Family Snowman Portraits

These Family Snowman Portraits are the Christmas project currently being done by Grade 2.

I found a great deal on these primed canvases at Michaels last week, 10 for $14.99.  I think they are on sale this week for $19.99 which is still only $2.00 per child.  You can also find them at the dollar store.

You could also just do them on paper suitable for framing by the parents.

Draw in a horizon line in pencil.  After experimenting with the sample pieces I would make my horizon a little lower than the one in this picture.

Paint with acrylic in a nice sky blue.  Make sure to paint the edges as well.


Let dry.

While your canvas is drying cut out some circles from foam or sponge.

You need at least 3 circles, small, medium, and large.  I have some kids with large families so I will be cutting some long oval shaped ones so we can fit more snowmen on our pictures.

Taking gesso or thick acrylic paint (from the tub, tube, or a Folk Art Artist's Pigment brand) pounce in some snow on your bottom section.  You want to have some texture here.

Mix in a little bit of the blue and add a few touches...this helps distinguish the ground from the snowmen a bit.

You can also add some snow glitter if you want.  I added mine before my Mod podge coat and it was still shiny after.  You could also wait and add it into the Mod podge if you prefer.

Now using your sponges put in your snowman family...1 for each member.

Now you can line these up in any order....you can also put the Mom on one end and the Dad on the other with the kids in the middle.

Using colored paper add hats, mitts, ear muffs, scarves, buttons, eyes and noses.  A hole punch works well for the eyes and buttons.

Using sharpies you can add arms and smiles.  Make sure to add your smile first and then glue your carrot noses in place. (works better this way).

Glue into place with tacky glue.

I used my cricut for the letters.  My original plan was to stamp them in with paint but this was too tricky.  You could print some off the computer and cut into equal squares like tiles..that would also look nice. You could also add "the" if you wanted  (The Bartels)...we won't have the room on our canvases.
after thinking about it I've reconsidered and we will add a small "The" and a little "s".
I glued them into place and then covered it with a coat of mod podge...this secures all the paper bits and gives it a really nice shine.

This is my second sample.  Here I placed the snowmen higher up on the snow so you can see the full circle of the body...I like this better.

Another finishing detail we are going to do is add some little pompoms and make some of the hats or mitts in felt.  They will be attached after the Mod podge coat has dried.  This will add a little 3D touch.

See you next time.