The following project is to make an absolutely amazing Christmas countdown clock. It is completely manual but makes an amazing gift for the snowman lover in your life.

Step 1: Measure Twice, Cut Once

To begin we are going to cut out the pieces for the Hat and Head. The hat consists of two pieces. Brim is a piece that is 2 1/2" * 18" * 3/4". The actual stack of the hat is 12" * 15" * 1/4". You buy the wood for it or you can use wood you have lying around. You should use the table saw for these cutting operations other than the cutting to length which can be done on the miter saw for the brim.

The Head is a round board about 1" thick and 18" across. You can use a scroll saw to cut this if using your wood. I purchased mine at mernards although you could probably get it at most any hardware store.

* the Brim can be made from a 2*4 that has been worked down to about the size I happened to make mine to. Its up to you.

Step 2: The Nose Goes

The nose is actually one of the easiest pieces. All I did for the nose is take a piece of wood about 5 inches long about 1 inch wide and draw a carrot on it the length of the piece and used the belt sander to sand it to the desired shape although I suppose a scroll saw could also do the trick.

Step 3: Glue It Down, Down, Down

Now you are going to make the hat ready for the snowman to wear. You need to take the stack and the brim and glue the stack to about halfway up the brim at the side that is 15" long and in toward the center from the edges which is about 11/2"

Step 4: Spray That Paint

For the head and the nose you just need to lay out a tarp and spray paint the face white and the nose orange. I would put multiple coats of the white because it is not always that thick. Once the glue has dried after a few hours you can paint it the black base coat.

Step 5: Details, Details, Details!

Hat: For the hat you need to ape off the brim and the shape of the ribbon. This ribbon is painted red and then white added while wet to create a nice effect on it. The Words " Days Till Christmas" are painted on with a fine brush and white paint. If you want you can add snowflakes to either end of the brim.

Nose: For the Nose you just need to add black curved line coming close to the center

Face: The face is probably the most complicated part. If you have stencils you can use those but I just free handed the numbers. I implore you to please gauge out roughly where the numbers will be and mark it out with a pencil. The spacing of where they are can go wonky if you do not. I would also mark out your where your hat is going to go as well as your nose before painting. You can also paint on your eyes and smile at this point. My suggestion is to make your eyes look away not right at you.