Adorable polymer clay snowman ornaments to go on your tree or simply cheer up the house this winter.
We love the book Snowmen at Christmas, which we read yesterday as the first book in this year’s picture book advent calendar. These polymer clay snowman ornaments seemed like the perfect craft for this book! We pulled out the book and the kids got to work.
Polymer Clay Snowman Ornaments
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Materials
- Polymer clay
- Acrylic roller (makes the clay much easier to work with)
- Sculpting tools
- Glaze (optional, but makes the final product more durable in addition to providing a nice finish)
- Something to use to hang your ornament. I just discovered screw eyes pin findings, which would be ideal. We used the eyes from a package of hooks and eyes (nice and white); jump lock rings or earring hooks would also work.
Polymer clay is a lot of fun to work with! You can also do this activity with Crayola’s model magic, which I recommend for younger kids and especially if you want to make larger ornaments (polymer clay gets heavy quickly; model magic is very light weight).
A Winter Craft for All Ages
My kids LOVE polymer clay and they are big fans of this book, so they were super excited about this activity! We set the book and supplies out on the table and they got to work.
I loved watching my kids create all sorts of tiny details on their snowmen! Nine-year-old Emma spent a lot of time making striped scarves and tiny holly decorations for her snowmen’s hats.
Six-year-old Lily enjoyed using the tools to add different textures to her snowmen’s hats. Here are final products from each child, going from top to bottom, left to right:
- Three-year-old Anna’s snowman, wearing gold earrings.
- Snowman versions of me and Mike made by seven-year-old Johnny. He said that we were right next to each other because, “I think moms and dads are very special people.”
- Snowman versions of me and Anna made by nine-year-old Emma.
- A snowboarding snowman made by Johnny.
- Snowman versions of Johnny, Lily, and Anna made by six-year-old Lily. She added an Emma snowman after it got too dark out to take photos.
I had planned to turn all of these snowmen into tree ornaments, but the kids decided to keep most of them as figurines to play with. Johnny let me hang up the ornament of me and Mike:
Polymer clay snowman ornaments make wonderful gifts that kids can make to give to others, and these ornaments made for a wonderful afternoon of siblings crafting together. I’m sure we will be making more, possibly inspired by another picture book from our picture book advent calendar.
Do you have a favorite ornament that we should make, or a picture book that we should add to our reading list?
MaryAnne lives in Silicon Valley with her Stanford professor husband Mike and their four children. She writes about parenting through education, creativity, and play. Mama Smiles - Joyful Parenting is a space to share crafts, hands on learning activities, and family outings that enrich lives and bring families together.
Adventures of Adam says
What a creative family. I absolutely adore that photo of all the family crafting together – priceless.
Jennifer Dawn says
These are so cute! The kids did an amazing job!
Shelah says
My daughter and the kids that I work with love creating with polymer clay. Thanks for sharing your book inspired creations. We will have fun with this project!
Ticia says
Super cute! I love how they turned out.
Anastasia says
Its so beautiful to see kids making something like this together! Such gorgeous creations!
Melissa says
These are darling MaryAnne & it looks like your kiddos had so much fun making them! They are definitely on our to-make list now!
Sue Lively says
These are super cute! You can really see how much fun the kids would have making these and I can totally understand why they didn’t want them on the tree – why do that when you can play with them after all! LOL!
Natalie PlanetSmartyPants says
Ooh, they look gorgeous and reflect everyone’s unique personality and skill!
Kate says
I love how each snowman set is so different, and that your kiddos all sat together to make them. So sweet!
Almost Unschoolers says
Such a warm and cozy scene!
Elisa | blissful E says
Simply delightful. I’m so glad Johnny let you hang the ornament he made of you and Mike. That will be a treasured keepsake in years to come.
Marina says
I love all the different snowman characters. I bet the kids had so much fun creating these. I have a whole box of model magic in my studio, must try this! Thanks for the great post! -Flash Bugs Studio
pragmaticmom says
What beautiful ornaments your kids made! They will be the source of fond memories for them each year too!
Lauren says
So cute! Your kids look like they are having a blast.
Jen says
Those look great!
Julie says
What a lovely idea – really need to try working with clay like this – especially if you can make such cute little characters!