3-D Snowman Art

 Hello Friends! I am trying to share a few more fun holidays crafts with you before I close shop for holiday break with my family. I won't be writing new posts until New Years, but I will be sharing fun holiday ideas on my Facebook page. Thanks for the continued support.
This snowman craft was one I just had to get out for all you before I signed off. My kids (and I!) just loved this one. Have you used shaving cream for art like this? It is very cool and becomes art and sensory fun all in one!

To make your shaving cream paint all you need to do is mix equal parts of shaving cream and school glue together. It becomes the consistency of marshmallow fluff. It would be fun to add glitter at this point if you wanted some sparkle to your paint and who doesn't love sparkle?!

 Now, paint away! We made snowmen on this day. You could use this for many fun project ideas. I have seen adorable polar bears made this way as well. So cute!

I had an assortment of beads, button, pipe cleaners and pom-poms for the kids to build their snowmen with. G added a belly button on his!

We let these dry for a few hours. They feel like marshmallows when they are all dry and they stay nice and fluffy. Pretty cool!

 Oh yes, we just had to make a melted snowman!

Happy Holidays to you all! I wish you peace, love and many many cherished memories made.
xo
green owl mama

Egg Carton Penguin

 We made these penguins last winter and I just pulled out the goods to make them again this morning. I adore penguins and I think I have passed on this love to the kiddos. I also love a good recycled craft, so this one is a keeper!

 I broke apart the egg carton cups for the kids and grabbed some tacky glue, felt, scissors, googly eyes and black and white paint. This morning I think we may even make a few purple penguins.

 The kids painted the entire egg cups black except for the "belly" which was of course white.

 For our little penguin feet we used felt. Cutting the felt into a small heart shape worked perfect and a little tacky glue held it on to our egg cups.

 A felt triangle and googly eyes finished off our little guy and the kids discovered they could use these as finger puppets! How fun!

How cute are these little penguins? I just love how they turned out. I think I may include this craft at our family kids Christmas table. It would be fun to add some other fun accessories to the mix and see what the kids could come up with. A penguin with some fun yarn hair perhaps??

I shared this over at Kiwi Crate. Join me there for more winter fun crafts.

Gingerbread Playdough

 We made some gingerbread playdough last week for our favorite kindergarten teacher and had to keep a batch for ourselves. When I put it out for the kids I gave them a few gingerbread men cookie cutters and little trinkets to decorate their dough cookies with. To my surprise they had much bigger plans for their new heavenly smelling dough-- gingerbread houses, of course!

Ingredients:

2 cups flour (+ 1/4 c for kneading)

1/2 cup salt

2 tbs cream of tartar

4 tbs oil

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp nutmeg 

1 tbs. brown liquid watercolor paint (optional)

1 cup boiling water

1. Add all ingredients to a large mixing bowl in order as listed. As soon as you add the boiling water begin mixing well.
2. Dump dough onto a flat surface and add remaining flour while kneading. 
3. Build a gingerbread house!

**This recipe varies a bit, if your dough is too dry add more hot water, too wet add more flour.

DIY Winter Window Clings

 One of my all-time most popular posts is the window clings we made for Valentines Day last year. These are so easy and fun to make and all you need is fabric (puffy) paint and a large ziplock bag. While we were busy decking the halls last week Em decided we needed a new set of window clings for Christmas.

All your little artist needs to do for this is draw right on the ziplock bag with the fabric paint and let them dry. They take about a day or two to dry and then peel right off and will stick to the window flat side down. The kids love to move these around and make fun holiday scenes. After we made these I thought it would have been fun to make a snowman building set of window clings--maybe that will be next!
Happy holiday decorating!

DIY Swirled Ornament

When you think kid-made ornament you probably think of salt dough stars and hand-print reindeer, but this year we wanted to step out of that box and try something new and "fancy" as Em says. Yes, I am in trouble with that one!

 I came across these glass balls and thought we could definitely use these for our traditional ornament making night.

 I added a drop or two of all surface arcylic paint to each ornament and placed the top back on.

 Shake. shake, shake!! This took some good shaking to get the paint to splatter around. I think I might water down the paints next time we do this to give it more movement. We dried these over night with the top off.

Look how pretty they turned out!  The perfect fit for our "fancy" tree!

Fabric Canvas Collage

 We just got back from a beautiful Thanksgiving week with family and now I am feeling ready to conquer Christmas! Our tree is up, lights are on and homemade gifts in the works. You all know I love a good homemade gift for so many reasons, but mostly because it gets my kids being creative and resourceful. Buy less--create more!

