Paper Plate Snowmen

IT IS FREEZING OUTSIDE!! The kids want to go play in the snow, but this is really the best I can do right now. We made snowmen out of paper plates and gave them ear muffs and a scarf. Don't the snowmen look happy being inside?

Supplies needed:

paper plates

buttons

pom poms

construction paper

googley eyes

glue

pipe cleaners

Bottle Snowmen

We made some snowmen today out of yogurt smoothie bottles. I covered them in batting and hot glued it on so that it would dry faster.

Next we made the hats. For that we used some black craft foam. We turned the bottles over and pressed the opening of the bottle on the foam to make an imprint (I'm too lazy to look for a pencil). From looking at the imprint, I eyeballed it and cut about 1/2 inch bigger than it all the way around. Then we cut out the outside of that circle. Try to leave that inside circle intact, you will need it. The black halo shape fit over the mouth of our bottle with the lid off. Then we took the lid and glued the circle that we cut out of the halo on top. Then we cut out a rectangle that would fit around the lid. We glued that rectangle and put the lid on....voila, a hat.

We used felt to tie on a scarf and a bunch of our other craft items for eyes, noses, buttons, neither child wanted to make a mouth. I glued the pipe cleaner arms on because I used my hot glue gun so that they would stick out.

Supplies needed:

Bottle

batting

brown pipe cleaners

hot glue gun and/or craft glue

black craft foam

felt or fleece for scarf

buttons, beads, sequins, pom poms, googley eyes--obviously not all of these are needed.

The Snowman Melted

My son did this activity at preschool and thought it was hilarious, so he wanted to do it again with his little sister. You get some wax paper and make a puddle of glue in the middle. Then you place googley eyes, yarn for a scarf, orange pipe cleaner for nose, sticks for arms, felt or construction paper for a hat, buttons etc in the puddle. Wait a few days for it to dry and peel off of the wax paper. You can fool your friends by tossing it places and pretending it is an actual melted snowman. Such a HOOT! Ours haven't dried yet, but you get the idea.

Supplies needed:

wax paper

glue

orange pipe cleaner

buttons

felt

construction paper

googley eyes

yarn

Glittery Snow flakes

Do you see a theme with our crafts lately? The kids are dying for some significant snowfall here. We decided to make some snowflakes made out of glue and glitter. I outlined a snowflake in glue on some wax paper and we glittered the heck out of it. Again we waited until the next day for it to dry and I gently peeled it off of the wax paper. I actually dabbed a bit of glue from the hot glue gun and glued it to our kitchen window, but couldn't get a good picture of them to save my life. So close your eyes and imagine a sparkling, clean window with some beautiful glittered snowflakes. HA! If we can't have snow and snowmen outside, we'll make our own inside. :)

Supplies needed:

glue

glitter

wax paper

Puffy Snowmen

We made 2 dimensional snowmen yesterday and today we decorated them. The snowmen are made out of:

1/3 cup salt
1/3 cup flour

1/3 cup water

you can also add paint if you want it colored

We used brushes and a mustard bottle (from my son's football birthday party) to put it on the poster board and we let it dry overnight. Today we used play doh for carrot noses (we made them yesterday so they could harden as well), felt, googley eyes and sticks from our bushes outside for arms. They turned out really well and the kids really enjoyed making them! The salt even makes them glitter.

Supplies Needed:

puffy paint for snowmen (see recipe above)

play doh

googley eyes

felt

sticks

Our very own printing press :)

All you need to do is use a bunch of foam stickers on a piece of cardboard and then use a roller (the small foam craft size) or a foam brush to brush on some white paint and then put a sheet of paper over it and press all over with your hands. I think we will use hearts for Valentine's Day. Note to self...try making wrapping paper with it next Christmas. It turned out so cute!

Supplies needed:

paint

foam stickers

cardboard

foam brush or roller

Patterned bird feeder

While my son was with my husband at the Home Depot kid's clinic this morning, my daughter and I decided to make a snack for the birds with her Fruity Cheerios cereal. We put her cereal on pipe cleaners and then put them on the branches of our tree by our deck so we could also enjoy some bird watching. We put the cereal in the pipe cleaners in simple patterns and she loved it. She also loved having a snack herself. :)

Supplies needed:

cereal with holes
pipe cleaners

Fun with Foam Stickers!!

