How to Make a Paper Snowman Ornament
Updated on February 27, 2021
Where I live, Fall is very short and the snow falls almost immediately once things start getting cold. That’s why, despite winter still technically being a few months off, my kids are already asking me to help them make winter themed projects! The second there’s snow on the ground, they get excited about it and want to incorporate it everywhere. That’s why I decided to teach them how to make these adorable rolled paper snowman ornaments! The first few we made together turned out so cute that I decided to make an extra and outline the process so other people can see hw they’re done as well.
Check out these full instructions for making paper snowman ornaments, complete with photos! If you’d prefer to follow along with a video tutorial, keep scrolling to the end of this post to find one.
For this project, you’ll need:
- Cardboard (white)
- Black paper
- Crepe paper (orange)
- A black marker)
- Two googly eyes
- Silver thread
- Scissors
- A glue stick
- Three miniature crafting pom poms (black)
Step 1: get everything ready
Gather your materials together in front of you!
Step 2: strips of black
Cut two inch-wide strips from the width side of your black paper. Fold each one and cut it at the center crease to make two equally sized half pieces, totalling four new strips in all.
Step 3: fold
Fold each of those four strips into equal halves again, but don’t cut along the crease this time.
Step 4: make the hat
With the crease facing to the left, hold the doubled squares together so you’re cutting both sides of each at once and trim the square into an L-shape. Then round the top corner of the bottom part off so it looks like a cartoon boot rather than the letter. Repeat this process for all four squares until you have four flat boots that open at the crease like layers.
Step 5: assemble the hat
Pick up one boot piece, keeping it closed at the crease, and apply glue all over one side. Take a second boot piece, keeping it closed as well, and line it up so its shape fits perfectly with the first along the glued side, pressing it into place. Repeat this process until you have all four L-shapes glue together on all sides except one, which you’ll leave open for a moment.
Step 6: finish the hat
Cut off a piece of your silver thread that’s about four inches long. Fold it in half and tie the ends together in a not so you have a two-inch look. Apply glue to the last open sides and, before sticking them together to finish the L-shapes all the way around, put the knotted ends of your silver thread loop into the center so the loop sticks out above the black shape. Then stick the last two L-shaped sides together. What you’ve really created here is a dimensional top hat for your snowman!
Step 7: make the body parts
Turn your sheet of white paper to sit in a landscape direction no the table and cut it in half. Set one half aside for later and turn the half you’re using now upright so it sits tall and portrait instead. Curl the bottom of the sheet upwards, towards the top edge, to create a rounded horizontal cylinder. Apply glue along the top edge and stick the curl you’ve created from the bottom down when the two meet as you bring the paper up and inwards on itself. Then take the other half of the white page that you’d set aside and cut it in the same direction, but this time at around the one third mark, so you end up with two rectangles, one that is bigger than the other. Repeat the curling and rolling process with these two so you end up with three cylinders in decreasing sizes. If your rectangles are a little too long to get the same sized cylinder in terms of how thick they are, match the thickness of your other rolls for consistency and simply trim the excess strip length off before you stick the ends down.
Step 8: make the nose
Cut a strip from your orange roll of crepe paper that’s about two inches long and half an inch wide. Hold it horizontally and fold one side in towards the middle diagonally to begin a point. Fold the other side in to complete the point, so you now have what looks like the top of a triangle. Fold the ends upwards, towards the point, and fold the corners that stick out past the diagonal edges back in on themselves towards the middle so the become another layer on the point rather than sticking out the sides of it. Then start rolling the layered and folded piece into a little cone shape, starting on the right side and working your way over to the other until you have a rounded and pointed shape. This will be your snowman’s carrot nose! Trim the base a little and stick it in place with glue if it won’t stay rolled all the way up to the point at the other end.
Step 9: glue the body together
Apply glue to the outside of your smallest cylinder (I did so where I stuck my ends down in order to hide the joining line) and stick it in the center of your medium sized cylinder so the ends of the bigger one stick out past the ends of the smaller one evenly. Repeat this process to stick these two pieces to your biggest cylinder. You now have a decreasing stack of three!
Step 10: add the eyes
Stick your googly eyes to the front of your smallest cylinder, near enough to the top that there’s room for more facial features underneath but not so high that they’ll get in the way of the snowman’s hat.
Step 11: draw the face
Apply glue to the end of the carrot nose opposite the point, on its base, and stick it to the center of the snowman’s face, below and between the googly eyes. Then use your black marker to give him a smile. I did so by making little dots that look like the classic snowman smile made from pieces of coal.
Step 12: glue the pom poms
Apply glue to the backs of your little black crafting pom poms and stick them down the front of your snowman’s rolled body like coal buttons. I stuck two to my middle roll and one to my bottom roll, all the way down the center.
Step 13: finish
Apply glue to the underside of the hat you made previously and press it onto the snowman’s head, on the top of your smallest roll. I situated mine so one of the points face forward because I thought that gave the 3D folding technique I used the most impact.
That’s all there is to it! You now have a completed hanging snowman ornament. Just in case you’d like to try this project out for yourself, here’s a fantastic tutorial video to help you!