Children love to make Snowman Ornaments for Christmas. Make these cute and easy snowman Christmas crafts with kids at home or in the classroom! (First published December 8, 2016; this post is updated and republished to improve the content.)
Clay snowman ornaments are easy Christmas crafts for kids and adults to make at home or in the classroom. Use the step-by-step DIY tutorials below to make clay snowman ornaments for your Christmas tree. These simple snowman crafts can also be made into standing figurines for winter displays, fairy gardens, and other festive DIY decor. Or make these easy Fingerprint Snowman Cards for family, friends, and relatives.
“Do you want to build a snowman?” My daughter squealed with excitement when I asked her this question, and I’ll bet your kids will, too! So, we made a handful of these cute DIY snowman ornaments with polymer clay. Because we were building snowmen and snowwomen, we made Frozen-Inspired Olaf ornaments and snowman head ornaments. After all, we couldn’t build a snowman without building Olaf!
Snowman Ornaments: Fun Winter Crafts for all Ages and Abilities
Making snowman ornaments and crafts with polymer clay offers a delightful and creative experience for both children and adults. Polymer clay, a versatile and easy-to-mold material, is ideal for crafting snowmen and women with festive intricate details and vibrant colors. These polymer clay crafts can help enhance fine motor skills, boost creativity, and provide a therapeutic and calming activity for kids and adults of all ages and abilities.
Children can benefit from the sensory experience of shaping and texturing the clay, aiding their cognitive and emotional development. For adults, crafting with polymer clay can be a stress-relieving hobby, offering a break from the digital world and fostering a sense of accomplishment. Working with polymer clay can also encourage family bonding and create an opportunity for learning and sharing artistic skills across generations.
Crafting these polymer clay snowman crafts is enjoyable and rewarding for the entire family or classroom. The finished snowman crafts can become charming DIY winter figurines and decorations, personalized gifts, fun Christmas tree ornaments, and festive additions to holiday displays to be cherished for generations to come. You might also enjoy making a clay ring bowl or jewelry dish. (Click the link for step-by-step DIY instructions.)
Melted Snowman Crafts for Kids or Adults
The cute little snowmen crafts and ornaments shown in the photographs are inspired by the children’s book “Snowmen at Night.” While my daughter dreamed of bringing Olaf to life, I thought of the beautiful ways to build snowman ornaments to hang on our Christmas tree. I couldn’t wait to see how each snowman craft would melt and change in the oven, like “Snowmen at Night!”
Have you ever built a snowman and discovered the next day that his grin has gotten a little crooked, or his tree-branch arms have moved? And you’ve wondered . . . what do snowmen do at night? This delightful wintertime tale reveals all!
Snowmen at Night
In other words, these snowman crafts are melted snowman ornaments, but the melted snowman crafts don’t melt down to lay flat. Instead, they tilt and shift slightly to give each a unique expression with individual personality and distinctive character. Look at how well the homemade clay snowman ornaments turned out in the photograph below.
Each snowman craft melted slightly and leaned perfectly here and there to look like melted snowmen at night. The melted snowman ornaments and crafts look adorable, standing on our nature table, playing in a winter fairy garden, and hanging on our Christmas tree with our other DIY ornaments.
Related: Winter Bucket List
DIY Snowman Ornaments: How to Make Snowman Ornaments
There are many ways to assemble these cute little clay snowman ornaments. We made them five different ways, but I bet you can think of more! The best part of making these polyform clay snowman crafts is seeing how they melt and change, but only slightly, when you put them in the oven, just like “Snowmen at Night!”
This post includes several ideas to make snowman ornaments with clay. We have included basic assembly directions for five different polymer clay snowman ornaments with complete step-by-step instructions for each of the different snowmen (and snowwomen) ornament crafts we made.
Scroll down to see the different snowman Christmas ornament craft instructions and their different means of assembly before deciding which DIY snowman ornaments you want to make. Each set of snowman craft instructions also includes a step-by-step photo tutorial to make putting these super cute Christmas crafts together easier. You might also enjoy these DIY Christmas Ornaments for kids or adults.
How to make polymer clay snowman ornaments and Figurine crafts: Step-by-Step Assembly Instructions
First, read through the basic step-by-step instructions, and look at the snowman craft ideas in the next section to assemble clay snowman ornaments. Next, gather snowman craft supplies and materials. Then, make your favorite DIY snowman ornaments with any of the ideas below. Or, make these festive Acorn Marble Christmas ornaments.
