Hi Everyone! If you’re following the Homemade Ornament Blog Hop and visiting for the first time, welcome to Clever Little Mouse. I’m excited to be sharing my ornament tutorial with you, and hope you’ll spend a little time looking around. There are lots of fun projects to explore.
These sweet little snow-people were inspired by leftover craft supplies. Don’t you love those kinds of projects? I found everything I used to make these in my stash.
Materials:
- Two 2-1/2″ styrofoam balls
- White cotton fabric – one fat quarter is more than enough for two ornaments
- One sheet of black felt
- One sheet or red felt
- Ribbon and rickrack to trim the hats
- (Optional) Small black buttons for the face
Other supplies: straight pins, hand sewing needle, thread to match the black and red felt, a hot glue gun, and small items to decorate the hats. I used buttons but scrapbook stickers, small fake flowers or any other lightweight decorations will work.
Cut 1/2″ strips from the white fabric. If you’re using a fat quarter, you’ll need 4-5 strips per ornament. I found it worked best when I cut them on the bias. That little bit of stretch helped the strips lay flat.
Pin one strip to a styrofoam ball and begin wrapping, pinning on a new strip when you run out of fabric. I tried to keep all my pins and loose ends in one spot, and then covered that up with the hats when I put everything together. When the balls are completely wrapped, they should look like this:
For the snowman’s top hat, measure around the ball where you want the hat to sit and cut a strip of felt 1-1/2″ tall and as long as the circumference of the ball. Sew the two short ends together to form a ring.
Cut two circles of felt, one to fit inside the felt ring to form the top of the hat, and one in a doughnut shape for the hat brim. The felt ring needs to fit just inside the inner circle. Hand sew the pieces together.
Decorate the hat with ribbon and trim.
To add the hanger, cut a tiny slit in the center top of the hat and feed a piece of ribbon through. Pin the ribbon to the top of the styrofoam ball, then slide the hat into place. This will keep the hanger from pulling the hat to a point.
If your hat is a little floppy, tuck some tissue paper or polyfil inside it to help it keep its shape. Run a bead of hot glue around the inside of the hat and glue it into place.
Glue on buttons or felt circles to create the face. Tip: I marked the placement for my felt circles with a pencil, then added a little dot of hot glue to each dot and placed the felt circles with tweezers. No bits of felt glued to my fingers! :o)
For the snow lady’s hat, cut the brim of the hat in a donut shape with the inner circle just slightly bigger than the circumference of the wrapped ball. Cut a larger circle for the top of the hat and run a gathering thread all the way around it. Pull the circle in to fit inside the brim of the hat and stitch in place. Decorate as desired.
Attach the hanger to the wrapped ball through the top of the hat, the same way you did for the top hat, and add a bit of stuffing to help it keep its shape. Glue down the hat and add buttons or bits of felt for the face.
Done! Aren’t they cute?
Be sure to visit all of the blogs in the Blog Hop for more ornament ideas:
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