Snowman "Family Portrait"

Homemade Christmas Series

Last year I was stuck and couldn't come up with any gifts ideas for my in-laws. Like I wrote about previously, we tried to do mostly homemade presents last year. And that's great when you're gifting to toddlers but what about parents and other people you want to impress and not offend by "going cheap on"!?
I tried fishing for ideas from my in-laws, but kept getting the same response:

 "Oh, don't worry about us, we'd love nothing more than a family picture of you."

Although I'm sure it's true that they really didn't want anything else that would end up getting thrown in a junk closet, there's no way I'd feel good about actually only giving them an
updated photo along with a

"Merry Christmas, thanks for the mountains of gifts you always give us!" 

But finally after lots of thinking and searching I was able to make something I thought would be just perfect- a little silly- but perfect!

A Snowman "Family Portrait"

My mother in-law is really into snowman plus she likes a good laugh so this idea I found at Small Fry & Co was awesome! You can order a custom one for your family from that blog, but I decided I should give it a try myself.

There are 8 siblings in my husband's family and it's hard to all get together for family photos. Doing a "snowman portrait" made it super easy to get us all into one picture!

I had soooo much fun coming up with ideas to personalize each snowman!

I made sure each little figure had a little something special to show their personality. Since I didn't get any close-ups before I gave it to my mother in-law I'llwrite a little description of some for you,

Police badge for my brother and father-in-law, apron and mixing bowl for the cooks of the family, shopping bag and stylish scarves and jewelry for the fashionable sisters, "M-CAT for dummies" book for the soon-to-be doctor brother. I had my son laying down on his soccer ball since he seriously falls asleep everywhere! My twin nieces are so active so I couldn't help but let their personalities shine through by placing their snowman upside down in hand stand positions. There's a father and son playing catch, the "mini-mom" niece holding her little sister, a cheerleader, my husband the iron man, the hunting fanatic, the scooter-rider, the little girls playing dress up and even the newlyweds caught in the act or kissing each other!

To make your own:

-Find a frame with a little depth to it.
-Line the back of the frame with cute scrap book paper or material. I used blue felt.
-Cut out the basic snowman shape. I used the same size for all the adult males, then made the females, kids and babies also match in sizes.
-Write a list of your family members and some of their personality traits that can be portrayed easily.
-Arrange the snowmen by family groups and make sure they'll all fit nicely in your frame.
-Tip: take a quick picture at this point to help you remember where everything goes after you're done adding the details.
-Get creative and start customizing each little snowman. I used scrap fabric, scrap book paper, Christmas tree ornaments, glitter, ribbons, and tiny beads for jewelry. I drew faces with a thin tipped sharpie and rosied the cheeks with a little chalk. I then took some blue chalk to outline and give a little more dimension to the snowman bodies.
-Label each snowman with their name
-Print your last name or a cute saying to add to it and you're done! I think if I did this again I'd write something clever, like "So what if we're a little flaky" or even a Frozen Olaf saying.

 It's supposed to be silly so make it fun!

At first I was nervous that everyone would think my gift was lame and dumb. We ended up also giving a popcorn maker along with this just for something extra. But I was so thrilled by how nice and complimentary everyone was about this! They all got big kicks out of seeing how I portrayed each family member. They'd say things like, "That's so Jared!" or "Yup, that's Braeden, you totally nailed him!"

Even though I sort of meant this as a silly gift, it makes me really happy to see that my mother-in-law has it on display, year round even! (Didn't I say she was obsessed with snowman!) It's fun to laugh about it and hear people comment on it every time we get together.

Aren't Families the best?!