Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Adorable Snowbaby Snowman Tutorial!

Adorable Snowbaby Snowman Tutorial!


I love snowmen!! I've amassed quite a collection over the years because I can't resist a cute one when I see it! My Sock Snowman tutorial from a few years ago is one of my most popular posts. It gets pinned on a daily basis, and I still get questions and comments on it! Since it's such a fan-favorite, I was thinking about how I could put a new twist on it, and I came up with SNOWBABIES!

snowbabies made from holiday baby socks

(This post may contain affiliate links which were added to make it easier for you to find the items. If you click on an affiliate link and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you). You are free to use the links or not - if you do, I thank you!)

They're made with the same basic steps, but instead of using adult-sized socks, I used baby socks! The finished product is about 4-5"tall, depending on how much rice you put inside and how tall you make the hat.

sock snowbabies standing next to a 6" ruler

Here's how to make your own snowbabies!

baby socks, glue gun, twine, buttons, rice, scissors, rubber bands

Supplies I used for each snowbaby:

For clarification, these are the mini scrapbooking brads that I use for eyes on all of my snowmen - the babies and the regular size. I think I bought mine at either Michael's or Hobby Lobby. As you can see, they're about 1/4" in length, and the head is about 1/8" in diameter. I've linked to some on Amazon.

tiny brads lying next to a ruler to show size

And these are the 7/8" snowman carrot noses that I purchased from consumercrafts.com. I use these noses on both the snowbabies and the regular-size snowmen. They are also available on Amazon. I recommend checking both places and figuring in your shipping costs and the number of noses you need. If ConsumerCrafts is having a shipping special, it will probably be less expensive to purchase from them. If you have Amazon Prime and think you'll need a good number of noses, it might be cheaper to buy from Amazon.

tiny carrot noses lying next to a ruler to show size

Now on to the tutorial!

First, fill the white sock with 1 cup of uncooked rice. You may find that using a funnel is easier since the sock is so tiny. The socks I bought had cuffs, so I was able to get a little extra height from them, making my snowbaby body about 4" tall. Hold the sock closed and shake the rice down so that you can get a nice even edge at the top - then use the rubberband to tie off the top of the sock.

If you have used my other tutorial, you will notice one difference here. With the larger socks, you cut off the "leg" of the sock, turn it inside out, close one end with a rubber band, then turn it right side out and begin filling with rice. With the baby socks, the socks are so tiny, I just used the entire sock as the body of the snowbaby.

white baby sock filled with rice

Depending on the amount of selvage you have left at the top, you may be able to just use the hot glue gun to secure those edges against the top of the sock. I felt like I had too much fabric, which made it bulky. So I trimmed some of the sock away at the top edge, just leaving about 1" of sock above the rubberband. Then I smoothed this out over the top of the snowbaby's head and used the glue gun to glue it down flat.

white baby sock filled with rice, tied off with rubberband, and glued down

You're going to use the patterned sock(s) to make the sweater and hat for the snowbaby. The sock pictured below has stripes, which are like little cutting lines. The first cut is going to be from the top of the heel, straight across - this upper part of the sock will create the sweater. The second cut will be from the bottom of the heel straight across - this bottom part will create a small hat.

baby socks cut for making snowbabies

You need to give your snowbaby's body some shape, so stretch that sweater sock (Yes, this is a different sock!) between your two hands, and place it over the snowbaby's body, positioning the band about where you want the neck of your snowbaby to be - then take a piece of ribbon or twine and tie it around the neck and sweater, pulling it tight enough to give the illusion of a neck.

part of a holiday baby sock used to "dress" a sock snowbaby

If you choose to make the smaller hat, you will take the toe portion of the sock that you just cut off and tie a pie of ribbon or twine around the toe, about 1" from the end. You can add a button, flower, or jingle bell if you like.

snowbaby hat made from holiday baby sock

As you can see in the picture below, this smaller hat is cute, but it just seems to be lacking something. I don't know if it's because the sock has so much white in it or if it's just because I feel like I want it to have more. But I decided to use the second patterned sock to make a bigger hat...

