Monday, November 30, 2009

25 Ornaments- Day 1

For my first craft, I looked around online for an easy ornament craft. The one I found was just darling- a stuffed triangle snowman, without sewing! With the first go around, I followed most of the instructions, but I think if I were to make another, I would use my sewing machine instead of a glue gun.


No-Sew Triangle Snowman


You'll Need:

  • 1 sheet white felt
  • Cotton batting
  • Hot glue gun
  • 2” x 4” piece of scrap felt
  • 1” x 10” piece of scrap felt
  • A scrap of yarn
  • Ribbon scrap
  • 2 buttons
  • Black and orange acrylic paint
  • Scissors
  • Pattern
  1. Print the pattern, or if you feel confidant, cut a diamond shape from felt. With the pattern supplied, 1 sheet of felt will only make 2 snowman. These are pretty big snowmen, though, so I think you could easily go smaller. 
  2. Plug in the hot glue gun to start warming up.
  3. Pin the pattern to the felt, and cut out the diamond shape.
  4. Cut out a long strip of felt in 1 color for the scarf. Fringe both ends.
  5. Cut a rectangle of felt in the same color or another color for the hat. Fringe one of the long sides.
  6. Once the glue gun is warm, glue up the sides of the diamond, and fold together, leaving the pointed end open to stuff. The original instructions say to turn the triangle inside out, but I did not do this, I just left if the way it was.
  7. Stuff the triangle, and glue the top seam together.
  8. Using the head of a pin, dip it in black paint, and make two eyes near the top of the triangle. Below that, use a new pin head to dip into orange paint and make a carrot nose. You could use black for a "coal" nose instead. Let dry.
  9. Take the rectangle piece, and fold the un-fringed side to glue, so the hat has a folded edge similar to a stocking hat. Once it's glued, fold the hat together, and glue the seam together. Use the piece of yarn to tie the top of the hat just below the fringe, to create a fringed puff on top.
  10. If the face is dry, slip the hat on the head, and glue it into place.
  11. Wrap the scarf around the neck of the snowman, and glue it into place.
  12. Arrange the buttons, and glue them into place on the front of the snowman.
  13. Lastly, make a loop from the scrap of ribbon, and glue it to the back of the snowman's head, to hang the ornament from.



End thoughts-


While this was certainly an easy ornament to make, the hot glue means it isn't necessarily a kid friendly craft, at least not for young kids. Aside from that, hot glue on felt, with batting makes a gooey mess of fluff.
 

I would sew this in the future myself, replacing the hot glued seams with sewn seams. However, for the sewing challenged, it is still very doable without a needle and thread.

DIY Day @ ASPTL

8 comments:

niiskadat said...

These turn out just lovely!, I found that if you let the glue set/ cool some before you stuff that you can avoid the gooey mess, for the most part! My son had fun picking out buttons and w/ help, he used the glue gun! thanks for fun!, we look forward to tomorrow's ornament!

Anonymous said...

This is very CUTE!
My mom is gonna love trying this!

Expressions by Heather said...

Thank you both! I just got done making & photographing day 2- a craft that even the craft challenged can make. No sewing, no gluing, just clipping it together. :)

Anonymous said...

COOL!! I can't wait!!

hjn said...

So adorable!! I love handmade Christmas decorations!

Amanda said...

How fun. I found your blog via Today's Creative Blog. I immediately recognized the snowman ornament in your header as I am the one that created that for Kaboose (I'm Amanda Formaro) :) I always LOVE finding where people have tried my creation, it's such fun! I don't receive any emails from Kaboose as I am a freelancer, so I'm not normally notified of comments or anything emailed to them, so finding them on a blog such as yours is always a blast! :)

Expressions by Heather said...

Oh, how fun Amanda! That's really cool! I like how cute this little guy is :)

Amanda said...

Thanks Heather! I make a LOT of crafts for Kaboose, on average, 15 per month. Have been for 4 years now. Some of them I just love and wish I could post them on my blog, but I can't LOL