Wednesday 24 September 2014

Tea Light Snowmen

This idea has been around for a while now, I believe it originated from a Stampin’Up project, but somehow over the years I’d missed it …… until now. I first found it here:- http://inkingidaho.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/snowman-tea-lights.html, but just Google “tea light snowman” and a whole plethora of snowmen turn up!
Tealight snowmen...So …… what you need to get started is a pack of battery tea lights from any Poundshop, they usually come in sets of four.
Because I didn’t have any of the punches used for the original snowmen I took the basic idea and changed it to suit the materials I did have, deciding not to use a scalloped circle on the back or the plain circle for the face which went over the front of the tea light. 
Tealight snowman .It took me quite while to work out a basic set of templates for the hat, but got there in the end …… and once I got that right, decided to go the whole hog and added confetti holly and flat backed pearl berries!
Tealight snowman. facesThe face was easy, as I had just bought a couple of packets of black flat backed pearls for my  gingerbread men from http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Lardysticks-Larder?_trksid=p2047675.l2563 – size 4mm for the mouth and 5mm for the eyes. I glued the gems straight onto the tea light with a woodwork PVA.
tealight snowmantealight snowman. 
The scarf is made from a 23cm length of ribbon. I used a blob of glue gun glue on the top of the snowman's head to keep it in place while I tied the knot and then trimmed the ribbon with pinking shears when I was happy with said knot .
Once I had the first snowman under my belt (above) I could then decide on a colour theme based on the ribbons and Bazzill card I had already got.  I embossed the hat card for extra texture using an old fashioned ribber ….. something crafters used to use before there were embossing folders!
Craft Ribber. Blast from the pastI could have added a magnet to the back of my snowmen to make them fridge magnets but in the end I decided to stick a pendant loop on the back of the bobble so that the snowman could be hung.  I have visions of one hanging in the front window of a car.
tealight snowman. hangerAnyway, that’s my take on a very popular idea ….. as I said at the beginning, just Google the idea to see the different variations.
Hanging Tealight snowmanI was thinking, wouldn’t they look lovely in the gaps between Christmas bunting hung by a small peg or what about on a wreath??????