Paper Plate Snowman Kids Craft

What You Need to Make a Snowman Mobile from a Paper Plate

• Paper plate
• Glue
• Scissors
• Black pen
• Scraps of construction paper (brown, orange, black)
• String

Snowman Mobile Craft Supplies

Cut a spiral out of your paper plate.

Use your scraps of construction paper to make a carrot nose, stick arms, and a top hat.

Glue on the accessories and use your marker to make eyes and a mouth.

Punch a hole in the back of his head behind the hat and insert your string. Hang him up and watch him dance!

Snowflake Art Project for Kids

All the credit for this cool snowflake craft idea goes to the author of Ten Kids and a Dog.  I saw it and just knew we had to try it with some canvases we had that didn’t get used for their original purpose.  We made four of them altogether.  Three of them (one by each of the big girls, and one by me) will be a Christmas present for my mom.  On the fourth, we added quotes from my daughter about why she loves her teacher.

What You Need to Make a Snowflake on Canvas

• Stretched canvas
• Tape
• Paint
• Paintbrush
• Marker (optional)

Lay the canvas down and use the tape to make a snowflake pattern like the one in the picture. It's basically an X with an extra horizontal stripe through the middle. Then add small pieces of tape at the corners.

We ran out of clear tape part way through the project and decided to try to make a snowflake with painter's tape. As you'll see below, it had a different look when it was finished.

Pick some nice winter colors. We went with three shades of blue and one light gray. The kids can then just paint however they want all over the canvas and tape.

It's so easy that it even makes a good toddler craft!

Once the canvas is dry, remove the tape, and you will have an awesome snowflake pattern left behind. (The one on the left is the one that had the painter's tape.)

As a teacher gift, we added "Why I Love Ms. Anne" along with several quotes from my daughter!

Pretty Christmas Candle Craft Made From Recycled Paper Towel and Toilet Paper Rolls

I am forever looking for ways to use old paper towel and toilet paper rolls for crafts.  We’ve got ours set up as a holiday centerpiece, but you could easily make this into a Hanukkah craft by creating them in different sizes and adding the “flames” each night.

What You Need to Make Paper Towel (and Toilet Paper) Roll Candles

• Paper towel rolls and toilet paper rolls
• White glue
• Paint
• Paintbrush
• Aluminum foil
• Yellow permanent marker
• Tape

Paper Towel Roll Candles Craft Supplies

Start by creating lines of glue around the top of your paper towel rolls. It looks better if you make them different lengths and leave a glob of glue at the bottom of each.

Draw flames onto your aluminum foil with the yellow marker and fill them in.

Cut out the flames with scissors. I left a bit of extra foil at the bottom of each so I could use it to tape the flame to the candle craft.

Once the glue has dried and you've put on your cat costume, it's time to paint the paper towel and toilet paper rolls. This is a very messy experience.

Tape the flames to the inside of the paper towel rolls. We added a little fake holly to make a centerpiece. You could also glue them to a painted paper plate for a holiday centerpiece that is a little easier to move.

Here's a little better view of how the wax "drips" turned out.

I realized later that those LED tealight candles will fit in the top, too. Just stuff some newspaper, tissue paper, etc. into the top and set the LED light on top of it.

 

How to Make a Kitchen Snowman Decoration with Your Kids

Of all the crafts I’ve done, this one got a lot of “oohs” and “ahhhs” from friends who immediately wanted to do the craft with their kids.  It’s super-simple, not to mention totally cute.  Talk about “Frosty!”

What You Need to Make a Refrigerator Snowman

• Construction paper
• Scissors
• Tape
• Circle template

Refrigerator Snowman Craft Supplies

Cut the shapes you need. We did four large red buttons, two large eyes, and five smaller circles for the mouth. That was so fun that we ended up adding a scarf and hat made from squares and rectangles.

Tape the shapes to the fridge to finish this easy snowman craft!

It was ambitious. It pushed my creativity. And in the end, I’ll tell you now – it ROCKED!

The series was a huge hit, so I’m reposting it again this year so you have plenty of time to make these gifts over the holiday season. And YES, kids can make all of them! They may look hard, but they aren’t! Some may be more appropriate for tweens, but nearly all of them can be made by kids as young as five. I’m seriously so proud of this series – and happy it was so well received by all of you!

