The Impatient Crafter : snowman crafts

Here comes Suzy Snowflake...

This is perhaps one of my favorite projects...ever. I spent three full days carefully working on this, waiting patiently for the layer upon layers of material to dry. There was one craftastrophic moment with her nose, which I fixed with a few new layers of faux snow and a bead...PHEW! She is a little kitschy crafterpiece inspired by a project in a 1966 Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Ideas magazine and I am completely smitten. She was a labor of love. Not for a book or a magazine or a manufacturer, but just for the love of making. I know, she's funky, she's weird...she's...well...totally Madge.

I used a variety of materials including a generous sprinkling of SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS (check out her tiny jewelries and her arms), fabric flowers, Aleene's Glitter Snow, Aleene's Quick Dry Tacky Glue, pink and snowflake sequins, tinsel ball chain ribbon, pink bubble and glitter organza ribbon, head pins and eye pins, Aleene's Fabric Fusion tape, 20 gauge Beadalon German style wire...and Stickles glitter glue in Stardust from Ranger. I used Sharpee pens to color in her facial features. I scored these peppermint beads a few years back at my friend Stan's shop. I don't know if he has any left, but his url is www.greatcraftworks.com. I got the mini-flocked trees on close out a few years ago, just added glitter, sequins, ball chain and a peppermint bead tree topper. If you make something similar, be sure to use steel or hard tension armatures, she needs stability, regular craft wire will not work. There is an armiture wiring her body together and a second armiture wiring her to the styrofoam stand. She needs to be free from the stand during the embellishment process.When you glue headpins with embellishments into her or the stand, make sure you dab some Tacky Glue on the stem of the headpin. This keeps them from working themselves back out over time.

A crafty angel donated a HUGE plethora of vintage craft magazines to Studio Madge this weekend. There is so much inspiration inside my head is spinning! Huge thanks to Erin Holloway (and Ms. Phylma.) You are at least seventeen different kinds of awesome! (Check out Erin's tatting work, a ma zing!)

Stay tuned for more Retrofabulosity from Studio Madge for the Holidaze and beyond! And if you've not heard this lovely holiday song yet, below is a YouTube video with the incomparable Rosemary Clooney singing Suzy Snowflake. Divine.

Cheers,
Madge

I created this rather large and somewhat lumpy snowman for an appearance on QVC several years ago. I was selling the mysterious substance known as Floam and had to whip up some samples to show folks what to do with it. I have to admit, it's a rather fun medium! It's particularly suited to Styrofoam, but you have to work with it to get it to stick.

Floam has the dubious distinction of being 'possibly the most hated toy ever'. It may be a dreadful toy, but it's a truly fun craft medium. If you search, you can find recipes to create your own, or you can dig around and find some to buy pre-made.

This is the most popular project on my blog right now and I can see why. It's got a shabby, country, folk art friendly appeal. Alas the original Frosty the Floam Man has probably been dumped into a landfill somewhere and I am fresh out of floam, enthusiasm and giant Styrofoam balls to recreate him. Still I can print him out as a lovely photograph and sigh wistfully and you can follow this link to get the instructions to make a Frosty of your own! Huzzah!

Sigh.

Tune in for more Retrofabulosity to come!

xoxo
Madge

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Retrofabulous Christmas Craftabration: Suzy Snowflake Snowlady

Retrofabulous Frosty the Floam Man!

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