DIY Snowman Craft from Thrift Store Dishes: Craft or Crap Challenge

Watch me tackle the Craft or Crap Challenge by transforming thrift store dishes into a charming snowman craft! Perfect for your holiday decor, see if this upcycled project is a hit or miss.

Here is another craft challenge. I’m teaming up with Mona from Craft Klatch. We are doing our craft challenge called “Craft or Crap.” You decide! Be sure to read to the end because there’s a giveaway by Plan On It Emporium.

Here are the basic rules:

1. Craft needs to have a Christmas theme.
2. It needs to include a candle holder to upcycle.
3. It needs to use something that’s made of glass.

Easy Snowman Craft Video

Snowman Craft Tutorial

This is a fun activity for kids of all ages. The whole family will enjoy this craft during the Christmas season. See the surprise at the end that really captures the magic of Christmas.

Craft Challenge Materials List:

You only need a few craft supplies for this challenge. At the end of this post, I’ve given you more ideas of supplies you can use to embellish this project.

• E6000 or your favorite adhesive
• candleholders
• glass item for the craft challenge
• gloves

Collect Candle Holders to Upcycle

I went to the thrift store and found a bunch of candle holders. I found a selection I could work with for my upcycled portion of the project.

The first thing I started to do was play around with the different sizes and shapes. I decided what I liked the best for each one. Here are the arrangements of threes I liked.

Place Adhesive on Candle Holders an Assemble

There are a lot of adhesives you can use. My favorite is E6000 for this kind of project. It makes the glass stick together nicely. I like working on wax paper for easy cleanup. I always put some gloves on my hands to protect them, especially when working with the adhesive.

To start, I’m working with this little candle holder that I found at the thrift store. I’m placing some E6000 glue on the top where the opening is located.

I’m going to take a different sized candle holder and place it on top of the first candle holder. I’m leaving the opening side up again. You could flip it upside down. It’s really up to you the way you want it to look.

I’m going to add a bunch of E6000 to the top of that candle holder. Make sure to give it a generous amount all the way around the edge as well.

For my next candle holder, I’m using one that looks like a crystal candle holder. It’s a little different shape, but I really like it. This one is nice and heavy. I’m going to place that one on top of the other candle holder very carefully. Be careful not to tip them all over. Place the base on the bottom and the opening on the top.

Let Glue Set

E6000 gets tacky to the touch at 2 minutes. You could do each phase of this separately and space it out. Or, you could do it all at once and use some blue painter’s tape to hold it together. It all depends upon how stable you feel your glass is. That will determine whether you need to wait for a while or you can do it all at once.

Here are three more candle holders. These candle holders are exactly the same.

This is the first candle holder. I’m going to add some E6000 generously to the top of it. Again, the opening is on the top.

I’m going to take the second candle holder that matches and place it right on top of the first candle holder. Again, you’re welcome to let that set for 2 to 10 minutes before adding on, or as long as you want.

I’m added E6000 to the top of this candle holder.

I stacked the third candle holder, the last one, on top of that.

I let these set, as well. I’m going to let both set for an hour at minimum. Remember 24 hours to 72 hours makes it completely solid.

Other Glass Options for Snowman

Here are a few other options for candle holders that you could use. You could go to the Dollar Store and get three of these same size candle holders or glass bowls. Or, you could make a variety out of those. You could stack and glue these together all easily found at the Dollar Store.

Another option would be to go to a thrift store and just start mixing and matching the same type or other kinds of candle holders. Look below. These shown have a little lip on them, which makes it a little easier to stack and glue together. They have smaller sizes of these, too.

Add Hat to Snowman

For my glass piece for the craft challenge, I found this awesome hat at a thrift store. I’m not sure for what it was used. If you know, I’d love to know. Let me know in the comments below what the original use is.

You won’t believe this. I not only found one, but I found four. I grabbed them all.

But what happens if you don’t have one of these hats? Look for candle holders at a thrift store. If you turn them upside down, it looks like a hat.

Keep thinking outside the box. Below are examples of other candle holders that I found at a thrift store. Turn them upside down, and they could be hats. Try a little glass coaster and a votive holder. I placed it on top, and now I have a different kind of hat. 

Votive holders overall are easy to flip upside down can also be a hat. Look for a four-pack of votive holders at the dollar store. There are a lot of possibilities. Here are all the examples I found.

I’m going to take the glass hat and place it on the top to see where I need the glue. I’m going to add some E6000 glue to it. Where you’re going to need to add the E6000 glue really depends upon this step. I’m going to add a generous amount on these ends here. 

I’m going to go back and grab that set of three candle holders, the first set, the ones that were all different sizes. They’ve set up nicely now. I’m going to flip them upside down, which is actually right side up now.

I’m going to take the hat and place it right on top.

Can you guess what I’m going to use in the end? Let me know in the comments below. Keep reading to see the little surprise that I have coming.

I’m going to add some E6000 to the second hat. I’m going to take that other set of candle holders that were the same size and flip those over. You wouldn’t have to flip because they’re all the same size. But, I’m going to show you why it’s a surprise. Keep reading.

