Mini Tumbling Block Snowmen.

A lot of my Christmas craft so far this year seems to be quite  repetitive, today I bring you more tumbling block snowmen  …… my apologies.

This time these are really tiny, made using a pack of tumbling blocks from Maxi Save (£1.29 for a box of 35 blocks) so much cheaper than from eBay or craft shops etc. ……….. they aren't the best quality, a bit rough and ready, but this sort of worked well in giving some texture to the snowmen.

……… which I took advantage of painting, using a white Wilko’s matchpot while staying at Marc’s recently. 

When I got home all I had to do was add the scarves using 3mm red satin ribbon …....

…… which was really fiddly, using PVA glue was just too time consuming, so in the end I resorted to using tiny dabs using a glue gun for an almost instant fix.

The details were equally as tiny, cutting the noses from orange coloured card and using 2mm and 3mm black flat back gems for the face and buttons.  I have recently bought a set of 5 wax picker pencil tools (£1.99 eBay) which has made placing such tiny gems more precisely and easily. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/282070730666

All that was left to do was add a small gold screw eye hook and gold hanging thread. 

I am going to give the snowmen in sets of three as a fairing gift in place of a Christmas card.  I may get another box of the blocks as I have a couple more ideas, perhaps not for this year, but if they work, certainly for next Christmas.

Snowman Head Christmas Tree Baubles

It’s weird the things that come to you in the middle of the night necessitating that you get up and find the bits and pieces you were thinking of to “see” if your idea would work, because if you don’t, it’ll take forever to get back to sleep thinking about them.

This is sort of returning to something I made back in 2015 would you believe. http://itsallfiddlefart.blogspot.com/2015/12/fluffy-snowman-baubles.html.

…….. using small polystyrene Christmas tree baubles that I must have bought in a sale a while ago, so long ago that I simply can’t remember how much they were or where from, however I have 20 of the things and because I am mean they wouldn’t have cost an awful lot.

The tiny top hats came from Amazon last year, there were 50 in the box,  I can’t remember how much they cost, however they wouldn’t have been that much either.  I started by making a hole in the top of each hat with a nail and then screwed in a tiny, gold eye hook for the hanging thread.

I decorated each hat with a tiny punched sprig of holly (Hobbycraft £1) and three equally tiny, red pearl flat back gems.

I then removed all the caps from the original snowball decorations, putting them somewhere safe as I am sure I will find something to use them on one day ……..

……. and replaced them with the top hats, using  Docrafts Stick it! glue to fix them.  I’ve had this glue for years, but didn’t get on with it as it seemed so thick, but finally for this job it proved perfect as I needed a really good bond.

I’d bought some glue a while back which I thought was suitable for polystyrene ………..

……. it wasn’t!

While the hats were setting I busied myself by making a whole pile of snowman noses from orange Fimo.

I experimented and found the best way to fix the noses was to make a hole in the middle of the face with a rounded end of a small paint brush, fill the hole with Stick It! and push the nose in. It took a while to set, so I gave it a good 24 hours before adding the rest of the face.

I then experimented with my collection of black flat back gems to find the right combination of size to make the cutest face.  On the demo one (above, with no nose, the eyes and mouth were just a bit too big.  In the end I think the 3mm and 4mm work pretty well together.

I would have liked to have given them all a hint of pink on the cheeks, but I was a little too heavy handed on the demo one and my blusher was too orange. it didn’t look right.  

The last thing to be done was attach the gold thread to hang the snowmen by on the tree.

I’m really chuffed with these ……. especially as I’ve emptied another box in my craft drawers, but I dare say, if I found any similar baubles again in a sale I would be tempted to buy them again.

Wooden Snowman Gift Tag

As you know when ever I am out and about charity shop shopping I just can’t resist a children’s wooden domino because they are usually such a cheap way of obtaining good quality craft materials.  Plain wooden rectangle blanks are so expensive to buy, so a box of 25 for between 50p to £1.50 is always a no brainer.  I recently found a box of square dominoes with a green gingham backing can you believe,  again 50p.  The holy grail for me at the moment would be to find a game that uses wooden triangles ……… for Christmas trees. Any ideas?

