making painter's tape snowflakes

For our week of Snow, one of our projects was making painter's tape snowflakes. I pre-ripped lengths of painters tape for the children to place on their paper after talking about symmetry and snowflakes. We used a sturdy paper for the project and the children enjoyed placing their tape down in a snowflake pattern. We also had strips of paint on the side of the easel if they wished to do more tape resist paintings. Many of the children did and for those they preferred to keep the tape on their paper as they painted only on top of their tape placement. It was really nifty and I wish I had photos of those...I totally forgot!

I added some clear glitter to our finger paints for the children to use. The finger paints were also out for the duration of the day. Most of the children preferred using a paint brush and so they did.

I encouraged them through dialogue to paint over as much of the paper as they could. The painting began with gorgeous colors that slowly got swirled over and over and over again until they met in the middle and became brown. Isn't that usually the case?

We also did another snowflake using watercolor paper and liquid watercolors. We talked about a warm palette and a cool palette and looked at our book for inspiration.

After the paint had mostly dried, we removed the tape, the children loved this part! So happy and sparkly and sadly I only have this photo of two snowflakes and well...the one on the left there is mine. When we sit down to do a led activity such as guided drawing or this snowflake project, I often will ask them to show me how to create lines and shapes etc. I completely believe that children should be allowed to follow their art to wherever it takes them and that sample art is not in their best interest so I never have one to show them ahead of time. I do however do the project along with them if I have not done it before so that I have a sample for my files. Otherwise they are free to create to their art's content which is a delightfully messy and glorious experience!

scrubby sponge snowflakes

There are all sorts of household objects you and your children can use to make snowflake-like prints. A few years ago I used empty thread spools, this year why not try using a scrubby sponge? You can pick up a six pack of scrubbers from the  dollar store or even check under your kitchen sink to see if you have any tucked away already. 

scrubby sponge snowflakes

*cereal box or other thin cardboard

*acrylic paint in assorted colors

*plastic scrubby sponge (not steel wool)

*white paint

*glitter

*scissors

You can certainly create your snowflake prints on any type of art paper but I prefer to use up what I have so this cracker box was perfect. Simply open both ends and cut along one side with ap air of scissors. Have your kiddo squirt and dribble on two or three colors of paint. 

Use an edge of another box, folded up newpaper or paint scrapes to push, pull and scrape the paint so that it retains some of its original dribbly bits. This will create a nifty marble effect. Otherwise, let your kiddos go to town with a fat paintbrush or sponge. Set aside to dry and repeat on the flip side of your cardboard if you like.

 To create the snowflakes, pour a blob of white paint onto a plate or repurposed lid. Have your kiddo dip and press all over the cardboard. While the paint is still wet, hand them a glitter shaker and let them jazz up their snowflakes. Ignore the yarny parts of the pics. I had originally thought if I cut into the scrubby sponge five or so times and then tied it at the cuts it would make a more prominent snowflake print. It did not, though the yarn does make the picture look a bit more quirky. Set aside to dry.

Once dry, cut around each snowflake and flip over to add another snowflake print on the back. Add your glitter and allow to dry. Once dry you can tape them up on a window or turn them into gift tags. Tuck a few away and I'll show you another nifty projects to make hanging ornaments with them! Stay tuend and thank you for visiting scrumdilly-do! 

Last Minute Snowflakes part 2

Once your snowflakes are dry, gently peel off the wax paper, admire and hang.And sometimes, there are casualties. This is why a thicker line works and just so ya know, if you try to unpeel your snowflake before it is completely dry, it will most probably break.I wish you all a scrumdilly holiday and tremendous New Year! Thank you for stopping by. Happy 2009! ~jek

**edit-I'm not sure why exactly, I'm thinking it is due to moisture but when I woke up this morning my poor snowflakes were all sloopy droopy. Maybe next time I will mount them to cardstock and cut out or I guess I could just make them on the cardstock. Whoop!

Last Minute Snowflakes

This is a great and easy project to do with your kidlets before bedtime. All you need is wax paper, white glue and glitter.Older kids can freehand their snowflakes, follow the pics for an idea how and younger tots can trace over a pre-drawn snowflake or, if you really want it to be open ended, let them come up with something completely different! Set out the wax paper, hand over the glue and go.You may need to go over a few lines that separated. Thicker is better but you want the lines to be definite lines.

Once your wee ones are done with their glue drawing, sprinkle your glitter over the whole thing and set it aside to dry. Overnight would be best. Some children get quite glue happy so the more resting/drying time, the better.

If you don't have any glitter on hand, you can use sugar or salt. Coarse salt would work super nifty-like. Powdered gelatin would work as well.
Once dry(ish), shake off excess glitter and admire. (You may want to shake that glitter into a container to reuse later).I'll show you how they look once mine are dry. Have fun!

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!

faux snow

Here in sunny Los Angeles, we don't have much if any opportunity for snow. If you are in an area where there is snow, chances are it is cold out there. So, why not set up this fun faux snow activity that allows for experimentation in science, math and art?

You will need:

*1 or more bars of Ivory soap
*1 roll of toilet paper
*a cheese grater, a plastic one will work fine
*a baking dish or foil roasting pan
*a medium sized bowl or container
*large measuring cup with warm water
*a splat mat or mess friendly zone to work in
*craft bits like pipe cleaners, felt, glitter, etc. optionalScrumdilly do it!

Set up your workspace. We used a plastic mat and a glass baking dish. Have all your materials at the ready so it flows nicely.

The first thing your kidlets will need to do is to grate up that bar of Ivory soap.. Ivory soap is soft and whipped so it works perfectly for this. . A glycerin soap may work but we haven;t tried it yet. Three year olds can easily do this activity. If you are worried about them hurting themselves on the grater, use a plastic one. You can of course grate the soap for them but that may take away a bit of the experimentation and process from them.Next, in a separate bowl, have your wee ones tear up some toilet paper. Your younger tots may have a fun time with this while the older kidlets do the grating. They can make tiny pieces or large pieces. It is all about the experimentation. Tearing the paper by hand uses the pincher grasp and allows for practice with fine motor skills. It's also fun! You can also simply tear up a few bits at a time and add them directly to your grated soap.Add some of the torn paper to the soap in the dish and pour a small amount of the warm water in.Mix it up! Ask your kidlets questions as they do this. What does it feel like? What happens as you mix? Do you need more water? More paper? More soap? Much like the salt dough science project, children will learn about balance, texture and consistency. If you are doing this as a homeschool project, bring in the math and graph it up. Have one group use less water, one group use more.If you can mix up a solid batch of faux snow. Less water, more soap and paper; you can sculpt with it and make mini snowmen. To form a "perfect" ball, gather a blob of the mixture and wrap a strip of toilet paper around it to help hold the shape. The water from the mixture will seep through and the paper will blend right in but keep the shape of the ball.

Add some pipe cleaner features or maybe a button or two or a pom-pon hat and you've made your own winter wonderland.This will keep for a few days. You can add more water to the sculpture to dissolve it and play some more. Add glitter for some pizazz or maybe a drop or two of food color to spice it all up. Word of the wise, DO NOT rinse this goo down your kitchen sink. Let it get all solid and put it into the trash. If you have inquisitive kidlets, they may want to try different types of paper. Tissue? Crepe? Phonebook pages? Have fun!