Dollhouse Miniature Snowman Cookie Jar

 

Watch the video here.

 

 

For today's tutorial I decided to make a snowman cookie jar. I was looking online at various snowman stuff in preparation for the snowman sign that I made last Tuesday (you can find it here if you missed it) and I saw some adorable cookie jars. I know they would be more involved than I wanted to do on yesterday so I decided to save the idea for today's tutorial.

I did a lot of thinking about how I wanted to handle the interior of the cookie jar. I know most of the tutorials I have seen in the past start by forming the jar shape over a ball of aluminum foil. I considered this but I have never liked the way the interior looks when the foil is removed. You either have to have the rough interior or you have to mess around with smoothing it out afterward. I didn't like either of those options.

Then I got to thinking about the items we have made on the channel lately with card-stock as the base. That was it! The light-bulb in my brain went off, the perfect solution to the forming of the cookie jar.

So I stated with a strip of white card-stock that was ¾” by 4” and wrapped it around the barrel of a permanent marker. I used one of my Bic pens but a Sharpie would be fine too. Or anything else that is about the same size. I was aiming for between ⅜” and ½”. The exact size isn't really important as long as it is in that range. You can adjust the size of the clay snakes to get your cookie jar the right size.

 

 

I glued the strip to form a tube and removed it from the pen to dry. It should be fairly dry before you move on to the next step.

Once the glue dries it is time to start building our snowman. I used some of my white/translucent clay mix that I keep on hand (equal parts white and translucent clays, brands don't matter in this)

I formed a snake and made sure it was going wrap around my paper base. I then added some TLS (Translucent Liquid Sculpey) around the paper base at the bottom. I then wrapped the clay around and worked with it until I had the look of the bottom snowball of the snowman. My goal was to go up a little more than halfway up the paper base and for the snowball to be right around ¾” in diameter. Add a bottom to the cookie jar using a round of clay and smooth the edges so it looks like one piece.  Also cut a small disk of clay that will fit inside the opening of the paper base and about ¼” thick.

I then baked both pieces at 250°F for 10 minutes.

Once baked and cooled to room temperature it is time to add the top snowball using a slightly smaller snake of the white clay and some TLS.

Then add a ball of the clay to the top of the disk of clay to form the head of our snowman. Remember the head is supposed to be another snowball so make sure it looks correct on top of the snowman body.

Bake both pieces just like before (250°F for 10 minutes)

Once baked and cooled again we can add some arms to the body of the snow man using an even smaller snake of the same white clay. Attach with more TLS.

Now take a tiny bit of an orange clay and make a little cone shaped nose for the snowman's face. And I bet you guessed it, use a drop of TLS to attach it.

Now bake again for 250°F for 10 minutes.

Once the snowman has cooled to room temperature again we can add a scarf, mittens and a hat. I had some miss-mixed clay on hand that I had used on my project prototype and loved so that was what I used in the project. Pick a color that will go with the decor of your dollhouse kitchen. This clay was some very dark blue Fimo and some Original Sculpey that I had tried to mix a couple of weeks ago. They refused to mix together smoothly and I was left with a mottled color with bits of dark blue running through it. While this would not have worked at all in the project I was trying to make if for it turned out perfect for making the “knitted” parts of the snowman.

I used a small snake and placed it around the opening at the top of the cookie jar body (using TLS) then carefully used the head/lid to push the clay down into place. This way I have an opening that fits the head/lid perfectly. Use a pointy tool to add any texturing you desire.

For the mittens I just made two tiny balls of the clay, flattened them a bit and cut out a tiny v shape. (think Pacman) then when attached to the ends of the arms I worked them around to look like mittens.

For the hat I made a ball, flattened it with my finger and attached it with TLS. I then added a skinny snake of clay around the edge of the hat (there was plenty of TLS from placing the hat so I didn't need to add more. I used my pointy tool again to texture this brim to the hat.

I almost forgot to add the pompom to the top of the hat but it is a simple ball of the clay that is textured with the same pointy tool.

Bake again at 250°F for 10 minutes allow to cool.

 

 

Now we can paint on the eyes and mouth using some black craft paint and toothpick that the tip has been blunted on some sandpaper.

 

 

Once the paint is dry give your cookie jar a light even coat of gloss Mod Podge and allow to dry.

Here is a picture of today's cookie jar alongside the prototype I made for th project. I don't often show the prototype but this time I thought they were both cute and also you can see the changes I made from my initial idea to the finished result.

As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.