A Pop Bottle Snowman Made With Felt

Children love making crafts with grown-ups.

So many of today's craft ideas involve reusing empty containers and other seemingly-useless items slated for the recycling bin. With glue gun supervision, even elementary school children can turn a plastic pop bottle and some felt into a delightful snowman. Your child will be proud to show visiting relatives his contribution to the family's holiday decorations.

Things You'll Need

• 2-liter plastic pop bottle with label removed
• Permanent marker
• Serrated knife
• Fine-grit sandpaper
• Small disposable plastic cup
• 4 sheets of white felt cut into irregular 1--2 inch pieces
• 1 sheet each of black, green and red felt
• One sheet of black craft foam
• White chalk
• Plastic googly eyes
• White craft glue
• Hot glue gun
• Hot glue sticks
• Scissors
• A few handfuls of small stones or pebbles

Instructions

The Snowman

1. With the marker, draw a circle evenly around the spout of the bottle, as close as you can to the point at which it flares downward.

2. Cut along your circle with the serrated knife so that the bottle no longer has a top. Discard the top as you will no longer need it.

3. Sand the entire bottle with fine-grit sandpaper to make its surface better able to accept an adhesive.

4. Drop the stones or pebbles into the bottle. Because of the amount of craft materials that you will glue to the bottle, it needs to be weighted down. If stones are not available, sand will suffice.

5. 

   Snowmen make great Christmas decorations!

   Spread craft glue evenly over about one-quarter of the bottle and glue the pieces of white felt to it, layering them so that no plastic is visible. Repeat this process until the entire bottle is covered with irregular pieces of white felt.

6. Load and plug in your glue gun. You will need hot glue as you work on the snowman's accessories.

The Snowman's Hat

1. With white chalk, trace the wider part of the plastic cup onto a piece of black foam. Using your chalk line as a guide, cut a circle about one inch bigger than the size of the cup's rim. You do not need a chalk line with this cut as it does not need to be exact.

2. Cut along the chalk line so that you have a piece of foam resembling the letter "o".

3. 

   The hat makes the snowman!

   Turn the cup upside down and slide the piece of foam over the bottom until it rests on the cup's rim. Fasten the foam to the cup lightly with a few dabs of hot glue.

4. Cover the sides and top of the disposable plastic cup with black felt, using craft glue as the adhesive. Use irregular shapes as you did with the white felt on your snowman's body. The shapes should be smaller to make the task easier for young crafters.

5. Place the top hat on top of the bottle where the spout used to be and fasten it with a bead of hot glue.

The Snowman's Face and Accessories

1. Use hot glue to attach two googly eyes to your snowman. Cut out a red felt mouth in any shape you choose and affix it with hot glue.

2. Cut two half-inch strips of green felt and lay them end-to-end. Overlap the ends and hot glue the strips together, making one long piece. This is the snowman's scarf. You may fringe the ends for a nice touch.

3. When the scarf cools, hot glue the scarf around the snowman where you feel his neck should be. Cross one side over the other and tack with a drop of hot glue. Add a festive touch by fashioning a button or bow from red felt and gluing it on as a decorative clasp.

4. Cut three small black circles out of felt and glue them to your snow man's belly for buttons.

Tips & Warnings

• Feel free to experiment by adding more felt or foam accessories and facial features to your snowman. You may also attach small twigs as arms or fashion a pipe. Orange felt or construction paper can be cut to make a carrot-like nose.

• Glue guns are very hot and should not be used by younger crafters.

References

• Plastic Pop Bottle Snowmen
• Recycling Crafts And Projects
• How To Reuse Plastic Pop Bottles With Crafts