Anyway, while sorting out my craft drawers I found this box of large dominoes, to be honest I have no recollection of where they came from at all, but they are quite a bit bigger than I ones I usually find at ……… and I immediately thought Snowman gift tags.

…….. using a craft stick as a brim for the snowmen's hats.

Then started the long process of painting the dominoes white, using a white Wilko match pot – it took three coats both sides, but fortunately the paint dries pretty fast.

I edged the craft sticks using a black Sharpie pen before gluing them onto the painted dominoes to make sure every part was coloured, I didn't want a thin strip of wood showing on the underneath of the hat, if you know what I mean.

The hats were all duly painted, this time with a two coats from a black match pot, followed by two coats of Wilko quick drying clear varnish for a really “professional” finish ………

A little time consuming, but while waiting for everything to dry I made and cooked the snowmen’s noses using orange Fimo.

When I was dry I was able to add confetti holly leaves and small red flat back gems to decorate the snowman’s hat.  I used E6000 glue, as I wasn’t sure how PVA would hold on the varnish.

Then came the fun part when the characters of each snowman begin to show themselves, using ?mm and ?mm black, flat back gems for the eyes and mouth and the Fimo noses.  Soooooo cute!

I forgot about the scarves, made using a saddle stitch grosgrain ribbon and stuck into place using glue gun glue.

The last thing to do then was add a hook eye screw at the top of the snowman’s hat for a gold hanging thread.

These turned out even better than they looked in my head .........

....... so I think I am going to make another batch to use up all the other dominoes in the box. 

I think I may have some even large dominoes somewhere too, so I might experiment with them while I am at it.

Tiny Die Cut Gingerbread House Christmas Tree Decorations Favours

Following on from yesterday I had another go with my little house die …….

…….. yesterdays houses were sweet but a little plain  …….. but these Gingerbread Houses are much more like it!

Again, no great shakes to them. I cut the houses out of a Kraft type card with some trepidation, as I wasn’t sure how it would stand up to the white Dovecrafts 3D Enamel Effects I used for the “icing”.  Nothing fancy, it didn’t take that long as, like yesterdays houses these are probably disposable, so no stressing about perfect lines or squiggles etc.

The card curled a little, but I have since ordered some “proper” brown card from eBay as I definitely know I want to make a few more.  But, oh my goodness the price of card, it’s been a couple of years since I last needed to order any, I can’t believe how the price has gone up!

I put two Elizabeth Shaw mints in each house before gluing the roofs with Pritt stick as it tends to stick and hold together pretty fast with the help of a small peg for a minute or two.

The final touch was adding a red, flat back, gem heart to the middle of the “enamelled” one on the front of the houses plus a gold hanging thread. 

I’m sooooooo chuffed with how these have turned out  …….

…….. I wonder if pastel coloured chalets with snowy roofs would work half as well ?

Christmas House Tree Decorations – Elizabeth Shaw Mint Favours

I very rarely buy cutting dies these days, but I am still a sucker for the odd box die and I fell for this one below.   (Photo not mine)

Found on eBay (China) I paid £3.40 for it (inc. P & P). It’s currently available for £4.19, but I think I may have made a cheeky offer for it, which was accepted. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353254753796.

I knew the die was going to be small, so didn’t have a clue what I was going to do with it, until it arrived a couple of weeks later………

…….. to find that it was perfect to hold just two Elizabeth Shaw mints, which I had already bought in bulk a little while ago when they were on offer, using them was a no brainer.

To be honest there really isn’t an awful lot to them ……..I simply cut the shapes using white glitter card, not the best choice, as it was quite tough to cut and then push all the tiny bits out of, aghhhhh and then it’s not the most brilliant card to glue using a glue gun, so if I make any more, I might just use a plain card to cut out all the extra faff.

After everything was glued together I decided to add an iridescent flat back star to give extra twinkle, with a gold thread to hang the house on the tree…. done and dusted.  Without the tag/thread the houses could also be used as table place setting perhaps?

I think there are all manner of variations I could make using this die, I am already thinking gingerbread houses ……… these white glitter houses are a bit plain, however, since they will be ripped apart in order to get the contents out, I don’t really want to invest that much time in them, if you know what I mean?