Paper Pulp Snowball Snowman Head Ornaments

This is a great project that utilizes some recycling...you will need a fast-food drink carrier or cardboard egg box to make your own paper pulp. You can make these snowball ornaments fancy or simple and plain like we did.

Ages: 8 and up with adult supervision.

Supplies Needed:

Cardboard Fast-Food Drink Carrier or Cardboard Egg Box
White Crafting Glue
Styrofoam Ornament Balls
Blender with tap water
Old Plastic Bowl
Foam Sponge Paint Brush
Strainer/Colander
Wooden Clothespin
White, Black and Orange Acrylic Paint
Paint Brush
(optional) scrap piece of fleece fabric

Making The Paper Pulp - Rip your empty paper drink carrier or empty egg box into small pieces. Place the pieces into an old plastic bowl. Pour in just a little bit of tap water and let the pieces soak for 60 minutes. Once they are good and wet, Pour paper mixture into a strainer. Using your hands, squeeze out excess water. Place paper pulp into your blender container and blend on low speed so that it gets mushy. Pour the pulp back into your empty plastic bowl. Stir in some white craft glue so that you are forming sticky paper pulp. Mine is the consistency of lumpy dough.

Making The Snowball - Using a foam-style paint brush, lightly spread white craft glue on 1/2 of your Styrofoam ball. Using your hands...pat on the paper pulp dough so that you are covering the top half of your ornament ball. Repeat this process on the bottom half of your ball. Once done, hang the ball up via the clothespin so that it can dry and harden. (mine take approximately 16 to 24 hours).

Note: I got a package of sparkly foam balls at our local dollar store...6 balls for $1.00 and those are cheaper than the craft store. You can recycle old ornament balls too...after all, you are covering them with the homemade paper pulp.


Adding The Facial Features - Once your ball is dry, paint with two coats of white acrylic paint. Once that is dry, paint on black eyes, black dots for his mouth and finally, an orange triangular shaped nose.

Optional Scarf - We cut a piece of fleece measuring 1 1/2" wide by approximately 10" long and tied that into a loop and then glued it to the bottom of our ball to resemble a fleece scarf.