I have a small collection of snowmen figurines. I like the vintage folk art style and although I haven't found an authentic old one that I could afford, I do have some reproductions.
When I was making some little Peat Pot Turkeys, I decided to make some little folk art snowmen too!
Fun fact: right now I am actually in Utah (this post was scheduled for today so that you won't miss me too much 😂). I am attempting to learn to snowboard 😨😬😨 wish me luck!! I'll let you know how it went as soon as I get back but I may end up making real snowmen while my boyfriend gets his snowboarding time in!!
Peat Pot Snowmen Treat Containers
😂 Don't you love their toothy grins?!
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You'll need some small peat pots, these are 2 inches but you can definitely use larger if you'd like.
Let's start by making noses. You'll need some orange polymer clay.
Roll a ball about 3/4" in diameter (larger if you are using a larger peat pot), then roll it on the table to form a cone shape.
Push down gently to flatten it against the table (this is so there is a flat surface to glue it to the peat pot), then push on the small end with your finger to bend it into the shape you like (you can leave it straight if you prefer).
Use the edge of a knife or a toothpick to score some lines (like a carrot would have) into the nose.
Test fit onto the peat pot to get the proper curve.
Bake according to the package directions.
Next, let's paint the pots. To begin, paint the peat pots white (it's a sloppy paint job, don't even worry about full coverage), then draw on a face (make sure you hold the nose up there so the rest of the face fits nicely around the nose).
Paint the mouth black, outline the eyes in black, add a blue dot in the eyes with the end of a paintbrush, and once that's dry, add a smaller dot of black inside the blue dot).
The MOST IMPORTANT part is don't strive for perfection here... these are folk art which means a little primitive and not perfect in nature!! Actually, a portion of the Dictionary.com definition of folk art is that it is produced, "by untrained often anonymous artists or by artisans of varying degrees of skill."
Next, paint over the black mouth with white, leaving a small bit of black as an outline, then add in the teeth with a skinny paintbrush and black paint. Curve the lines at the tops and the bottoms of the teeth to make them more natural-looking. Add eyebrows with black paint, and add two tiny highlight dots of white inside the black pupil of the eyes.
Once that is dry, add cheeks with decorative chalk and a Q-tip (alternatively you can use real blush), then add the nose with hot glue!
You can see I forgot to add the cheeks before gluing on the nose so I had to go around that when adding the cheeks.
Finally... a handle! Use a piece of wire a little longer than you want the finished handle.
Twist the center around a pencil.
Poke a hole on either side of the peat pot and thread in the wire ends, twist the ends around a pencil (be careful with this step, the wire is strong and the peat pots are slightly delicate and rip easily. You could opt for a pipe cleaner handle if you'd like.)
Add some crinkle cut basket shred and they are ready to hold some Christmas candy or use as ornaments!