8 Foot LED Snowman

I think everyone needs an eight foot light up snowman in their yard. I prefer to make my own decorations(Grinch,MegaTree,MiniTree,Arches,Frames,Roofline,NorthPole) and since the wife has given up complaining about all the lights. Here is how I made this little guy.

To make this snowman you will need;

2 - 4'x8' coroplast sheets.

3 - 16' RGB strips with power and extra connectors.

Paint - Black,Red,Brown,Orange

Black Sharpie

Hot Glue sticks

20 - 11" zipties

1 - 10'x1/2" pvc pipe

Tools

Jigsaw, box cutter, Hot Glue gun, pencil, Giant compass or other circle drawing tool, Tape measure

Begin by laying out a coroplast sheet on the floor and sketch your snowman. I used the included image found online as a rough guide. Find the center of the bottom half of the board with a tape measure. Then use the compass to make a large circle that almost reaches the edges. Subtract about a foot for the middle circle and another for the head. I hope you read through these instructions before drawing, because those circles don't leave enough room for the hat. Erase all those lines and make the circles a bit smaller and over lap at the middle and head. The arms are about 2" wide but you can make them any size/shape you want. I would recommend leaving extra material for the arm to make is stronger.

Now cut out the snowman shape using a jigsaw and sand the rough edges as needed. Use the first piece as a guide to cut out the second.

Next, cut a bunch of 3" x (as long as you can) strips from the coroplast leftovers. Cut them as straight as possible because these will be used for the side walls of the snowman.

After you get both sheets cut out and a bunch of 3" strips. Start test fitting the slices along the edge of the snowman. You will need to slice the strips vertically to allow them to bend where needed. Be careful with that knife.... The elbows need a lot of close slices to make the curve, but I found the long curves of the body didn't need any.

Using the hot glue gun, secure the pieces you cut/sliced all the way around the snowman. Here is a video of similar process.

Time to paint.

Lightly pencil sketch the arms, hat, scarf, buttons and nose. I used some scrap paper to cut out templates for the coal buttons, eyes and carrot nose to get the right size/location and then traced them on.

Paint them any color you want, but don't go to heavy or it will not light up very well. I painted the sides of the arms, hat and scarf but I don't think it makes much difference.

To make this snowman glow. I used two strips of RGB LED's with a third strip cut in half and connected to the ends of each strip. There are different kinds of RGB strips you can buy and there are power considerations when dealing with them. Look online for instructions on how to install and work with your lights.

Roll out your light strips to see how they will fit and place the top board on to check for good light coverage. I felt that running a strip along the side walls gave good light diffusion. This was also easier to do because the strips can bend but not turn. In places that you need to make a turn, LED jumper wires are very ease to work with. Simply cut the strip at the cut marks and connect them together with jumper to jumper wires.

Peel the paper backing off your strips, stick them down and you are almost done.

Before you put the top on. Drill and screw a piece of pvc or wood along the back for mounting and support.

Finish by connecting the top to the base. I chose to install about 20 11" zip ties around the outside. I was going to hot glue it on. But if I had to open it up again clipping a few zip ties seemed a better option.

Now stand it up, step back and hit the lights.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

p.s. Feel free to vote for this instructable in the Make it Glow contest..