Christmas Snowmen Decorations

For this you need the following
- white air drying clay (or any air drying clay and white paint)
- rolling pin
- snowman shaped cookie cutter
- palette knife/spatula
- Sharpie marker pens
- acrylic paint
- matt spray varnish

Cut about 1/3rd of the block of airdrying clay and roll out to desired thickness. Probably about 2mm.
From a 500g block of clay I was able to make 24 decorations. though the last one uses up the leftovers.

Using the cookie cutter cut out the snowman shapes. Use a skewer to make a hole in the hat where the ribbon loop can be threaded later. Make this large enough and not too near the edge.

Gently prise the clay from the work surface with a palette knife being careful not to pull the head off. If the figure tears, just reroll it back into the clay and start again.

Lay the figures on newspaper on a tray or large box lid and leave to dry. I find my particular brand of clay takes 48 hours to dry completely and I turn the shapes over and then back again at intervals. It is better not to try and paint them until they are completely dry.

Once they are dry use the Sharpie marker pens to draw hat and scarf, eyes, mouth and buttons and the nose. As my snowmen are inspired by 'The Snowman' I have a green hat and scarf but you can choose whatever colour you like. Draw the back of the scarf and hat on the rear as well. Now paint in the body of the hat and scarf on one side at a time leaving to dry in between. Turn over and do the other side.

When dry you can redraw the knot of the scarf and the brim of the hat if you wish as this gives nice definition. Spritz with the matt varnish to keep the white pale through handling, allow to dry then attach a ribbon loop through the hole in the hat.  If you are using gift ribbon it may be too wide to easily thread through the hole. Pinch the ribbon to fold the end as this makes threading it through the hole easier.

Hang on tree and enjoy.

Note: due to all of the drying between stages this is not a quick process. This batch of snowmen took about 5 days to produce.