 For this simple collage we used fabric scraps, mod podge, a canvas, scissors and foam brush.

 Looking at this photo now it looks a little dangerous, but I assure you I was close by watching like a hawk. She just loves the grown-up tools and I don't blame her, ever try cutting fabric with kids scissors??

 Em cut random pieces of her favorite fabric scraps and then arranged them into a collage on the canvas.

 Once she settled on a design she used mod podge to hold the fabric to the canvas. A good coat over the entire canvas at the end helps to give it a nice smooth look.

I love this project for just about any age because it can be an image or just a beautiful abstract work of art. This is going to be a great gift to custom for grandparents.

I shared this over at Kiwi Crate. Head there for the full tutorial!

The Snowman Game!

 A few years ago I declared that our usual Christmas Eve family gathering become game day! Because my family is so awesome, there was no hesitation (although I bet my pregnant sister-in-law dressed as a snowman above never expected her photo to appear here for all to see, good thing I'm her favorite!)

One of the games we played that year and continue to play every year is the snowman game. The family all splits into groups of three or four people and each group is given a supply package containing 2 rolls of tp, construction paper and tape. One member of each group will get dressed as a snowman by the other team members. We set a ten minute timer and when the time was up all the snowmen lined up to be judged by Grandpa.
I can't tell you how fun and silly this game is. So many laughs and great memories have been made. I highly recommend making your holiday gatherings a declared game day!

Egg Carton Wreath

 I knew we have been saving all those egg cartons for a good reason. This was an accidental craft, don't you just love when that happens? Especially when it comes out so sweet. Make a sweet little wreath today and join me over at The Studio for full instructions.

Snowflake Prints

 We made beautiful watercolor snowflakes using doilies. It was the perfect winter morning craft. Both Emma and Grayson could enjoy this one together and that is not an easy thing to do. I feel like a have made a mama accomplishment today and I have two beautiful snowflakes hanging in my window to show for it!

To see how our snowflakes were born, join me over at The Studio, now!

Recycle Chistmas Cards

 Every year it never fails--I end up with more holiday cards then people I know! I don't know why I can't stop myself from ordering way too many, I guess I am a planner. I am early to everything and never run out of something I need and this is the price I pay. So with so many cards I had to find ways to reuse them and not waste them! Especially the ones with my cute babies faces on them!
First, we made ornaments with our old cards and some contact paper. Really simple, easy and made for some very special ornaments to add to our tree. My full tutorial is over at The Studio, join me.

 

 The other way we reused cards this year was to make gift tags. Perfect. The kids loved to cut with fancy scissors while we did this and I loved using their abstract shapes on all of our gifts. Here is the instructions for this one.... Recycled Gift Tags.

Picture Frame Winter Scene

 

 Do you have old frames that could use a new life? We used our old frames to create some beautiful winter art work. Wouldn't these make great gifts? They were a lot of fun for Emma to make too. Anytime we paint on something that we normally don't paint--the excitement runs high!

We are over at The Studio, by Kiwi Crate with this fun holiday craft. Join us!

Elf Legs Apron

Is this the cutest little elf you've ever seen, or what? I think so, although I am biased being that the elf belongs to me!

 

Emma made this sweet elf apron for her little brother with mostly good intentions and also to humor herself as he ran around the yard with his little elf legs on!

We made this with a simple apron and fabric markers. For more details head over to  

The Studio, by Kiwi Crate for my full tutorial.

Scrapbook Paper Christmas Tree Card

Homemade cards are so fun for children to make and so special to receive. We made this one with all the beautiful scraps of paper we have piling up. Join me over at The Studio for the full tutorial on our scrapbook tree card.

Mitten Dolls

 My children wanted to make themselves when we decided to turn some spare mittens into dolls. This started out as a gift, but how could I part with these sweet dolls now? I love them and I love the time that we spent together creating these winter treasures.
We filled ours with coffee beans so they smell amazing and would really make a great holiday gift for a loved one. 

For full instructions on these mitten friends, head on over to The Studio, by Kiwi Crate. I am there with all the details!

Glitter Pine Cones

 Join me over at Family Sponge today for a fun craft that will be enjoyed by all ages. With some natures findings and glitter my children had some silly fun making these beautiful pine cones for my mantel this holiday season.

 Oh how we love our glitter.