1. Gather DIY snowman Christmas ornament craft supplies and materials:
- Polymer clay assorted colors & white
- Twigs (Optional: Encourage children to go on a nature hunt for small twigs, sticks, and other natural treasures they can use to make snowman crafts in the backyard or outside.)
- Galvanized wire
- Wire cutters
- Ornament hooks or bakers twine
- Polymer clay tools (Optional.)
- Clay rolling pin (Optional; a rolling pin is also included in the clay tool set above.)
- Glass mat (Optional but recommended to protect work surface.)
- Parchment paper
- Baking sheet or tray
- Bake and bond polymer clay glaze pack (Optional for bonding, sealing, protecting, and repairing.)
2. Wash hands and clean workspace:
- Wash your hands and clean the surface on which you will be working.
- Polymer clay picks up every tiny speck of dirt, so this step is especially important for white polymer clay!
- You should also wash your hands after working with another color before working with white again. As I said, it picks up everything, including the tiny bit of colored clay on your hands.
- Keep a damp washcloth or wipes nearby to clean your hands as you work.
3. Make polyform clay snowman Body Parts and accessories:
- First, make each piece you will use to assemble or build the polyform clay snowman ornaments: body, nose, eyes, buttons, arms, scarf, top hat or cap, twig arms, snowball legs, etc.
- Assemble the Snowman Body:
- Roll two or three sections of white polymer clay into balls.
- Stack them one on the other with the largest clay snowball on the bottom.
- Make a Carrot Nose:
- The easiest way to make a carrot nose is to roll some orange polymer clay into a small ball.
- Next, roll one side of it like a snake until you have a small carrot.
- Roll Coal Eyes and Buttons:
- Roll tiny sections of black clay into small balls to make coal eyes and buttons for the snowman’s face and body.
- Make Snowman Ornament Accessories (optional):
- In the next section, the tutorial for each DIY snowman ornament craft idea contains step-by-step instructions and a photo tutorial to make the remaining DIY snowman accessories, such as a scarf, snowcap, or top hat.
- Collect small twigs and sticks for arms (optional):
- Encourage children to go outside on a nature hunt to look for small twigs and sticks to make snowman arms for their ornaments and crafts.
- Using nature’s treasures to create arms is a great way to give each ornament a unique expression or appearance, as shown in the photographs of snowman crafts with twig arms below.
- Assemble the Snowman Body:
4. Build or assemble clay snowman ornaments:
- Assemble homemade snowman ornaments by sticking the pieces together in the following order:
- Start with the body.
- Next, add a scarf if using one. (Step-by-step DIY instructions to make a clay scarf are in the next section.)
- Then, add the nose and eyes. (Putting the nose on your snowman crafts first makes knowing where the eyes go easier.)
- Next, add buttons and any other hats and accessories you’d like to use to make your snowman crafts.
- Last, add twig arms or snowball legs (like Olaf’s) if desired.
5. Make a hanger for the snowman ornament craft, or flatten the bottom to create a standing figurine:
- First, use wire cutters to cut a 2-1/1/2 inch section of galvanized wire.
- Then, bend this piece of wire in half.
- Place this homemade ornament hook prongs down into the top of your ornament.
- This simple metal hook will bake into the polymer clay to produce a strong ornament hanger, making it easy to hang DIY snowman ornaments on the Christmas tree.
- If you want to make a standing snowman figurine instead of an ornament, press the bottom of the clay snowman flat to create a nice bottom for it to stand on.
6. BAke Snowman Ornament Crafts:
- Place clay snowman crafts on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, standing upright so they can gently lean and melt like snowmen at night.
- Bake according to polymer clay manufacturers’ directions. We baked our polymer clay snowman ornaments in a 275 F oven for 25 mins.
- Let them sit for five to ten minutes, then carefully remove them from the baking sheet or tray and allow to cool.
7. Make a Hanging Loop for each DIY snowman ornament:
- Cut a section of twine, baker’s twine, or Christmas ribbon six to ten inches long.
- Thread twine or ribbon through the metal hanger loop (made in step 4), then tie the ends together to finish the hanger. (Alternatively, use an ornament hook.)
8. Hang Snowman Ornaments on the Christmas tree, stand them in a winter display, or give them to someone special:
- Hang your homemade snowman ornament on the Christmas tree.
- Place them into a Christmas or winter display on a table, shelf, or windowsill.
- Add them to a winter nature table display.
- Use them as figurines in a winter fairy garden.
- Or give them to someone special as a DIY Christmas gift!
9. Fix and repair with bonding glue if needed:
- The cute snowman crafts in the photographs below, and several more that we have made since, have dangled sweetly on our Christmas tree for many years.