Day 1 - Kids Modern Art Wall Plates	Day 2 - Upcycled Photo Frame	Day 3 - Super-Easy Flower Brooch
Day 4 - Anthropologie Seashell Bottles	Day 5 - A Gift for the Pets	Day 6 - Dollar Store Gilded Cake Stand
Day 7 - Easy No Sew Scarf	Day 8 - Easy Yarn Wreath	Day 9 - Easy Beaded Ribbon Necklace
Day 10 - Ballard Designs Inspired Art	Day 11 - Easy Cell Phone Case Pattern	Day 12 - Homemade Hot Chocolate Jars

Cute Pinecone Porcupine Kids Craft

Last night, while walking with Hazel, my 2.5 year old daughter, my heart skipped a beat when she yelled “Ooo… a PORKY PINE!”  As I frantically scanned the path, I was relieved to discover that she was pointing to PINE CONES!

As a mother, OF COURSE I’d take a bullet for my daughter, but a porcupine’s quill… I plead the fifth!

Her discovery reminded me of a fun craft we made last fall and I thought it was time to revisit it now that she has a better grasp of animals and body part placement.

1.   COLLECT:  Going on a “PORKY PINE” hunt!  This was Hazel’s favorite part of the activity.  Fortunately, we live next door to a Christmas tree farm, so we had a lot of success on our hunt.  Big ones, little ones, decaying ones (“it’s OK Mama, I wash it in the sink!”), we filled a bag and headed back home.

2.   READ:  We took a short break to enjoy a snack and a read one of her favorite books:  How Do You Hug a Porcupine by Laurie Isop.

3.   CREATE:  Any supplies in your house will do!

What you need to make these porcupines out of pine cones

• pine cones
• rocks
• googly eyes
• brown foam board
• green construction paper
• toddler scissors
• fuzzy balls
• other ideas:  pipe cleaners, paint, felt & fabric scraps, toothpicks, shoe boxes to create an entire habitat

Porcupine pine cone craft supplies

I covered the table with newspaper and collected materials that I thought would be useful.  There’s such a fine balance between letting the kids be creative and giving them too much direction.  I wanted the end result to LOOK like a porcupine, but I wanted her to own the process.  Also, since I planned to use hot glue, I had to really listen and watch as SHE DESIGNED her porcupine (as opposed to telling her what to choose and where to put it).

Practicing scissor skills

First I gave her a piece of brown foam board to be the ground and slathered the bottom (she chose which side) of the pine cone in hot glue to attach.  Next, since using scissors is a skill I’d been wanting to introduce, I gave her strips of green construction paper, showed her how to snip, and let her loose.  After she had cut a few strips, I folded them and showed her how we would glue them to the bottom of the foam board so our porcupines would have some grass to hide in.  She chose the placement and folded them, then I glued the bottom half to the foam board.

Adding googly eyes to your pine cone craft

Now, the PORCUPINE:

After looking at pictures in the book (or you could look at Google images), she decided that the pointy end would be the head.  From the tray of materials, she choose 2 googly eyes and showed me where to glue them (after patiently explaining that I could not glue them over HER eyes).  Next she wanted a nose… purple and yellow… OK!

Using your pinecone porcupines for a teaching activity

We also made a ROCK CRITTER which is a great variation if pinecones are not available.  Hazel figured out that the broken pine cone pieces looked POINTY, like a porcupine, so we glued them on.  Pieces of cut-up fuzzy sticks (pipe cleaners) or toothpicks would look great too!

Age-appropriate variations:

Age 1-3:  For the younger kids, pinecones and rocks are wonderful tactile experiences.  Encourage your youngster to feel all the pieces.  Use words like “rough, smooth, pointy, fragile, heavy, light”to teach new vocabulary.

School Age:  If possible, plan a visit to a coniferous forest to teach the difference between CONIFEROUS trees (cone bearing) and DECIDUOUS trees (lose their leaves seasonally).  Also, examine the differences in the pine cones you find.  With a little research, you may be able to identify which pine cones came from which trees!

Also – these could be easily made into holiday ornaments by adding a string for hanging!

Here are a few great online pine cone resources:

• http://video.about.com/forestry/How-to-Identify-Pine-Trees.htm
• http://blog.oregonlive.com/homesandgardens/2008/12/identify_pine_cones.html

Preschool Winter Crafts

Preschool Penguin Craft	Rainbow Ice Winter Craft	Preschool Ice Skate Craft	Pinecone Birdfeeder Craft

Winter Crafts for Kids

Sock Puppet	Winter Igloo Craft	Glove Puppets	Lacy Ice Craft

Winter Crafts for Teens & Tweens

Make Fizzie Bath Balls	Felted Sweater Mittens	Easy Felted Slippers	No Sew Slipper Socks

This pine cone bird feeder craft is easy enough for kids to make

The hardest part of making this pine cone bird feeder craft was finding bird seed in bags of less than 5-zillion pounds!  My daughter loved it and was actually able to help quite a bit.

