Jar Snowmen

I originally used these jars for a Halloween craft. It was cotton balls with a variety of different colored spiders I used LED candles to light them up before Halloween. Halloween night(which actually was the night of Trick-or-Treating in my town) I took out the LEDs and put in red and neon green glow sticks, all of which came out the next day. The only other alteration was taking out the spiders.This was a very simple project once I got the hang of making the hats. Instead of putting them outside like I did with the Halloween version, these will just go on my window sills. I haven't put lights in them yet, but I am still considering it.

Things I used

Mason Jars

Cotton Balls

Scissors

Clear tape

Construction Paper-black, green, red, and orange

Card Stock-templates

Ruler and Pencil

After I emptied the jars and got the spiders out, I put the cotton balls back in(1st picture). I measured the circumference of the opening of the jar with string(2nd picture) and used that with my ruler to measure out the piece that makes the body of the hat and then used my ruler again to make the body of the hat 3 inches tall. You can make yours whatever height fits the size of your jar. I turned my jar upside down and traced around it to get the top piece of the hat(3rd picture). I found a large coffee mug to trace for my brim(3rd picture). Of course you can use any circular object to make the larger circle. The mug just happened to be the first thing I found that was a perfect circle and almost double the circumference of the top part. I made my template on card stock because it was thick and easier to trace around than normal paper. Once I had them drawn up, I cut them out(fourth picture). I used black, green, and red construction paper to make the hats(7th picture). Card stock works just as well, but unfortunately my red was on the pinker side. I opted for the nice red of the construction paper. I put the smaller circle in the center of the larger one and then cut out the small circle to make the template for the brim of the hat(5th and 6th pictures). You can of course use colors of your own choosing, but if you make black hats save the scraps to make the eyes, mouth, and buttons because you won't need very much of the black for the faces. I made six jars and still had black construction paper scraps.

The brim part should fit nicely around the top of the jar if you traced the opening. You will have to finagle it a little to get it over the glass threading. It should rest on top of the last bump before the body of the jar begins(1st picture). Next you will wrap the piece that is the body of the hat around, making sure it is snug, but also removable. Tape the seam(2nd picture). Take the top piece and put four pieces of tape on it so that when it is set on top of the body piece it won't fall in(3rd picture). Fold the pieces of tape down. If need be, you can pull the body piece off once they are stuck together. That way you can press both sides of the construction paper to make sure the tape is stuck securely(4th and 5th pictures. Different angles to give full view). You can leave it off until the face is done or put it back on. I did it both ways and it is easy regardless of how you do it.Unfortunately the tape seems to show most on the black construction paper, but that made it easier to see for showing this step.

There was raised lettering on one side of my jar. I put the face on the opposite side of the jar. The shape of the eyes, mouth and buttons isn't important. The only thing I made sure of was to make the mouth pieces smaller than the eyes or the buttons. The eyes and the buttons ended up being roughly the same size. I used the scraps from the black hats to make them. I didn't do them individually. i put two small scraps together, one on top of the other, and cut them down. They were somewhat the same shape, but i didn't put them on symmetrically because no snowman has perfectly matched features. I did the same with the mouth and the buttons. Of course you can cut them down to your preferences. I used orange, of course, to cut triangles for the nose. I set the jars in my lap to keep them from rolling and laid out the faces. I taped them on, rather than gluing because I want to be able to switch them back to Halloween decorations next year. I left the point of the nose loose and only taped the short side of the triangle to the jar to give it a more realistic 3D look. Once again, that is up to you and your preferences. Once the face pieces are secured to the jar, if you kept the hat body and top off, put them on. Your snowman is finished. :) You can use these to decorate as I intend to do or give them as a Christmas gift. I love doing homemade presents for my friends and family.