- After several years of constant abuse from toddlers, children, and cats, we have discovered that if the carrot nose, snowcap pom-poms, or coal buttons break off the ornament. They can be easily reattached with clay bonding glue.
8 Step-by-Step Clay DIY Snowman Ornament Ideas
Here are step-by-step instructions to make snowman ornament crafts and accessories. Choose your favorite snowman craft, or make them all!
1. How to make simple snowman ornaments:
- Wash hands and clean the work surface.
- Build a clay snowman by rolling two or three sections of white polymer clay into balls. Stack them on top of each other, with the largest clay snowball on the bottom, as shown in the photo tutorial below.
- Add a clay carrot nose to your snowman ornaments.
- Roll tiny sections of black clay into small balls to make coal eyes and buttons and use them to decorate the snowman ornament’s face and bodies, as shown in the photographs below.
- Make a wire hanger. Step-by-step directions are in the section above. (Skip this step if making a standing snowman figurine.)
- Stand on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake according to polymer clay manufacturers’ directions.
- Tie ribbon or baker’s twine on each clay snowman ornament to hang them on the Christmas tree, give them as homemade Christmas gifts, or use them to decorate mantles and windowsills.
Related: Christmas Handprint, Footprint, and Fingerprint Art Card Ideas
2. How to make clay snowmen crafts with twig arms:
- Wash hands and clean the work surface.
- Build a clay snowman with rolled white polymer clay balls stacked on each other with the smallest clay snowball on the top.
- Add a clay carrot nose to your snowman ornaments.
- Roll tiny sections of black clay into small balls to make coal eyes and stick them onto the snowman ornament’s face and body.
- Choose the twigs you would like to use and insert them into each snowman ornament’s left and right side body.
- Make a wire hanger. Step-by-step directions are in the section above. (Skip this step if making a standing snowman figurine.)
- Stand on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake according to polymer clay manufacturers’ directions.
- Tie ribbon or baker’s twine on each clay snowman ornament to hang them on the Christmas tree, give them as homemade Christmas gifts, or use them to decorate mantles and windowsills.
3. How to make a polymer clay scarf for a snowman craft:
We recommend using a glass cutting mat to make polyform clay snowman scarves. Most colors of polymer clay can stain, and you can see the red coming off slightly in the photos below. A glass cutting mat can protect your table from stains and cuts and make it possible to pick up a small snowman scarf without tearing it.
- Wash hands and clean the work surface.
- Use your fingers to form a small rectangle of polymer clay.
- Flatten the polyform clay rectangle with a rolling pin or jar on a glass cutting mat to protect your table.
- Use a precision knife or clay cutting tools to cut strips from the flattened clay, as shown in the photo tutorial below.
- Trim to the desired length with a clay cutting tool or precision knife.
- Pick up each clay strip and wrap it carefully around the neck of the snowman crafts.
- Pull gently on each side to make it longer if needed.
- Finally, press down slightly to gently secure the clay scarf to the snowman craft.
Related: How to Make Beaded Snowflake Ornaments
4. How to make a clay top hat for snowman crafts:
- To make the top hat, roll two balls of black polyform clay.
- As shown in the photo tutorial below, flatten one of the black clay balls to make the bottom of the top hat.
- Shape the other ball of clay into a cylinder and attach it to the top of the flat circle to complete the top hat.
5. How to make a snowman ornament with a scarf, buttons, and top hat:
- Wash hands and clean the work surface.
- Build a snowman by rolling two or three sections of white polymer clay into balls. Stack the polymer clay snowballs on top of each other, with the largest clay snowball on the bottom.
- Wrap a polyform clay scarf around the body of the snowman craft. If needed, gently tug on either side to make it longer.
- Roll tiny sections of black clay into small balls to make coal buttons and place them onto the clay snowman ornament’s body.
- Place the top hat on the snowman ornament. (Step-by-step directions are directly above.)
- Add a carrot nose to your snowman ornament craft. The easiest way to make a carrot nose is to roll some orange polymer clay into a small ball. Next, roll one side of it like a snake until you have a small carrot. Putting the nose on your snowman first makes knowing where the eyes go easier.
- Roll tiny sections of black clay into small balls to make coal eyes and place them onto the snowman’s face ornaments between the hat and the carrot nose.
- Make a wire hanger for each ornament. Step-by-step directions are in the snowman ornament instructions at the beginning of this post. (Skip this step if making a standing snowman figurine.)
- Stand on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake according to polymer clay manufacturers’ directions.
- Tie ribbon or baker’s twine on each clay snowman ornament to hang them on the Christmas tree, give them as homemade Christmas gifts, or use them to decorate mantles and windowsills.
