SNOWMAN JARS

My focus lately has been to turn vintage items into something primitive.

And today that something is these Primitive Snowmen made from vintage creamer jars.

I love them and love to make them out of just about everything.

Today I have been on a roll. I think this is the third craft I have kicked in the butt. Here's how I did it.

I won a big ole' aluminum bowl full of these, approx. 30 of them,  for only $2.00 at a local auction:

I think there were about 30 or more of them when I first started crafts with them.

Well, anyways I think you will find it way more interesting than the simple "Milk 5 cents."

I took a tiny bit of white spray paint and sprayed them inside. Let dry.

These heads (although I repainted the noses) came out of a bag of Christmas crafts from the Dollar Mart. The bag had a label on it from Oriental Trading Post. There were approx. 40 or more snowmen heads in that bag for only $1.19!  They had felt bodies that were to be assembled, but I didn't like that at all.

Then I grabbed a bag of "snowman heads" that are actually just wooden beads and had an idea to glue them onto the top.

 

And tied on some homespun around the top. And simply dabbed on three little dots for the "coal." A couple of them I replaced the dots of coal with a simple free handed star that I'm not too great at.

Yep, I was liking how these were taking shape! So far so good.

I put them in individual baggies so the paint wouldn't be chipped for whoever takes these little fellers home from my Peddlers Mall Booth #555. And also, so that it may be already pre-packed in case it is a gift.

I may also have some left for sale in my eBay shop if you are interested.

CraftBooth555

But they were still missing something..... So I untied the homespun from the bag tops and looked around my craft room...

I know! I want to add some type of falling snow around them! I thought that would be kinda cute. Since they are inside a bag and they are snowmen. lol. Silly yes, but I think it's a good idea.

But what to use as snow? OOOOOooo, I had a craft fail a while back while making snowballs out of epson salt and white paint. That would be great. Why? Because all the "SNOW" falls off when it's barely moved. I guess the elmers glue for it wasn't strong enough. Here was the snowball craft fail:

So I took my hand and rubbed some off in each open bag, and added a dash of silver glitter.

And wa~la:

Doesn't really look that great in the pics, but it looks better in person. Trust me.

And then I re-tied them back up and got them ready again.

And I thought they were in need of some sort of tag to tie on the homespun. I didn't have time to make a new batch of Grungy Hang Ties, so I found some pre-made ones in my drawer that came from the Dollar Mart.

Here's a side view, in the box, because I already had them boxed when thinking of this, lol.

And they are off! I did keep one of them though.... Had too, they were too cute! And it helps me next year to remember what all types of things I've previously made in case I want to make more.

Oh, I priced these little cuties for $3.99 each.... I am hoping that is not too much. I first thought $2.49 but since they are old jars and then the packaging....I added a little bit more.I have no idea though, but we'll see if they sell soon in my Peddlers Mall Booth #555.

If you would like to purchase them online here, you now can with the help of ebay,

 if you are interested,

CraftBooth555 

Vintage Creamer Snowman Jars item #002 only $3.99

 

Hope you enjoyed this and that it maybe gave you some sort of idea for a snowman craft!

Happy Crafting ya'll!

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Similar Post You may be interested in. Here's what I did with them on my first go around in a previous post:

I made these in early March of 2014

  Here's the link to that one if you're interested: http://www.booth555.com/2014/03/old-glass-creamers-reused.html

PRIMITIVE SNOWMEN JINGLE BELLS | Various Styles Over the Years

It's that time of year again! The time that I really start to begin painting more Christmas decorations for my Booth#555 at the Peddlers Mall. I got the Christmas spirit in September, lol.

And today I am starting on a new batch of Snowmen Jingle Bells. I got inspiration for these from the Oriental Trading Catalog. Theirs sale for $16.00 per dozen.

To buy them at $16.00 per dozen to resell wasn't really leaving me any room for profit in my craft booth. So I decided to find the plain jingle bells, same size and paint them. I found a package of 6 at the Dollar General Store for a $1.50. And then after the Christmas sale, I bought all the rest of them for half off! Totally amazing deal! So here's what I have started with:

I seriously buy every box of these I find, especially at the after Christmas sales! I will get around to using them, believe me!

I've came a long way through the years with these. I started making them back in November of 2010. You simply paint a base coat. I hang the hangers on a strip of wire and spray paint a bunch at once. And then just sit and paint on the snowmen in sections. Bodies, heads, arms, clothes, then snowflakes, etc. I do them in sections like that to not have to be changing my paint color much. And a hint is to lay them in egg carton tops, lined with paper towels, to help keep from rolling around. Here's what my first batch ever, looked like:

2010 Batch of Bells

$1.59 each

 

2011 Batch of Bells

Sold for $1.00 each to move faster, it seemed

 

2012 Batch of Bells 

Raised back to $1.59 each since I finished them in wax & began to package them.

These I experimented with dipping them in hot, butter colored wax, after painting. It made a great finish. 

