DLTK's Holiday Crafts for Kids
Paper Mache Snowman Craft

If you've never paper mache'd before, this cute little snowman is a cute first project.

Read more about the basics of paper mache >

Materials

• 2 balloons
• paper mache and strips of newspaper 
  • I make paper mache with one cup of flour and 4 cups of water.  Boil the paper mache stirring frequently just long enough for it to thicken...  Take off the stove and put in a separate bowl.  Add 4 ice cubes and stir those in
  • You can make cold paper mache with equal parts flour and water.  It takes more flour and isn't quite as smooth, but it works just fine.
• stickers, paint, markers, construction paper, etc to decorate
• masking tape

Craft Instructions:

• Blow up your balloons one slightly smaller than the other.  Place them beside each other to see if they will look like a snowman.
• Optional:  If you are really keen you may want to try a triple decker snowman using three balloons.
• Cover each of the balloons with the first layer of paper mache.  We used newspaper for the first layer.
• Let dry overnight.
• Tape the two paper mache balloons together and your snowman is beginning to take shape.
• Cover the entire snowman with a second layer of paper mache.  For the second layer, we used scrap computer/photocopy paper.  It is a little bit harder to work with because it is thicker.
• If you were to use newspaper for the second coat, then you will have to paint the snowman white after the paper mache dries.
• To decorate your snowman, you could use paint, markers or construction paper.  We decided to use construction paper.  The only exception is the scarf (Kaitlyn's idea) which we made using craft felt.
• We made the hat with black construction paper.  First we traced the outline of a CD onto the paper and cut it out.  We then used a glass to trace a smaller circle inside the smaller circle and it out to make a ring.  The ring will become the bottom of the craft and the inner circle will become the top of the hat.  Cut a strip of black construction paper about 2" to 3" wide and make it into a cylinder the size of the smaller circle.  Tape the smaller circle to the top of your cylinder and then tape the cylinder to the inside of the ring.
• Our snowman's eyes and mouth are made from small black construction paper circles.  We used a hole punch to make the small circles for the mouth.
• A small cone of yellow construction paper became his nose.
• More construction paper circles (this time green) became buttons for our snowman.

Printable version of these instructions