Day 9: TP Roll Snowmen Ornaments!

Because I do a lot of projects with my kids, I save everything, you never know when you'll have to make a spy glass out of a toilet paper roll, or when you'll need a paper towel roll train whistle, or when you'll need plastic bottles or egg cartons. I decided that my stockpile was getting pretty high so I decided to do something with all of the toilet paper rolls! *This project requires a lot of prep and some wait time while the paint dries.

What You'll Need:
Toilet paper or paper towel rolls
Plain white paper
Glue gun
Sticks
Felt
Scissors
Tape
Markers
Hole punching tool, I used a screwdriver
Twine
Egg Cartons
Paint
Sticks

Step One:
Lay out your rolls and determine their size. Mark it on a piece of plain white paper.

 Then, cut the paper based on the size of your rolls. Most of mine were the same size and the length of the normal 8.5x11 piece of white paper was long enough to wrap the whole roll. Make sure you tape one end of the paper to the roll as you wrap the paper. Once the roll is covered, tape the paper so it won't come undone.

Step Two: 

When all of your rolls are covered, go ahead and draw on a snowman face. You could draw the face, or your kids could. It doesn't matter as long as they get a face! 

Step Three:

Once you've drawn their faces, you can decide where their arms need to go. Use your screwdriver, or other sharp poking object to make a cut for their arms. 

Step Four:

Add stick arms! I used some from our Thankful Tree project, but this time of year it should be easy to find a few twigs. Slide the stick through the holes on both sides of the snowman's body. 

Step Five:

You are ALMOST Done, aren't they adorable? Now, I think they need hats! So, take your egg carton and cut out the individual egg compartment. These will make up their hats. 

Step Six:

Because we are making ornaments, You'll need to poke a hole in the top of the egg carton hat. 

Step Seven: 

My kids took a nap, so I did more prepping for the rest of the project without them. While they slept, I cut out felt scarves and mittens. I also cut out a small square of each color mitten, for each mitten so the mitten could be glued to the stick, and actually hold. In the picture, you see black square buttons too, my kids decided not to use them, so we used them for another project, you'll see later :) 

Step Eight:

Have your kids paint the hats for their snowmen! I only gave them a choice of one color so I could tell which kid made each ornament, but it's up to you! 

Step Nine: 

While the paint was drying, I had the boys glue on the scarves and mittens! I held the glue gun as they wrapped the felt around the snowman's neck and placed the mittens on their hands. 

 To do the mittens, you'll want to put the glue, just a small line, on the mitten itself. Then, place the stick in the glue. While the glue is still hot, you should place one of those square pieces of felt to the back of the stick for an extra hold.

 See?

Once they all have scarves and mittens, let them sit while the glue dries. It won't be long. 

Step Ten:

Once the snowmen are dry, and so are the hats, you're ready to assemble the hat to the snowman and turn these cuties into an ornament! It took a few hours for my hats to dry, so we did this phase in the morning With better planning though, you should be able to get these dry quicker. I was just making it up as I went along. 

Here is what you need for this part: Glue gun, hats, twine and your poking tool. The paint could have covered up some of the holes. 

Now you're ready. So, take your twine, and knot it so it makes a loop. Then shove the twine through the hole so that the knot stays inside the hat and can't be pulled through. You could even add a little hot glue to the inside of the hat if your knot isn't quite big enough. The glue will hold it in place. 

 

Step Eleven:

Add hot glue to the inside of the hat and place it on the snowman's head. You may want to see where the hat falls on your snowman before doing this. And after I placed the hat on it's head, I went around and sealed the hat with the hot glue gun. 

And now, once you've done that for each snowman, you're done! Didn't they turn out perfectly! I can't think of a grandparent or Aunt who wouldn't want these little guys on their trees!