Crafts DIY

How to Make Wooden Snowmen

Make this adorable DIY as décor for your home or a gift!  These wooden snowmen are easy to make and the perfect craft for a wintery day.

How to Make Wooden Snowmen 

I’ve linked a lot of the materials below to products on Amazon, in case you don’t have the materials on hand or are quarantining and don’t want to leave your house to buy them.  These are just suggestions of materials I thought would work or thought were cute!  We do earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you, if you purchase any of the items from the links below.

  • Piece(s) of wood | The size and shape, is completely up to you.  You can use some scraps you have lying around or you can grab some crafting wood at the craft store. Or you can even go into Home Depot and take the end-cuts of lumber for free!  Ask an employee and they can show you where to grab the free scraps.  Katie and I have taken free scraps for other projects before.  If you are looking for wood around your house, you could even use a grilling plank!
  • A sock OR fabric scraps The sock will be used for the snowman’s hat and potentially his scarf.  I dug through my bin of socks that are missing their partners and found one that I liked the color of.  For the second snowman I made, I used a scrap of fabric to make the hat. 
  • Ribbon | You can use ribbon as the snowman’s scarf or to decorate further with
  • Buttons | You will want tiny black buttons for eyes and larger buttons for the buttons on the front of the snowman. This set from Amazon even comes with super cute carrot noses! Snowmen Button Set 
  • White Paint 
  •  Paintbrush
  • Sandpaper 
  •  Black Paint Pen | You can use a Sharpie for if you don’t have paint pens.  Or you can order yourself a set of paint pens. I use my set all the time for all sorts of things! Paint Pens 
  • Wood Glue or Tacky Glue

Let’s get into crafting our wooden snowmen!

Step 1: Gather your materials for your wooden snowmen 

These are listed above, but get them in one place so you can get your craft on uninterrupted by the distraction of hunting for the glue, ya know?  Nothing is worse than needing to go find that one material when you just want to do the fun stuff.  All your materials to make your wooden snowmen are listed above!

Step 2:  Paint your wooden snowmen white  

Grab your paintbrush and squirt white paint directly onto the wood.  It only takes a minute to cover all the sides quickly.  You don’t even need to cover the back if you don’t feel like it, because the backside will be covered when on display. 

When I was making these snowmen, I wanted a weathered or distressed look on the paint, so I only did one coat of paint that I would later rough up with sandpaper.  You could also paint multiple layers to get a bright white effect.  This is entirely up to your taste and what you like!

My fire was burning to keep my house warm, so I plopped my wet-paint covered wood by the fire and it dried in a few quick minutes.  You will need the wood to dry completely before moving on to the next steps.

Step 3: Sand & distress your wooden snowmen  

This step is again, totally optional and up to your personal taste on how you want your snowman to look.  Like I said above, I wanted a more weathered looking snowman, so I sanded it a little bit until I liked the look of it.

Tip: Do you sanding outside.  It can get messy and dusty!

Step 4: Design your snowmen  

With the amount of scrap fabric and ribbons I have laying around my craft room, I had a hard time choosing how to “dress” my snowman. But, I have been into buffalo plaid this year (who hasn’t?!) and landed on making one red and one green buffalo plaid styled snowmen.  

You will want to lay out your buttons and fabric to get a feel for how you want your snowman to look BEFORE gluing things down. This just helps your finished product look more proportional in the end.

Tip: If you don’t have an orange button to act as the wooden snowman’s nose, you can always create one!  You can draw it on with paint pens or sharpie, make one out of orange paper, or you can do what I did by sewing a nose. 

To sew your snowman’s nose, cut out two small triangles of orange fabric scraps (you could even use a fabric ribbon if you had it, get creative with what you have in your house!).  Using a blanket stitch, stitch around the nose.  Before closing up the last side, shove some stuffing into the pocket you have created. You can use additional fabric or a cotton ball to stuff the inside of your nose. I had to use the backside of a large needle to help shove the stuffing into the tiny pocket.  Finish sewing the triangle up! 

Step 5:  Create the hat & scarf for the wooden snowman

In the picture below, I used a fabric scrap that I simply glued around the top of my wooden plank with wood glue, but you could also use tacky glue.

To use a sock as a hat, you will want to use a tall sock and you need to cut the top tube of the sock off.  You can cuff one end to act like the hat brim and slide it onto your snowman’s ‘head’.  Tie the top of it and cut the extra fabric into strips to look like a pompom.

You also need to create a scarf for your snowman.  You can use extra scrap material to tie or glue around the wood plank or even tie a ribbon around his neck!

Step 6: Decorate & Glue it all into place

Using wood glue or tacky glue, glue your buttons down.  Give dots of glue under your scarf and hat to ensure they stay in place as well. 

You can also decorate extra here!  I glued an additional button onto my snowman’s hat brim and found a random fuzzy pompom to use on the red snowman’s hat.  My mom used wooden stars (pictured below) to decorate her hats even further!  

Tip: When I glued my buttons that had holes, the glue oozed out the centers (you can see some glue in the center of my green button on the snowman below).  While the glue will dry clear, I still felt like it looked a little messy, so while the glue was still wet, I used a q-tip dipped in water (to avoid cotton getting stuck into the glue) and wiped any excess glue off the buttons.  This step is totally optional, but does make a difference!

Step 7:  Let the glue dry  & Enjoy!

Let the glue get nice and dry before standing your snowmen up, or else your buttons will slip down.  Once they are dried, they become very sturdy!  

In my family, Christmas is about the food and the crafts!  My mom and I wanted to make a craft the other day and she said that she had some buttons and wood and we could do something with that.  When looking at the pieces of wood, I originally thought I wanted to make a cute sign with words on it, but when I turned the wood vertical, memories of making wooden snowmen as a kid flooded back!  We had made these out of fence posts with socks for hats.  That is when I knew exactly what I wanted to make. These are not anything new, but they are fun and easy to make.  They look adorable and make great gifts too.

If you make these by yourself or with friends or family, please tag us on social media so that we can see your results! 

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