” Warm up your kid’s teacher or your coworkers with a sweet holiday gift like this DIY Snowman Hot Chocolate Kit, combined with some favorite mix-ins. This easy-to-make and inexpensive holiday craft is a festive way to get into the gift-giving mood and stick to your budget.
To lessen the cost of this project per kit, make several of them. Don’t forget the principal, the school support staff, the bus driver, the crossing guard, coaches, music teachers, carpool buddies, and your support staff or Secret Santa buddy at work. Also, remember, big-box craft stores always have coupons on their websites, apps, and mailers. Be sure to bring some along when you head out to the store.
Materials:
- Scissors
- Ribbon
- Hot glue or glue dots (a good choice if your child wants to be hands-on)
- Plastic bottles (I found these four in the sand art section of Hobby Lobby for 2 for $2; they hold 80 ml each)
- Snowman head (I found these in the floral section of Michael’s on sale for $2 each. If you can’t find them, make your own with a Styrofoam ball, cello glitter, glue, skewer, felt for the face, and pipe cleaner and pom-poms for the ear muffs.)
- Black pom-poms
- Black pipe cleaners
Mix-ins:
- Hot chocolate mix (less than $2 for a box. You need 2 1/3 cocoa packages to fill one bottle.)
- Mini marshmallows (less than $2 for a bag)
- Mini chocolate chips (less than $2 for a bag)
- Crushed peppermints (simply take your candy canes or peppermint candies, place them in a plastic bag, then hit them with a hammer until they are crushed). (less than $2 for a bag)
Additional Mix-In Ideas:
- Cut-up pieces of caramel
- Crushed pieces of peanut butter cups
- Crushed pieces of Andes mints
- Crushed peppermint patties
- Cinnamon sticks
- Sprinkles
Instructions:
Step 1: Fill your bottles with your hot cocoa mix and your favorite mix-ins.
Step 2: Hot glue (or use glue dots for kids) your bottles together in a bunch
Step 3: Wrap the top of each bottle with ribbon and hot glue.
Step 4: Place the bottles with peppermints and marshmallows together, and use those to create the front of your snowman — you want to give the illusion of a white snowman body. Hot glue a piece of ribbon around the bottles. Then hot glue the pom-poms (like buttons!) vertically on the bottles. Make sure you stick the head of the snowman on top.
Step 5: Hot glue another piece of ribbon around all four bottles tops.
Step 6: Cut two 2″ pieces from the pipe cleaners.
Step 7: Create “branch hands” from the pipe cleaners by creating a “t” with the end of the pipe cleaner and one of the 2″ pieces. Fold the end over the 2″ piece and create a “v” shape. Do this on the other side.
Step 8: Insert the branch pipe cleaner in the center of the snowman so it slides all the way through and you have branch arms on either side.
A former magazine editor, Kelly Joy Ladd is now a professional craft designer, blogger, and artist in Orlando, Florida. Kelly is always creating something whimsical, bright, and colorful. When she’s not covered in shreds of paper, she can be found riding Splash Mountain at Disney World with her son and husband. Visit her blog at Handmade by Kelly.
Source: thestir.cafemom