snowbaby "dressed" using a holiday baby sock

If you opt to make the larger hat, you'll take the second patterned sock and tie off the toe with a ribbon or twine just as I described above. (Yes, this is that different sock again!) Then add your embellishment. Notice the grey area in the center of the sock in the picture below? That's the heel. Just push it back in toward the center of the sock, and turn that side of the sock down...

snowbaby hat made from holiday baby sock

And the front of the hat will look like this...

snowbaby hat made from holiday baby sock

Then you're ready to pop the hat on! I like to position mine a little sideways, but you can place it however you like. Then work with the sock/hat until you get the hat positioned the way you want it.

closeup of snowbaby wearing a hat

Next, you'll need to position your eyes. Just push the brads through the white sock, being careful not to snag the fabric in case you need to reposition. When you have them where you want them, you can add a dot of hot glue to the back and hold into place until the glue cools.

The nose can be just a little trickier if you have a tightly woven sock. There is that little "knob" on the back of the carrot that needs to go inside the snowbaby's head. If the sock fabric is too dense, you can use a toothpick or other small object to make a small opening, then insert the knob through that with a dot of glue on the back.

sock snowbabies

How cute are these?? I'm expecting my first great-niece and nephew early in 2016, so I made these guys for them. Their moms and grandma have the larger versions, and in the pictures below, you can see a comparison of the sizes:

sock snowmen sitting under a Christmas tree

sock snowbabies sitting on a gift box under the Christmas tree

The cheetah-print snowman (which was a request from my niece) is one of the smaller regular-size guys, but you can see that she is a few inches taller than the babies. Also, you'll notice that on the babies, I opted not to put any buttons on the front. The one has a bow on her sweater, so I felt like she didn't need anything else. And then the more I thought about it, the more I decided to leave them without. I do have to make a trip to Jo-Ann's, so if I see some tiny buttons that would work, I might add them, but for now, I think I like them this way.

I hope you enjoyed this snowbaby tutorial, and that you have a blessed holiday season!!



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Kim
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The Best Free Pumpkin Stencils!

The Best Free Pumpkin Stencils!


It's no secret that my least favorite part about October is that you see the p-word wherever you go. But my favorite part about October is that you get to carve that p-word!!! (Don't think that I don't see the humor in taking a knife to something I dislike, because I most certainly do!) But carving pumpkins is sooo much fun!!

We started using stencils for carving pumpkins when the kids were little, and I still like to use them! So I've gathered up some of my favorite new free stencils to share with you! This first batch is free for personal use, and came from Better Homes & Gardens:


We also started using the carving kits from Pumpkin Masters when the kids were little. I've replaced the original one, but I still use the Pumpkin Masters basic carving kit  and I'd love to pick up their Surface Carving Kit!

Here are clickable links to the pages for each of the stencils pictured above:










You know how you have to use straight pins to mark your design on the pumpkin by pushing them through the stencil? Well, I came across this cool Stick n' Carve paper from Think Geek: you print or draw your design on the paper, then apply the paper to the pumpkin (it sticks), carve the design, then take a damp sponge and wipe the residual paper away! No more using straight pins to mark your stencil lines! How cool is that?

And because you know that I am a geeky girl at heart, I have to share these Doctor Who stencils with you. I'm in love with them all!! My plan is to make a Dalek pumpkin this year. I saw it on Pinterest a few months ago.


Here are the clickable links to the stencils pictured above:

K-9



And if you're geeky, but Doctor Who isn't your thing, there are a ton of nerdy stencils to be found here.

Happy Carving!!

Which stencils are your favorites?

(Disclaimer: The links for the Pumpkin Masters Kits are Amazon Affiliate links. It does not cost you anything extra to use these links. They are here to help you find the product quickly, and if you chose to buy something after clicking on one of them, I earn a few cents. Thank you for supporting {enjoy the view}!)