We have been reading a different Christmas or winter themed book every night before bed for the month of December. All of these books have snow involved in some way. The kids have been talking about snow all the time and they can't wait until it finally happens. Today, we played with a couple of foam sticker sets. And they made snowman door hangers for their bedrooms and a winter scene on foam sheets. They had a ball with these. I can tell this because of the huge mess it made HAHA...

It was pretty funny to watch though because my 5 year old was telling a winter story as he was putting his winter scene together..."This penguin lives in the igloo and he must be in the Antarctic because that is where penguins live."

Hopefully this has satisfied their desire for snow at least for a little while...

Supplies needed:

Foam sheets

foam stickers

Happy Holidays....

In my kitchen I have 2 frames hanging with a seasonal art project we have completed. Each child has their own frame. This is what we did for winter...the kids really love the snowman felt boards that they play with, so they wanted to frame it. This is our new framed art... This was our fall art. I love the tree handprint and the leaves are their finget prints. Too cute.

I CAN'T STOP!!

The kids were taking a nap and I couldn't help but remember we have a stash of plain t-shirts for the kids in the craft closet. I know, I know it is a sickness. I stenciled shirts for the kids. They would look really cute over one of their thermal shirts.

I can't help but wonder what else I can stencil...hmmmmm, the hood of my car would be good. There is all of that space. LOL! Don't stand still too long around here, you may be stenciled. :)

***TIP Don't forget to put a piece of cardboard in the shirt seperating the front and back of the shirt so the paint doesn't bleed through.

Supplies needed:
fabric paint
brushes
stencils or cookie cutters
tape for stencil
shirt

Sweet Dreams...

We love snow over at our house, so we decided to dream about it. We stenciled pillowcases today with fabric paint. I have never seen 2 children so excited to sleep before. They were so sad to hear that the paint needed 36 hours to dry. They were happy to hear that they wouldn't have snowman and mitten tatoos on their face from sleeping on them too early :)

I found these stencils at my favorite store...Michaels. I also stenciled their names underneath (you can see the first letter as the example). You could also use cookie cutters and trace them on cardstock and cut out the shape as well. It was pretty hilarious watching them paint though because I told them that they couldn't brush the paint on. I told them they had to go up and down with the brush so it stayed inside the stencil. So, as we were painting, just heard them saying, "up and down, up and down, up and down."

They turned out really well.

Supplies needed:

plain pillow case

fabric paint

brushes

stencils or cookie cutters

tape for stencils

cardboard (to put inside the pillowcase)

Snowflake Ornaments

I planned a few crafts for the kids on Thanksgiving and they did a great job! I had glued 3 craft sticks togetehr to look like a snowflake earlier this week and my husband drilled holes in the top of one of the sticks so that we could string it and hang it on the tree. We used, markers, buttons, sequins, and pom poms to decorate them. They all turned out really well and just like real snowflakes, not one looked the same. :)

Snowman Craft!

As flurries keep passing through today, we decided to make some snowmen out of craft sticks. We used acrylic paint, googley eyes and foam to decorate the face. The kids were very excited to paint and always enjoy wearing one of daddy's shirts so that they don't get paint on their clothes. They loved putting his face together too. They have had lots of practice with snowmen faces by using their felt board snowmen.

WINTER FELT FRIENDS!

So now that it is getting colder it inspired me to cut out some new shapes for the kids' felt boards. The felt boards are cardboard with felt glued on to it. The felt shapes I made were to make our frosty snowman friends. They loved decorating their snowman and they were changing the colors of the hats and scarves. It was pretty cute!

Is it winter yet? (hee hee)

I had a lot (an embarrassing amount) of extra winter fabric, so I made quilts for both of the kids to keep in the play room. They keep dragging their bed blankets down from their beds to make forts or have blanket picnics, so I decided to make ones they could keep there.

So after I made the quilts I had a lot of extra fleece (that is from the back of the quilt) and I decided to make them some scarves. I don't know why, but they both LOVE scarves. In fact, they have been wearing them for the past hour and a half inside the house. My 2 year old keeps asking me if it is going to snow. :)

The scarves were so easy. I remember reading about how to make them, but I can't remember where that was in order to add the link or if it was from the magazine. Anyways, I used about a 5 foot X 1 foot piece of fleece and put the 2 long sides together and sewed it up and turned it inside out. Then I sewed about 6 inches across both ends and cut the fringe. Sooooo easy. Or should I say sew easy. HA! That was bad, I know.