Saturday, December 20, 2008

Spool Snowflakes

If yer a frugal crafty type like myself. You may have an assortment of empty spools laying about. Even the non-wood variety are hard to toss. Turn them into printing tools for your kidlets and watch them make some nifty snowflakes!

You will need:
*empty spools (plastic variety are actually better for this than wood)
*tempera or acrylic paint
*glitter and/or salt
*blue or white paper
*newspaper
*paint friendly zone to work inscrumdilly-do it!

This is a super easy printing project that children as young as two can do. All you need to do is set it up and make sure there is a large pile of paper to print on.

Set out your paints. Use at least two colors for variety. I used the silicone cupcake liners for the paint and salt. The glitter here is stored in salt & pepper shakers. For a cleaner print, layer a few sheets of newspaper under the work area so that there is some give when your wee ones print. This will help the image pop a wee bit. It all depends on how much paint they slop on.

Add one empty spool for each paint color and let 'em at it! They can print willy-nilly or in ap attern. It is up to your wee ones.
While the paint is still wet, have your kidlets sprinkle (dump) salt and/or glitter on top. Set aside to dry and shake off the excess.

That's it! Easy peasy and pretty to boot! Use large sheets of paper or the back of your non-holiday giftwrap to make holiday giftwrap. Cut the art into card sized squares and make some holiday cards. Whatever you do, enjoy yourselves and have a happy day!

6 comments:

  1. Hi
    i love these photos - and I think this is a great art projects for kids to do...

    Eric Wolf
    http://www.storytellingwithchildren.com

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  2. Great project. I am certain my 3 year old daughter will love to try.

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  3. I did this today with my four year old. It was a big hit and turned into a science quest. We didn't have any light blue paint so I made some using blue tempera and white acrylic. After we sprinkled the salt on we most of the salt turned blue, darker than the tempera acrylic mix. Very interesting! We had a great discussion about why the salt only absorbed the blue and not the white. It was almost working as a filter.

    Thanks for the great idea!

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  4. Hippy Goodwife!

    that sounds awesome! how neat to watch it happen and have all the questions come too. thank you for sharing!

    I am so tickled that everyone is enjoying this project! makes me feel better for all those plastic spools out there!

    ~jek

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  5. What a great project! I am an art teacher and am always searching for new ideas to try with my PreK kids... this will definitely be on the calendar soon!

    ~Clare Wilkinson
    http://clarewilkinson.blogspot.com

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