Do you also have a dysfunctional family? Is it so bad so that even the snowmen drink heavily? If so than THIS is the thing for you!

I found a lot of bottle balancer objects online and decided to go a little different and experiment with them along with the snowman theme to create this drinking snowman.

What you will need to create this beauty:

A compass (that lil circley maker thingey that you used to have in elementary school will now finally come in handy!)

If you do not have a compass handy, you can always create the image in a graphic editor program (beyond the scope of this 'able) and glue it on a piece of wood.

Also if you have coffee lids or such they may also be used, but they aren't as accurate as my recommended method....

Ruler. Not a king or President, rather a long straight edge with marks for numbers.

Band Saw or Scroll saw (or jigsaw if you must, but I don't think the accuracy would be very good....)

Table saw (probably can make do with table saw or scroll saw here as well, but it'd be tough to make a 35* bevel cut straight with such tools)

Drill press or drill along with a 1 1/4" bit (mouth) and a 1/4" bit (nose)

A piece of 3/4" plywood about 6" X 11". (You may be able to go smaller but not much.... the mouth and such will look silly)

A 1/4" dowel (only need an inch or so)

3 buttons. Not 4, not 2, but 3. (You can use 4 or 2 or even 4 and a half, but since I am on this end of the keyboard I dictate you shall use 3 buttons...)

Pipe cleaners in black. Or brown.

Paint. I used white and green and orange for his lil nose. But it's your project so you can use any color you desire!

Cloth for the scarf. His neck gets cold. And he likes to look stylish for the ladies.

A bottle of wine. (this is NOT to drink... this is to test! - and then drink)

(Side note, I have patterns I created from my design files for sale on Etsy -
) - Help support future designs and instructables! I also have pre-made snow mans for sale as well on there)

Step 1: Create the Pattern!

Take your piece of wood and align it 6" wide and 11" tall. (Moser Labs Quick Tip: Put a mark on the center of the board to help align the holes)

With a ruler, draw a line up the center of the board to show the center of the board. Make sure it's along the center of the board and not angled to a side.

Draw a dot at 2" from the bottom; this will be the center point of the base (or butt in Snowman language)

Draw another dot at 5 1/2" from the base; this will be the middle (or abs in Snowman)

Draw yet another dot at 9" from the base; this is the top (or brainey containey region in Snowman)

With these three marks, you are ready to doodle down some circles!
Using your compass, draw out a 6" circle (use your ruler and from the metal pivot part set your pencil at 3" - since a compass uses radius and not diameter....) at the lowest dot (the butt area).

At the second dot up (the abs), draw a 5" diameter circle.

At the 3rd dot (the brainey containey region), draw a 4" circle.

The three circles should overlap, and should form a snowman! (not sure why the one photo is upside down... I wasn't able to edit it in Pixlr app)

Step 2: Mark the Mouth Area

Snowmen need a place to pour that wine! Let's give him a mouth to use!

From the base, mark a dot at 8 1/2" up. this will be a hole 1 1/4" round. You can probably go a bit bigger but I don't know how well that will balance... Mine is 1 1/4" so let's stick with that!

Draw another hole at 9 3/4" from the base, this will be his carrot hole. It sounds wrong but I assure you that is a medical term....

Step 3: Cut It Out!

(if you are cutting the bevel on the table saw, sneak ahead to see an easy way to cut the bevel BEFORE you band saw the body out...)

Using your band saw, slowly cut out the snowman pattern. The base should be flat, and be sure not to cut into the side of the snowman...

Now take the snowman and toss him up on the drill press (you can also use a handheld drill but it's not as much fun and doesn't feel as manly...).

Using a 1 1/4" drill bit, let's drill out his mouth. Now that was fun!

Using a 1/4" drill bit, give him a hole for his nose.. Also fun!

Now that the holes are done, we need to give the bottom a bevel cut. I did mine on the table saw using a 35* angle on the blade. It needs to bevel so it tilts back with the wine bottle in his mouth (for better chug-ability). While this is easy to do with a straight edge, I decided to do it after I cut it... Which meant I had to make a jig to hold the side perpendicular (fancy word for 90*) to the blade.

Step 4: Decorate That Lil Rascal!

To make it look like a snow man, yer gonna need to dress it up a little.

I used white paint on the body (just regular white acrylic paint from the craft store) and green paint for his "hat". Paint both sides as well as the bottom so you can't see the grain.

Take a 1/4" dowel and cut it ~ 1" and sharpen down the tip to make it look like a carrot. Stick it in the nose hole (use glue if you wish) and give it some orange (carrot orange for the win) paint.

Glue 3 buttons (unless you are a rebel and decided to go with 4 or 2 buttons.... you little rebel you!) on the belly area.

I used a piece of leftover cloth as the scarf - cutting a piece about 9" long and hot glued it so you can't see the inside.

I also drilled two holes on the sides to stick pipe cleaners into the arms, and using a 12" piece of pipe cleaner, I folded it in half and made fingers on the end. I twisted them together down to the base and hot glued them into the sides. Now he can hold the bottle for his "Power Glug" stance"

You can also use "googley eyes" if you have them available; I personally went for the traditional "Non-Crazy Eyes" design.

Step 5: Stand (or Should I Say Lean) It Up and Show It Off!

The balance on the wine snowman is a little tricky. My wife still gets all nervous when it's balancing, thinking it's going to fall over and smash to the floor. I keep trying to explain that Gravity works all the time and it won't tip, but....

I use 750mL wine bottles, and most seem to be a standard size (I'm not a wine connoisseur so I don't know if they are all this size or not...)

Put the snowman on his bevel, and stick the wine bottle neck into his mouth. There is a balance point where it goes in just enough (mine seems to be about half way) - too much and he tips backwards, too little he leans forward. Find that center of gravity and you are good to go!

Bend his lil arms and watch him get hammered!