Shake Up Some Frosty Snowmen by Betsy Skagen

Christmas is the perfect time for upcycling objects. Vintage salt shakers, sandbakel tins and wooden spools are ideal for creating adorable snowmen (and women!). Add in glittery snowflakes and things get really chill.

Sorry I am so flaky that I simply cannot resist a few snowmen puns. You will just have to roll with it.

Somerset Studio's 2017 salt shaker snowmen inspired me to create my version  of cute snowmen using many different vintage objects.

Tutorial: How to upcycle vintage items to make snowmen

First you will need lots of snowflakes. Use a utility knife to remove the snowflakes from the Snowflake Shapes Set Minis.

Paint both sides with white acrylic paint. Let dry.

When dry, cover with matte medium and sprinkle with extra-fine clear glitter. 

 Roll small balls of paper clay. Use a toothpick to poke a hole in the bottom and where the nose will go. Let dry for a day, two days --yikes! three days-- or be smart and place in a 200 degrees oven for about an hour until they are completely dry, light and airy.

Insert a toothpick into each base hole and place the other end of the toothpick into some styrofoam to keep the balls upright. Cover each ball with white acrylic paint and let dry.

Paint pointed toothpicks orange and cut into small carrot shapes. Dip the flat end of the carrot into strong adhesive and insert into the nose hole.

Next make cheeks with pink paint and eyes and mouths with a black pen. 

Paint your snowmen with matte medium and cover with clear extra-fine glitter. 

Now comes the fun part. Create hats and crowns with vintage sheet music, salt shaker tops, findings, glittery snowflakes, tinsel and bling. Adhere to snowmen with strong adhesive.

Insert wintery sprigs into the snowman base hole. Bend these around the back of the head and adhere with strong adhesive. 

The next set of directions are specific to making a salt shaker snowman. Adjust the project as needed, depending on what you are using for a base.

If your salt shaker is made from glass, place beads and glitter into it. Vintage mercury glass beads make these even more special.

Add strong adhesive to the salt shaker opening and glue a large snowflake to it, then glue the head in place. Wrap tinsel pipe cleaners around the neck of your vintage object to create arms.

 Add additional tinsel or ribbon to the neck and bend the arms so the snowmen can hold a snowflake, or vintage holiday embellishment.

Create extra special snowmen bling by adhering one of your snowflakes to a rhinstone buckle.

Then glue the snowflake embellishment to your snowman body.

I hope these ornaments made you melt just a little and you have ball making your own!
-Betsy

Great Stuff

Snowflake Shapes Set Minis
Paper clay
Acrylic paint
Black pen
Matte medium
Extra-fine clear glitter
Tinsel pipe cleaners
Toothpicks
Hot glue gun
Extra strong adhesive such as Lock-Tite
Vintage wooden spools
Vintage salt and pepper shakers
Sandbakel tins
Bottlebrush trees
Miniature tinsel
Vintage Christmas music
Vintage Christmas embellishments