Re-claimed Wood Snowman Decor

Hello. This is Diane here, I am a new member of the Creative Paperclay® design team. I couldn't be more excited!

My gosh, can you believe it's November already? That being said, I thought I'd better create a new bit of Christmas decor to add to my collection. I would like to invite all of you to add to your collection as well, and have an "Art Day" with me!

Soooo get out your package of Creative Paperclay® and LET'S HAVE SOME FUN!!!

My inspiration? I love old weathered wood, Creative Paperclay® and snowmen!

If you are a beginner, this is a fun project to give you a feel for this fabulous Modeling Material Creative Paperclay®.

 

Getting started, I rounded up my supplies. Much of these you probably already have.
1. Find an old weathered board. About 24" long 3"-4"  wide, or you can have your hubby/handyman cut you a piece of scrap wood from his shop.
2. Package of Creative Paperclay®
3. Craft paint
4. White glue (I used Elmer's)
5. Glitter (Martha Stewart, as shown in pic.)
6. Mod Podge Dimensional Glaze
7. Old buttons
8. Burlap
9. A couple of old paint brushes, sculpting tools and straight pin.
10. Jute or twine
11. Small dish of water
12. Two twigs for arms

Note: All of these items can be purchased at your favorite craft store. I purchase mine on-line
at Hobby Lobby. The link is HERE.

1. Let's begin by first taking your board and making sure it's clean from loose dirt and such.
Next you will roll out 5 balls of clay. The largest ball being about 2 1/2" round. Each ball after that, getting slightly smaller as shown in pic #1.

2. Next, wet the board with your fingers or brush about 3" from the bottom of the board. Carefully place the largest ball of clay onto the board pressing firmly in the center. Do not smash it to flat, as you want some dimension in the center, it will be your high point.

Note: If by chance your clay is not sticking, then your board needs to be wet down again. You can also smear a couple drops of white glue onto the board where the ball of clay will be placed.

3. Now you can press the outer edges of your clay onto the board, rounding it out to your desired shape. (re-apply water to the board if necessary)

4. With your brush, wet the entire ball and edges with water, use your brush or fingers to firmly press edges of ball into the wood. You want to have a GOOD SEAL of the clay to the wood. Then wet your fingers and smooth out the entire ball.

5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 again until you have all the balls of clay attached and sculpted onto the board.

6. Now you will take a sculpting tool with a ball on the end to make an eye sockets. (If you do not have this tool, you can a pencil, use water to wet the eraser.)

7. With your wet finger press in the middle, between the eyes and down just slightly. This adds depth to the snowman's face where his nose will go.

8. Roll out 2 small balls of clay, of equal size. Look to see where you want to place the cheeks, add a little water with your finger and place the small balls (cheeks) onto the snowman's face. Press lightly in the center, then with a flat edge of your sculpting tool seal the edges, feathering the clay outwards as in picture #8.
Using my favorite tool of all, take your needle or straight pin and give your little guy a mouth.
Experiment and work the clay. You can push the clay around and have tons of fun making his facial features.
Add a nose, using the same technique as you did for the cheeks.

9. Now with your wet finger you can smooth out the bumps, feathering marks and the edges where you sealed.

At this point, I go refill my cup of coffee while the clay dries a bit. 5 or 10 minutes should do the trick. With my straight pin I add little details. Such as eyebrows, squint lines at the edge of the eyes, dimples for character and last but not least little lines in the carrot nose.

BUTTONS! Decide how many and where you want to place them.

My little 4 year old helper stopped by just in time to place and push in the buttons. Once she pushed them in, I took them back out one at a time. With water, I moistened the imprint of where the buttons were, then I put a couple drops of white glue on the button and put it back into its imprint on the clay.

 

We are almost to the end of our sculpting adventure and the Snowman is coming to life.
He needs a whimsical stocking hat and a scarf, don't you think?

Rolling out a piece of clay into a rough triangle about a half inch thick, I gave the top 2 slits as seen in pic #10. Placing it on the wet board repeating the steps you previously learned to adhere the clay to the wood, giving it a good seal.

You can play with the hat to give the direction and flow you desire as in pic #11.

Next you are giving the snowman his scarf by rolling out the clay into snakes, as long as you want the scarf to be. Then cut off a piece and add for the brim of hat, cut another for around his neck, then the two ends of the scarf for draping down. Before you adhere the scarf to the snowman, add little branches for arms. Add white glue to the end of the branch before placing it into your clay, then seal the clay around the branch. Now you can seal the scarf to the snowman.

Your snowman is ready to dry.

Lightly sand your snowman when he is completely dry. Then paint in your desired colors. For this snowman I used FolkArt "Linen" for the base of the snowman and brim of hat. Diluted Folkart "Coffee Bean" for antiquing and shading. I used a white craft paint to lightly dry brushed highlights on the snowman. For the hat and scarf, I used Apple Barrel " Bahama Blue" and a light blue for the stripes.
When the snowman was done I gave him several coats of sealer.
Then for a dash of holiday sparkle... GLITTER!!! This is where the Mod Podge dimensional glaze comes in. With a brush, add glaze to areas you want glitter to stick, then sprinkle it on. When dry (10 minutes) blow excess glitter off.  If you click on the pic below, you can see the glitter.

To finish the Snowman I made him a rustic banner. I used burlap, twine and paint.
I cut 3 triangles on the fold of the burlap, then folded it over the twine and glued on each one. With bright red paint, I painted "JOY" onto the triangles. Lastly, I attached the banner to the twig arms.

We are done... Wahoooooo! We now have a new addition to our Christmas decor. :)
I hope this tutorial has been helpful and has inspired you to get your hands into Creative Paperclay®.

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask, just leave a comment or
you can also visit me at http://dianiemacdesigns.blogspot.com/.

Hope to see you all back in a few weeks with my Tip of the Month!
~Diane