Christmas is Coming!

It's undeniable -- we're moving into the latter half of November; the Santa Claus parade has come and gone; people have started putting up their Christmas lights. I think it's fair to say that the holiday season is definitely approaching at a rapid pace!

Anyway. I haven't done a lot of Christmas crafting yet this year, but I did happen across the most adorable snowman upcycle craft the other day on Pinterest and thought I'd give it a shot. (Check the tutorial link for other instructions.)

Isn't it adorable?

This craft took me less than an hour to do, and that was with frequent interruptions from my Little Miss.

So you need:

• an old sock, preferably crew length or longer
• elastic bands
• rice
• buttons
• beads, ric-rac, fabric scraps, anything else you want to use to decorate with
• needle and thread, or hot-glue gun

The first thing you do is cut your sock off at the heel. Then turn the calf part inside out and put an elastic band near the cut edge (this is the bottom of your snowman). Turn it right-side out again.

Now you have two choices: you can embellish the belly with a needle and thread before you stuff the sock, or you can wait until you've filled it and then use hot glue. I chose the needle and thread route. The only thing I didn't like was the fact that the buttons ended up not quite in the right spot for what I wanted, which is something that could have been done more accurately with the hot-glue gun.

Anyway. Then fill your guy with rice, pushing it in firmly to widen the base. Add two elastic bands: one for the belly and one to form the head.

At this point, I also embellished the head. I used seed beads and stitched them on. If I were to do it again, I'd used slightly larger beads. I think seed beads are too small, proportionally, but they're what I had on-hand.

At this point, make a hat using the toe and part of the foot of the sock. Then embellish further with a strip of fabric (or whatever you have on hand) for a scarf to hide your elastic. I also put a little matching embellishment on the hat for fun.

And there you go! A cute little snowman to add to your decor. Easy and quick enough to make an entire family, if you wish.

Happy crafting!