I’m going to add the snowman’s hat to the top of this one, too. I’m going to let that glue set. This hat was a little less stable, so I added some of that blue painter’s tape to hold it in place while the glue set.

I want to go back to these candle holders. If you buy these and stack these glass ones that are clear, you could put little winter scenes in them. Here are some ideas. You could put some little fake snow in the bottom, and then you could put a little red truck. You could put some figurines in them and create scenes in each one. You can also make a snowman face. Glue on some googly eyes, orange carrot nose, and mouth if you want. 

Want another creative idea I’ve used for these? Spray paint them or use white paint for glass. I like to use frosted glass spray paint. You would draw on a face or use orange paper for a carrot nose. Use a little glove to create a hat on top of them like this one. 

You can find the full tutorial at Easy Snowman – Great Kids Craft Too!

Another idea would be to use Pledge floor cleaner, hairspray, or Mod Podge. You would swirl it around in the glass and then dump it out. Add some glitter, swirl it around, and dump that out. Put your pieces together, add a hat, a face, and a scarf. Now you have a glittery snowman.

You can find the full tutorial at How To Make A Snowman Craft

Add Lights to Snowmen

While my adhesive is drying, I’m grabbed battery-operated tealights. I also grabbed the white LED and color changing lights. Here are the lights I selected.

Here are the snowmen for the craft challenge. All dry and ready to go. I’m going to add the battery-operated tealight to it. 

I like to leave my snowman as glass, so you can really see light. Below you can see the beautiful flickering glow that it creates. What I love about the white LED light is it just vibrantly glows all the way through the top of the snowman. 

For the color-changing LED light, I love the effect that this one has too. Some colors are brighter than others, but it still adds a beautiful glow.

I’d love to know which light is your favorite. Let me know in the comments below. First is the color-changing LED light. The second the battery-operated tealight. The third is the white LED light.

Here are the snowmen that I made for the challenge. I’ve included some that I’ve made prior. You’ll notice that I’ve changed up the kind of candle holders and used different items for hats. Which one is your favorite?

I’ve added the lights to them: the tea lights, the color-changing lights, and the white light. You can see the variety of them all at once. Let me know which one of those you like.

If you want to dress your snowmen up a bit, try adding these accessories to your adorable snowmen:

• Add buttons or pom poms for coal.
• Yarn or ribbon for a scarf.
• Pipe cleaners or popsicle sticks as arms.
• For larger snowmen, use a glass bowl for the base.
• Use smaller materials for a snowman ornament. Look for vintage salt and pepper shakers from the thrift store to make little snowmen ornaments.
• For a preschooler, a good craft for fine motor skills is to glue cotton balls on black craft paper to make a melting snowman craft.

Did you know Mona made a snowman craft too? You can see it at Dollar Tree Snowman With Lights DIY

Easy Snowman Craft Video

Be sure to hop on over to Mona from Craft Klatch’s project. See what her project is and let us know what you think. You get to decide: is it craft or crap? We want to know what you think.

Now for the giveaway. 

The giveaway is sponsored by Carena at Plan On It Emporium!

1. Comment below if my project is craft or crap.
2. Head to Mona’s project and let her know if her project is craft or crap
3. Go to this link and sign up to enter the Plan On It Emporium giveaway!

MORE INFO ABOUT THE GIVEAWAY

• This is open to the US only. If you are under the age of 18, you will need to get your parent’s permission before entering.
• Winner will be contacted by Carena from Plan On It Emporium.
• Once announced, the winner will have 48 hours to respond, otherwise a new winner will be chosen. The gift card will be emailed to the winner.
• CARENA WILL ONLY CONTACT YOU BY EMAIL AND WE WILL NOT ASK FOR ANY PERSONAL OR FINANCIAL INFORMATION
• **If anyone asks you for any personal information and/or financial information, it is a scam. Carena will only reach out via the email you provide. Scammers are clever, so if you are contacted by a Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram account that looks like Chas or Mona and they tell you you have won, it is NOT us. It is a scam. We will NOT contact you via Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram. We will ONLY contact you by the email you provide in the giveaway form.

We hope that you will participate in our Craft or Crap Challenge. If you do, we’d love to see your projects.

1. So you can share it on Instagram with the hashtag #craftorcrap and tag @craftklatch or @chascrazycreations.
2. Join and share it in our Facebook group at Craft or Crap.
3. Or email us and send in your photos. chas(at)chascrazycreations(dot)com & mona(at)craftklatch(dot)com

More Options for an Easy Glass Snowman Craft

You can find the full tutorials at What To Do with Old Dishes: Creative and Easy DIYs

You can find the full tutorial at Glass Candle Holder Snowman

More Fun Snowman Craft Ideas

• Super Easy DIY Snowman Crafts You Can Make In One Day
• Snowman Craft Ideas: You Won’t Believe These Easy Dollar Tree DIYs
• Dollar Tree Snowman Wreath, 2 Awesome and Easy DIYs
• Easy Flower Pot Snowman and Santa with Video
• Easy and Cute Mummy and Snowman Reversible Pillow Cover
• Dollar Tree Snowman Wreath, 2 Awesome and Easy DIYs
• Wooden Snowman Family

And I hope this inspires you for repurposing and upcycling of your own for a fun winter craft.