Illuminate Your Christmas

How to Build a Wooden Snowman (page 1 of 2)

No snow? No worries. Make your own wintry snowman to decorate your yard.

By Chris HillMore in Outdoors

Step-by-Step Instructions:

This project uses pocket-hole joinery in a couple of steps.

You'll also need a beam compass or you can make your own. To do that, grab a piece of scrap wood, a paint stirrer or a thin craft board. Cut it to roughly 14 inches. Mark a center line along the length of the board. Drive a 4d nail on a spot on the line near the end of the board. From the center of the nail, mark a line that matches the length of the radius - for this project you'll need a 12-, 10- and 7-inch radius. Drill a hole on that mark large enough for a pencil point to fit through . Now you can just drive the 4d nail into your radius distance mark on your project piece and draw the radius.

Project Cut List

All these pieces are cut from 3/4" plywood:

For the body - one piece at 24" x 47-3/8"
For the hat - one piece at 8-1/2" x 17-1/4"
For the thumbs – two pieces at 1-1/2" x 3-3/4"
For the forefingers– two pieces at 1-1/2" x 5-5/8"
For the middle fingers – two pieces at 1-1/2" x 5"
For the pinkies – two pieces at 1-1/2" x 4-5/8"
For the palms – two pieces at 1-1/2" x 6-5/8"
For the forearms – two pieces at 1-1/2" x 9"
For the upper arms – two pieces at 1-1/2" x 35-1/2"
For the support piece – one at 3/4" x 3-1/2" x 23-3/4"

Create the Body

Use the guide for marking the body (image 1). Use a beam compass or do-it-yourself compass to make the marks (image 2). Cut out the body using a jigsaw (image 3). Sand any rough edges and paint the body white.

- Image 1
- Image 2
- Image 3

Make the Hat

Use the guide for marking the hat (image 1). Make sure to mark the outline so it will be easy to see (image 2). Cut out the hat using a jigsaw (image 3). Tape off a 1-1/2-inch wide strip on the hat and paint the remainder black (image 4). Remove the tape and allow the black paint to dry. Apply tape to the edge of the black paint and apply blue paint to the unpainted strip. Position the hat so that it is slightly tilted on the smallest circle (head) on the body, and attach using glue and three 1-1/4-inch deck screws.