Feeling Frosty: Wooden Snowman Tutorial

Who loves snowmen in their winter decor? In this tutorial, I took a Target find and made a sweet piece to enjoy all winter long. You can find the video tutorial here, or continue reading for all the details.

SUPPLIES:

Unfinished Wooden Snowman (Target)

Unfinished Round Wooden Plaque, 4″ (Hobby Lobby)

Cottage White Folk Art Chalk Paint (Hobby Lobby)

Rich Black Folk Art Chalk Paint (Hobby Lobby)

Terra Cotta Anita’s All Purpose Acrylic (Hobby Lobby) – Note: Different paint pictured above

Black Posca Paint Pen (Amazon)

Clickable Alphabet Stamps (Michaels)

Vintage Photo Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Michaels)

Noir Black Palette Ink (Hobby Lobby)

Spanish Moss (Michaels)

White Bowl Filler (Hobby Lobby)

Small Garden Wood Label (Target)

Glitter Mod Pogde (Michaels)

Matte Mod Podge (Michaels)

Snow Titanium White DecoArt Acrylic Paint (Michaels)

Baking Soda

HOW-TO:

I began by painting the body and head of the wooden snowman with two coats of the Cottage White chalk paint. I then gave the round plaque two coats of the same paint. I left the middle of the plaque and bottom of the snowman unpainted. I added some distressing to the wood plaque by adding some Vintage Photo ink to the edges. Using a distress ink pad, I lightly rubbed the edges of the round plaque. I wiped excess ink with a damp paper towel to achieve a distressed look.

I painted the snowman’s hat with the Rich Black chalk paint, being careful not to get black on the white face. Using the Terra Cotta acrylic paint and a small brush, I painted a carrot nose onto the face.

With a black Posca paint pen, I added dots as eyes and a dotted mouth onto the face. I lightly sprayed water onto one end of a cotton swab and used that to add blush to the snowman’s cheeks. I blended the blush with the dry end of the cotton swab to get a soft pink hue. In hindsight, I should have added the cheeks before I painted on the carrot nose. It may have been easier to add the cheeks first. I finished the face by adding smaller white dots to the black eyes. I dipped an embossing tool into white paint, then dotted the tool onto the eyes.

Since I left the bottom of the snowman and the middle of the round plaque unpainted, I was able to use wood glue and a small amount of hot glue to adhere the two pieces. Wood glue works best on raw wood and provides long-term adhesion. The hot glue provided quick bonding that allowed me to keep working on the snowman. Alternatively, I could have skipped the hot glue and allowed the wood glue to dry for a few hours or overnight.

Using a small garden label, I made a sign for the snowman. I cut down the label for the best fit. Then I stamped “feeling frosty” onto the label using clickable stamps. I lightly sanded the words to make it look old and slightly distressed. I glued Spanish moss around the base of the snowman. I glued the stamped sign onto the snowman and moss with hot glue. Using some fabric, I added a scarf to the snowman’s neck. Finally, I added “snow balls” around the moss. The snow balls were white foam balls from a bowl filler package found in the Hobby Lobby Christmas section.

To embellish the top hat, I added a small piece of cedar and a mini pine cone using hot glue. This DIY could have been finished at this point. I went a step further to make it extra special.

I made up puffy snow by mixing baking soda, white acrylic paint, and Mod Podge in equal parts. Using a palette knife, I dabbed the puffy snow onto parts of the snowman where snow would naturally fall. With a hair dryer on the low heat setting, I carefully blew on the faux snow. The baking soda in the mixture plus the warm air caused the snow to slightly puff up. The final step was to carefully paint Glitter Mod Podge onto the puffy snow.