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Kim
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8 Fun & Free Holiday Fonts!!

8 Fun & Free Holiday Fonts!!


I haven't done a free font post for quite some time, and since I think the holidays are one of the best times to use fun fonts, I decided I would share some more of my favorites with you!

All of these fonts are free for download and personal use at fontspace.com. My graphic is clickable, and there are also clickable links below the graphic that will take you to the individual download pages.

8 Free & Fun Holiday Fonts - free to download for personal use; great for holiday projects! Snowflake Letters Reindeer Games Everything Holiday Candy Cane Holly Berry Wonderland Magic Christmas Frosty Let It Snow Image Map



Just in case you don't know how to install fonts, this is how I do it with Windows 8 and Firefox:

  • First I make a folder for all of my downloaded fonts to be saved in (it makes it easier to keep them together); with Firefox, to make sure that you're always asked where to save the downloaded file, just go to your Firefox drop-down menu, choose "options"; then under "general", look for "downloads", and make sure that "always ask me where to save files" is selected)
  • Click on the download button and save the file in your fonts folder
  • Double-click on the download arrow to the right of the address bar (in Firefox) to view the download 
  • Click on "extract all" when the new window opens
  • Now you can do one of two things - you can either right click on the file with the .ttf extension and then click on "install", or you can double click on the .ttf file to open it, and then click on "install" (I do the first one - it saves a step!)
  • Enjoy your new fonts!!
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Are you blog-stalking me yet? If not, you should be! You can find me on

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Kim
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5 Easy Christmas Projects

5 Easy Christmas Projects



5 Easy Christmas Projects - five of the most visited holiday projects from {enjoy the view} blog

For this post, I've put together the 5 most-viewed Christmas projects from the blog!

I'm really excited about this post - not just because these are the top-viewed Christmas projects, but because these are some of my favorites projects. They're all are easy and inexpensive to make, and don't take much time, so they're great if you have a time or budget crunch.

Let's get started!

5 Easy Christmas Projects - DIY Sock Snowmen

1) These cute little DIY Sock Snowmen are the top-viewed Christmas project on the blog - and my top-viewed Christmas project on Pinterest, too! I love these little guys, and I've made a gazillion of them. Everyone I've given them to falls in love with them, and can never believe that I made them myself. And they're really easy to make!!

5 Easy Christmas Projects - Joyful Glitter Mod Podge Project

2) I did these JOYful Glitter Mod Podge letters as a project for Jo-Ann Fabric & Craft Stores last year. I can't wait to get them out again this year! These require a little more work, but they're still pretty easy to do! Love glitter Mod Podge!

5 Easy Christmas Projects - DIY Letter Ornaments

3) These wooden letters are another fun project. I made these for my neighbors and siblings, and they were a big hit! I love that these can be done in so many different sizes - attached to gifts, used as ornaments, hung in bedrooms - so many uses!

5 Easy Christmas Projects - DIY Apple Cinnamon Orange Clove Ornaments

4) Cinnamon is one of my favorite scents, so I loved making these tiny Apple Cinnamon Orange Clove ornaments for my mini tree. I also used them to tie on gifts, so wherever I took them, the room smelled wonderful!

5 Easy Christmas Projects - Burlap Christmas Tree

5) This burlap Christmas tree was another project I completed for Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores. I really love the simplicity of it. I had planned to do a couple more in different sizes this year, but then I had unplanned ankle surgery that mucked up my plans, LOL.

 And those are my Top 5 Easy Christmas Projects! I hope you find something that you can't wait to make!
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Are you blog-stalking me yet? If not, you should be! You can find me on
Facebook - enjoytheviewblog.com Pinterest - enjoytheviewblog.com Twitter - enjoytheviewblog.com Google - enjoytheviewblog.com Instagram - enjoytheviewblog.com Bloglovin - enjoytheviewblog.com LinkedIn - enjoytheviewblog.com
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Kim
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