Can't really see it in the pics, but looks pretty good. And the middle one is an old, black crow wearing a santa hat. 

 

Being as I did the extra wax dipping, is why I raised these back to $1.59 each.

2013 Batch of Bells

PHOTO COMING SOON!

Keep in mind, these are great crafts to make and sell. Especially if you find them in boxes of 6 marked down to half price to only $.75cents. That makes you only have like 12cents each in them. Sometimes even less if the sale is bigger. Then just your time to paint with paint you already have, probably. 

They are steady sellers for my craft booth. And with changing the theme a little each year, it makes a great item for people to look for. Sometimes I even put the date on the back of them. When I remember to, that is.

Hope this gives you some ideas to do with those plain ole' jingle bells!

Happy Crafting ya'll,

-Lisa

Second Set of Snowmen CLOTHESPIN Magnets

I made another batch of snowmen clothespins today. To view my first go at this, click here. This time I made a few small changes to give them a more prim appearance. Such as replacing some of the buttons, stars and hearts with words such as faith, family, friends, hope ect. The words are basically endless that you could write. I like to do a little country effect by putting the dots on the points of the letters.

I started by buying some plain, wooden clothespins at the DollarMart. A package of 50 for only $1.00. Then I spray painted half of them an almond color, the other half just white. I only buy the Rustoleum brand of spray paint at Walmart. One coat and you're ready to go.

Then I painted on all the faces step by step. All eyes of one style such as happy eyes, ect. And then all noses, all mouths and so on. Then the wording down the bottom on some, others I chose hearts, stars or x's. Just mix them up.

Next, I gathered the stuff I'd need such as magnets and glue.

If you notice in the next picture, I had to cut these magnets in half to fit perfectly on my clothespins because they were out of the smaller size at Walmart. But they cut easily and it did allow me to get double for my money. Hint: Never buy the rolls of magnets for these type of projects. They do not have a good strong hold.

Then I was ready to let them sit and dry. While doing so, I started cutting some fabric for the scarfs. So that kept me busy as I am a figity person. I sooo hate waiting. lol.

And here they are after I added their little scarfs!

After posting these, I also went back and added a little red to their cheeks. It just was the finishing touch for me. lol. And then packaged them individually this time around, in case some will be given as gifts.

These are now ready for sale in my Peddlers Mall Booth #555.

Snowmen Magnets

SNOWMEN CLOTHESPIN MAGNETS

I wanna share another great idea which spawned from eyeballs by day, crafts by night. She had used some mini clothespins and painted super cute snowmen on them. Then used them as mini clippies. Well, I've been making a lot of magnets lately so I wondered if I could get a strong enough magnet on these and it be able to hold notes and such on a refrigerator without falling, without looking silly.

And here's how I started. Here's the plain wooden clothespins found at the Dollar Mart for $1.19 for a pack of 50! SUPER DEAL!

First, I spray painted them all white in the Rustoleam brand from Walmart. Waited for that to dry, flipped them over, sprayed the backs.

  And then I began to paint the cute little faces. Seriously, I mean I painted 100 of these little guys without giving up, my arm went numb lol.. To make the little faces, different, after about 50 in a row, the cute smiles got old. lol. So some I made frown and kinda grumpy like. :-)

And here's another pic of even some more...... But in these notice that I gave them an added hat to match their scarfs!

And finally after I got all the painting and adding the scarfs (pieces of old homespun) and optional hats, I began to attach the magnets. I tried two types of magnets, first the kind that comes on a big roll in the crafts department and is easily cut-able:

Which I learned that when I stick it on the fridge with a note, it didnt hold so well. So then I tried the round, more sturdy, .75 inch magnet. Found at Michaels which contain 50 magnets for somewhere around $3. I love these. They are super strong, but I had to take scissors and cut in half so it didnt look bad. But that was great, cause in the end, I got 100 strong magnets outta a pack of 50! Whoo hoo to saving money!

For some reason I can't find a pic of these on the back, but they did not look bad at all. I just tried to cut super straight because cutting magnets with a small set of scissors is not easy. lol.

And here's a few more pics, just because I love how these little guys turned out. lol. Hope you do too!

Price, after handpainting each and giving them their own personality :-)  lol :  $1.00

& remember, they have high quality magnets on the back and will hold papers on the fridge

Here they are after they are packaged and ready for sale in my Booth #555:

I make a lil cardstock printout with the booth id and link to my etsy shop as an insert. That way, if it is givin as a gift, they have a reference to where to purchase more. (That is "IF" I can ever get around to posting them!) Note: on a few of them, in trying something new, I put a piece of grapevine through the center, and it looked like snowmen arms. (Far right corner of last pic above.)

I also went back, after taking these pics and added a piece of homespun to the top left corner of each packet. It just was needing something more cute n' country, I thought. lol.

Set of 4 Snowmen Magnets I have packaged up.

Don't forget to send me a link to yours if you get time to try these!

Update: Here's a link to the next batch I made which have the words Faith, Family, Friends and more on them: Snowmen Clothespin Magnets