How to paint an adorable snowman face on a mason jar

I’ll be honest I’m not the best free hand painter. Most of my projects I use stencils for but I do have a handful of free hand pieces that I create {and creating more every year when I gain more and more confidence}. One of which are painted snowmen mason jars. They come in a set of three and are ADORABLE!

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I paint lots of these every year and sell the completed snowman mason jar sets in my handmade Etsy shop

I love them even more because each set is slightly different. When you handmake nothing is going to be identical, no matter how hard you try, but that’s what makes it even more special and beautiful.

These snowmen mason jars are perfect for gift giving, centerpieces, candy cane holders, tea lights, sooooo many options with these winter crafts!

Here’s what you’ll need

• pint sized mason jar {pre painted & cured}

• acrylic paints: orange, black, white, pink, gray

• paint brushes in varied sizes

• small stenciling brush

Watch my YouTube video below or keep scrolling for detailed written instructions on how to paint a snowman face on a mason jar

First you need to start with a pre-painted mason jar. You can do this on non painted glass but I’ll be giving the steps to create this exact style pictured.

I don’ t have a post on how to paint solid color mason jars but I do have a few tips to share on how I paint my mason jars

• use chalk paint {I used white}

• use a flat non stiff brush like this one ——> here’s what I use to paint solid colors on mason jars

• paint thin coats so you don’t have clumps of paint or streaks

• let your jars cure for 24 between coats {curing just means to let them sit, it allows the paint to fully dry and harden}

Ok once you have your mason jar painted you are ready to paint an adorable snowman face on it!

Paint the cheeks first. You do this first because they are behind the nose. This way you won’t have to go back and paint the cheeks and take chances on ruining the perfectly imperfect snowman nose. And the cheeks give you a guide to where the rest of the features will go. You can practice this on a piece of cardboard or scrap paper first. Use very little paint, you don’t want too much paint because once it’s on the jar it’s hard to take away without removing the base coat. Dip you brush in the pink paint, then add a little white, then swirl on the jar. Repeat this step till you’re happy with how they look.

Using a small round tipped brush paint the eyes using black acrylic paint. I make mine fairly small and I basically make two “C’s” butted up together, so that they make a bean shape. Fill them in so they are solid black.

Next use a pencil and sketch out the nose. You’re basically going to make a sideways curved triangle. To me this gives it a lot of character and makes it super cute! Then fill in the triangle with orange paint.

Now paint on the mouth with black paint using the same brush you used to make the eyes. I use the curved line on the mason jar as the guide for my snowman’s mouth. Just make little dots in the shape of a snowman mouth. My dots are never perfect, you want the to be lopsided like lumps of coal.

Make all the little accent lines, like the eyebrows and dash marks, using a pointy flat brush and gray paint. The gray paint gives the snowman face more dimension and breaks up the color a bit. On each eye I make a curved up line above the eye and a curved down line below the eye. Then, for the nose, I make a curved line around the base of the nose. I add a little dash mark below each dot on the mouth.

Using the wood end of the brush you used to paint the eyes, dip it in white paint and on each eye and mouth dot make a big and small dot. And on each eye make a dash line toward the bottom of the eye using the brush end of the paint brush.

The snowman’s nose should be dry now, paint a second coat of orange on it. While the second coat is still wet add a little bit of black paint at the base of the nose to give the nose more dimension and a tiny bit of white toward the top. This will keep you snowman’s nose from looking too flat. Then outline the nose with a flat pointy tip brush with black paint.

After the nose is dry add a little bit of “snow” to the top part of the nose. I used my stenciling brush for this step because the bristles are very stiff and give a good fluffy snow look. Use very little paint when doing this, if you use too much it will look like a fat blog and will be hard to fix without making a bigger mess.

I hope I was able to break this craft down into easier to follow steps. Let me know what you think in the comments below.