What you need to make a simple bird feeder:

• A pine cone
• Peanut butter
  (Note – use soy butter instead if your child has a peanut allergy!)
• Ribbon
• Bird seed
• Plastic baggie

How to make a pine cone bird feeder

Start by cutting a ribbon about 24″ in length.  The idea is to make it so that squirrels can’t easily reach your delicious bird seed.  I think it’s better to attach the ribbon first so that you don’t get peanut butter and seeds everywhere later on.

Move a couple of layers from the top of the pine cone and tie the ribbon around tightly.

Next, smear peanut butter all over your pine cone bird feeder.  This part is kind of messy.  We worked to make sure we got some peanut butter in between the various layers of the pine cone for maximum bird seed coverage.

Peanut butter will make the bird seed stick to your pine cone.

Place your gooey pine cone into a bag of bird seed, hold the top shut, and shake.

(Leave the ribbon sticking out of the top of the bag so it doesn’t get covered in peanut butter.)

The seeds stick to the peanut butter to cover your pine cone.

Take it outside and hang it from a tree with the ribbon loop you created.  We put ours right outside the kitchen window so we can see if any birds come to enjoy a snack.

ETA: I may just need to face reality and rename this post “Squirrel Feeder Craft for Kids.”  *sigh*

The view that greeted me from my kitchen window this morning.

Hot Cocoa Gift Jars

My not-quite-three-year-old and I made two of these hot cocoa jar gifts in about ten minutes this morning, which worked out perfectly, since a friend unexpectedly stopped by, and we had a ready-to-go, homemade Christmas present to send home with her!

You’ll want to pick up a few extra things to make this jar gift:

• canning jars (I got used ones from a thrift store, but you can find new ones at the grocery market)
• hot cocoa mix (you can make it from scratch, but I took the easy way out!)
• mint candies
• mini marshmallows
• wax paper
• ribbon
• embellishments
• hot glue

Find everything you need for this homemade gift right at the grocery store!

Start by cutting two wax paper circles that are the same size as the interior of the jar.  They don’t have to be perfect.  They’re going to help keep your ingredients separate in their layers.

Fill the bottom one-third to one-half of the jar with your cocoa mix and place one of the wax paper circles on top.  Layer the mint candies next, followed by another wax paper circle.

Mints are a great addition to hot cocoa, and they look gorgeous in this display.

The top layer is mini marshmallows to float in the hot cooca.

Fun, colorful, and easy homemade gift in about five minutes!

Finally, decorate the jar with ribbons and other embellishments.  I had some silk poinsettias around, so I hot-glued them to the top for a festive look.

Jar gifts are pretty and you know they'll actually get used.

What I Learned the Hard Way: Hm.  This kids’ craft really was as easy as it looks.  I guess the biggest lesson learned is that my husband is in trouble for teaching the little one that marshmallows are “snowman poop.”  I got to hear that term over and over again this morning!

Remember, this is Day 12 of Twleve Days of Gifts Kids Can Make! 12 down and NO more to go!

Happy Holidays, everyone! xo

I’ve been wanting to make a yarn wreath for a while – and when I saw one on the Anthropologie website, I was inspired to finally do it! I chose this yarn specifically because it was similar to the one on their site, but you could make this in so many different colors (and multiple kinds of yarn) that would be suitable for any time of year. This would also be a great use of scrap yarn you have left over from other projects!

Yarn Wreath Craft

Here’s the original inspiration for a whopping $148 on Anthropologie. Yeah. Right.

Anthropologie Yarn Wreath

What You Need to Make This Yarn Wreath

Yarn – I used Bamboo Spun brand in Rose Camo found at Hobby Lobby.

A wreath form – I got mine at the dollar store.

That’s it!

How to Make This Yarn Wreath

It’s important to pull the yarn end from the inside of the skein, not the outside – trust me, it will make it much easier to wrap!

Simply tie the yarn around the wreath form and start wrapping!

Yarn Wrapped Wreath

It will work up faster if you wrap several loops at a time and then push them close together.

When you are done, tie off the yarn and trim the ends. Then wrap it up with a pretty bow to give it to grandma, mom, or it would make a great teacher gift, too!

Remember, this is Day 8 of Twleve Days of Gifts Kids Can Make! 8 down, 4 to go!