, I buy one tub for crafting and one for cooking. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and if you have any questions please feel free to ask! =)

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