Be crafty

And not in a plotting, sinister way. This year Lynn and I decided to make some of the gifts we were giving. We haven't really pursued that in the past so we decided it was time. I searched Pinterest(which is simply amazing) for ideas and came across this: Snowmen. How incredibly clever! Now in order to get the particulars on how to make them(again, Lynn and I are novices) I was able to find this helpful youtube video. How to make hot chocolate snowmen.

So I gathered all of the materials:
1. wide- mouth 8 oz. mason jars. Hard to find locally so I took to the internet
2. Starlight mints
3. Miniature marshmallows
4. Hot chocolate mix(we used Tim Hortons as it is a favorite locally)
5. Black felt
6. Black and orange paint
7. glue gun
8. Scissors
9. decorative ribbon

The first thing we did was to fill the jars. Mints for the bottom jars, hot chocolate mix for middle, and marshmallows for the top. Next step was the hat. The hat is made up of three parts: The top, rim, and band. We used the inside lid of the mason jar as a template for the top, a bowl to cut out the brim,  and eyeballed the length for the strip that is glued to the outer rim of the mason jar lid. I suggest watching the video link I provided to understand better. Plus, I really don't feel like explaining it all out, lol.
Once the hats were done we painted the faces and buttons. This next part is not is not detailed in the video so it warrants a mention. When dried, we glued the jars together. We took the bottom jar(mints)and placed glue on top of the inside lid of the mason jar and immediately set the next jar on top. The glue dries very quickly so make sure you are lined up before connecting the jars. Repeat with other jar. The final touches were to add the ribbon for a scarf and we placed a candy cane as a walking aid for our little snow person, lol. And voila!

Aren't they damn cute?All in all we had fun doing them and it was great giving a gift that we made. Although given our lack of experience, there were several attempts at the felt cutting, and there may have been a glue-burning incident.(Lynn will be fine, she's a strong one) Those things really heat up so be careful!!