Related: Christmas Gifts Kids Can Make
6. How to make a snowcap for snowman ornaments:
- Form a cap from a ball of clay by placing your thumb on one side to create the inner edge of the snowcap, beanie, or toque.
- Then, gently pull and form the rest of the clay into a cup shape with your thumb and forefinger of the other hand.
- We found spinning it around while we worked to be effective.
- When finished, attach a small white ball of clay to the tip of the cap to make the pom-pom. (Use clay bond to attach it more securely if desired.)
7. How to make snowman ornaments with a scarf, buttons, and Snowcap:
- Wash hands and clean the work surface.
- Build a snowman by rolling two or three sections of white polymer clay into balls. Stack the clay snowballs one on top of the other, with the largest clay snowball on the bottom.
- Make and add the snowcap. (Step-by-step directions are in the section directly above.)
- Wrap a polyform clay scarf around the body of the snowman ornament. As you can see in the photograph above, we wrapped the clay snowman scarf differently than the other ornaments. Again, gently pull the clay scarf to make it longer if needed.
- Add a carrot nose to your snowman ornament craft.
- Roll tiny sections of black clay into small balls to make coal eyes and place them onto the snowman’s face ornaments between the cap and the carrot nose.
- Roll tiny sections of black clay into small balls to make 1 to 5 coal buttons and place them onto the clay snowman ornament body if desired. Depending on how you wrap the scarf, you may not have room for all the buttons. We used one button of the three I made for the snowman craft pictured above.
- Make a wire hanger. Step-by-step directions are in the section above. (Skip this step if making a standing snowman figurine.)
- Stand on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake according to polymer clay manufacturers’ directions.
- Tie ribbon or baker’s twine on each clay snowman ornament to hang them on the Christmas tree, give them as homemade Christmas gifts, or use them to decorate mantles and windowsills.
8. How to make a snowman Christmas ornament with a scarf, buttons, and twig arms
- Wash hands and clean the work surface.
- Roll two or three sections of white clay into balls to make a polymer clay snowman. Stack them with the largest clay snowball on the bottom.
- Make and wrap a polyform clay scarf around the snowman craft, and pull gently on each side to make it longer if needed. (Step-by-step directions to make a clay scarf are in snowman ornament craft idea number 3 above.)
- Add a clay carrot nose to your snowman ornaments.
- Roll tiny sections of black clay into small balls to make coal eyes and buttons. Then, use them to decorate the snowman ornament’s face and body.
- Choose the twigs you want to use and insert them into the snowman ornament’s left and right sides.
- Make a wire hanger and place it prongs down into the top of the snowman ornament. The main instructions at the beginning of this post contain step-by-step directions for making a wire hanger. (Skip this step if you’re making a standing snowman figurine.)
- Stand on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake according to polymer clay manufacturers’ directions.
- Tie ribbon or baker’s twine on each clay snowman ornament to hang them on the Christmas tree, give them as homemade Christmas gifts, or use them to decorate mantles and windowsills.
Here is the second snowman ornament craft my daughter made before she made Olaf over and over and over again. I cut the scarf for her, but she did everything else on her own–isn’t it cute!?
DIY Snowman Christmas Ornaments
I’m sure you see where this is going. You can make handmade snowman ornaments with a scarf, top hat, cap, and twig arms with or without buttons. You can design a different type of cap, or you could have one holding a flower, snowflake, or gift. Or build Olaf, etc., etc. The possibilities are endless!
Making snowman ornaments with polymer clay is a simple winter craft for kids and adults. Handmade decorations like these cool snowmen ornaments are perfect for the Christmas tree and make an excellent gift idea. Or, make homemade snowman head ornaments! They also make beautiful handmade Christmas decorations and great kid-made gift ideas!
You might also enjoy these fun family Christmas traditions and this collection of Christmas art projects; both posts contain even more fun Christmas ideas!
If You Like Snowman Crafts, You May Also Like
- Fingerprint Snowman Christmas Cards
- Best Winter Art Projects for Kids
- Christmas Handprint, Footprint, and Fingerprint Art Card Ideas
- Homemade Gifts Kids Can Make
More DIY Christmas Ornament Craft Ideas
- Christmas Ornaments Kids Can Make
- Angel Ornaments
- Christmas Tree Twig Ornaments
- Elf Ornaments
- Acorn Marble Ornaments
- Half Walnut Shell Baby Jesus Ornament
- Alphabet Wood slice Ornaments
- Rhinestone Pinecone Ornaments
- Beaded Snowflake Ornaments
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