Those pesky little neighbor gifts...

You need some neighbor gifts don't you?

Or perhaps a gift for your kids teachers?

Or even your co-workers?

But you've run out of ideas huh?!?

Ya, I know how you feel!

Well...leave it to me to solve all your problems...teehee...make ya some 

Soda Bottle Snowmen!

Oh my dirty snow...

isn't it so stinkin' CUTE!?!

All you need is some tube socks, black tea, fleece, ribbon or twine, pom-poms and orange pipe cleaner!

Oh...and you'll definitely need your hot glue gun...cause this is a NO SEW craft!

And you'll need SODA...doh!

Now, make sure you get TUBE SOCKS!

You don't want a heel or the grey coloring on the tootsie part!

Now...before we get started I should warn you that there are a lot of pictures 

and my bestie and I made a ton of these bad boys!  

Don't let it overwhelm you...these really are super easy...and CHEAP! 

To give you an idea...we made 40 and spent $65 on all the supplies...that's a

whoppin' $1.63 each!

Okay...let's do this already...

Turn those fantabulous tube socks inside out.

Now...you can leave them like this or dye them with black tea!

For a full tutorial on how to dye fabric with black tea...GO HERE!!!

We let the socks sit in the dye for about 15 minutes, rinsed them out with cold water and then threw them in the dryer...and while we waited we put the hats, noses, and scarves together.

Let's start with your fleece!  

For 40 snowmen we used 3 yards...

Start by trimming off the edges.

And then place your soda bottle on the fleece to measure the hat.

As you can see I placed the fabric below the label and also left about 2 to 3 inches of excess off the top.

To measure the girth, simply wrap the fleece around the bottle.

The fleece only needs to overlap the tiniest bit...about 1/4 inch or less.

Cut and use this as your template for the remaining hats {if you are making more than one that is}.

Now it's time to hot glue these mini beanies together!

Fold your piece in half...

Hot glue a strip leaving the top 2 inches open {only hot glue the bottom portion}.

Fold, press and hold until glue is set.

{I totally love that I had multiple hand models for this tutorial...just sayin'}

And say hello to my little hot glue helper...

It's always great to have an eager 10 year old girl around when you need one!

This is what it will look like at this point...

Once you are all done with your hats it's time to start on the scarfs.

I cut each scarf at 1 1/4 inches wide and 28 inches long.

Okay...so it's probably a good time to check on those socks.  Are they dry yet?  Ours were...

Sheesh...that's a lot of dirty socks!  And on the dining room table no less...

Time to cozy those bottles up...get it...it's a soda cozy...bahahahahahahaha...

Fold the top down so it looks like your soda is wearing a turtle neck...see, nice and COZY!

Seriously...I crack myself up!

Phew...must go on with the tute...

Place your hate on the soda and tie your twine or ribbon around the excess.

Now cut strips into the top

{you can do this while it's on the bottle or take the hat off...up to you}

Step back and check out your AWESOMENESS...

I should point out that we used two sizes of soda bottles...2 liters and 1.25 liters

{we are also planning on making them in the 16.9 oz bottles but the socks were too big and we hadn't figured it out at 2:00 AM so we called it quits...for now}

Tie your scarf on...leaving a space for the nose and eyes.

'Fringe' the edges with small cuts.

Now...onto the noses.  

You may want to mute this...

a hubby came in the door in the middle and I'm not sure but I think there may be a cuss word.
{my apologies in advance...didn't notice it until it was too late and this is all I have for the noses}

That looks easy enough right?

K...ready to hot glue again?

And then the pom poms...two for the eyes and two for the buttons.

And there you have it...the cutest beverage cozy EVER!!!