Top Note Snowman

I love the Top Note die, exclusive to Stampin' Up!  It was one of the first dies I bought when I got my Big Shot a few years ago.  I have probably made a few THOUSAND top notes with that die, and it still cuts beautifully, every time!
I often look on SplitcoastStampers.com for inspiration for my projects.  Sometimes, I just need something to get me started, and other times, I end up copying someone else's project, almost exactly.  This one is probably somewhere in the middle.  This is not a new idea, and I don't know who was the first to cut the end off of the top note to make the top hat, but this is my end result:

I used Bashful Blue for my base, Marina Mist for the bird and sentiment, Wild Wasabi for the branches, and Tango Tangerine for the nose to match the Tango Tangerine scallop dots ribbon.  The face is Whisper White, and the hat is Basic Black.
To cut the faces, I tried to save as much paper as possible, so I cut my WW down to 3 3/4" X 2 3/4".  If you cut your paper into a long strip 3 3/4" wide, you then can get 4 faces out of it (11 divided by 4 = 2 3/4).  This also left a 1" strip so that I could make the banner.  The banner is 1/2" by 4 1/4, with the ends cut...  So one sheet of white paper yielded 8 faces and 4 banners, with no waste, except for what gets cut off around the die.
The hats were also 3 3/4 wide, but you only need 2" to make that hat.  Again, the extra inches of leftovers went to the hat brim.  They are 4" long, so I cut them before making the hats...One sheet of black yielded 10 hats and 8 brims.
The eyes and mouth are made with our (retired...sniff) Black Waffle Paper.  We still carry it in Silver and Gold.  If you don't have Waffle Paper, Basic Black scraps would work fine too, but I would crumple them up a bit to give them a rough look, like coal...  I used my 1/2" Circle Punch to cut the eyes and mouth.  I folded the waffle paper into 7 layers, and punched all 7 at once.  This gave me several perfect circles, and a few with torn edges, because the Waffle paper is so thin, it doesn't always punch cleanly.  The perfect circles were used for the eyes, and the others were crumpled up to make the mouth.  A dab of Tombow Multipurpose glue (the green and white bottle), and they were set!
The cheeks are just a Sponge Dauber and Pink Pirouette ink, a little White Gel Pen for the eyes, and a few touches of Craft White ink here and there....Super fun and Super Cute!  I've cut out about 75 of these little guys for kits so far and have sold them all!  If you would like a set of 8 for $10, let me know!

In fact, I had used up all of my Bashful Blue, so I tried a few alternatives.  Here they are in Baja Breeze and Not Quite Navy, and the reversed colors (Marina Mist base and Bashful Blue bird).