crafts

How to Make Wooden Snowmen Crafts

Posted on February 1, 2020 by Home

Wooden snowmen crafts are gorgeously simple, and this is a major part of their charm. You can make these quaint holiday-themed objects from a wide variety of off-cuts and timber, and they don’t usually require any special knowledge of a vast supply of woodworking tools. All you need is some imagination and time. If you’d like to find out how to make wooden snowman crafts, here are a couple of ideas.

How do I make wooden snowman crafts? 

You will need some tools such as a band saw, a drill, wood glue, paint, and some decorations such as twigs or yarn for the snowman’s scarf. 

Project 1

One snowman that caught our eye was fashioned from three cut wooden circular slices of a tree branch cut with an ordinary band saw. The first slice can be laid flat on the table as a base and to this you drill holes and fix the perpendicular next wooden disk – the snowman’s body standing upright. The snowman’s head is then fixed in the same way to the body. The overall appearance (even before decorating your piece) is unmistakably a snowman.

Once you have your snowman structure in place, you can decorate with a cute face, add the sticks for his arms, and fix the yarn around his neck for the scarf. Cute, appealing, and very effective this basic prototype for wooden snowman crafts can be used in a variety of ways and works for all sizes.

Project 2

Alternatively, to keep things simpler, just cut a small branch from your garden and form into a triangular shape at one end and hopefully leaving the wood stable at the other end so it can stand.

Scrape off the bark at the pointy end, leaving the wood smooth underneath, and decorate with a painted face, a tiny Christmas inspired hat and a scarf. We painted a hat on the pointed end of the wood and added a real scarf made of green and red tinsel, but the choice is up to you.

These types of wooden snowmen crafts look really effective when stood together in a group. The beauty of this design is that you do not need to do any drilling or screwing. The only glue you will need is to stick on your scarf or perhaps a nose or some tinsel.

Making wooden snowmen crafts is a Christmas activity that reflects the changing of the seasons and celebrates the holidays. If you are working in your garden in the fall, don’t consign your bits of old branches to the trash. Keep them safe as you prepare for the onset of winter, and try making your own wooden snowmen crafts instead. 

For added holiday fun, turn on and sing along to “Frosty the Snowman” with your family after the project is all finished!For other fun wooden snowmen craft project ideas, check out some of our other favorite sites, Instructables and the DIY Network.

Woodworking Letters: How to Carve Words into Wood

Posted on December 10, 2019 by Home

If you love DIY wood projects, you’re in the right place! Wood carving is one of those great hobbies that is not only enjoyable; it creates extremely satisfying great results. If you are thinking of getting started on wood carving and are considering which type of project to embark on, you may hit upon the idea of making a sign for your house or your shed. Woodworking letters into a sign seems like a worthy ambition but how do you ensure that your efforts pay off with great results? Keep reading to find out!

Getting Started with Woodworking Letters

First, you need some good quality woodworking tools. To create woodworking letters by hand, you need a good quality chisel and a dummy (a mallet specially designed for carving letters). Alternatively, you can use knives or gouges or whatever you feel comfortable with.

The second thing you need of course is your wood for the sign. However, if you are new to carving woodworking letters, you should not even touch this yet. Instead, practice your carving skills on scrap pieces of wood so that you get an understanding of how deep you need to carve, the angle, and how to create the best possible effect from the wood. You can pick up free wood scraps at a local hardware store.

Which Type of Wood Should I Use?

The type of wood you use will large depend upon how you want it to look. However, some woods are far easier to work with than others.

Basswood is a great wood for beginners. It is inexpensive and easy to use and because it has very little grain and is soft, is a good one to start with.

Butternut and Aspen are also similarly priced and are easy to carve. Although these woods are all technically hardwoods, they are on the softer end of the scale.

Oak is a beautiful wood, but it is fairly hard and may be difficult for the novice hand carver. Oak works fantastically well with power tools but unless you are already experienced with power tools and creating woodworking letters it is not the best choice to start with. 

Black Walnut is beautiful. It is also expensive and not that easy to work with.

Designing the Sign

Once you feel confident with your carving skills, you need to design your sign. You can do this via your computer’s Word program. Find the font that you want with the correct line spacing and print out the word in the correct size. If your printer cannot provide this for you, a trip to your local printing or copying store will provide what you need.

Using some spray glue, stick the lettering to your piece of wood so that you can follow the pattern with your chisel. Once you have outlined the design, you can remove the paper from the wood and go it alone.

Using a Router Instead

If you don’t want to carve by hand, why not use a wood router? There are numerous router attachments specifically designed for creating woodworking letters. You can use a router freehand or use a simple plan and results can be equally impressive. 

Is it is good as hand carved sign? Yes! Is it as fun to create? This comes down to personal preference but for our money, you can’t beat hand carving for satisfaction and enjoyment.