Whatever Wednesday: Santas and Snowmen

This summer my mom and I got together to make these amazing, HUGE Santas and Snowmen.  Originally made by my mom's brother, Terrell, we decided to duplicate them en masse.

The original snowman.

The original Santa made and painted by my uncle in 1986.

My mom and I had a friend cut six Santas out of 1/2 inch plywood. 

And six snowmen out of the same.

The snowmen were very easy and quick to just hand paint.  We primed them first and then just hand painted them.

 

The Santas were a little more time-consuming and more tricky.  After painting one of them by hand and it taking a very long time, we decided to take a different approach.  Here's what we did:

Primed the wood.

Painted the skin of the faces.

 

Took painter's tape and covered any place that we wanted to keep white, green, or black (anything not red).

 

We laid three Santas out on the grass and spray painted them dark red.

Then repeated with the rest of the Santas, using the tape and paper from the previous three (which is why it is red in the picture below).

After they were dried (about twenty minutes) we took them inside to hand paint the eyes, gloves, boots, and any other touch up that was needed.

We put a protective coat over the top (since these will probably stand outside in the elements).