Make your own Window Clings - Part 2

Since our first window clings, made out of Elmers glue, ended up dried out and on the floor I thought we could give these clings a try.  I found this craft at Family Fun and they turned out GREAT! 

This is going to be our go-to window cling activity for every holiday!

You will need......

dimensional fabric paint (I used glitter fabric paint)

ziploc freezer bags (They recommend using wax paper but the reviews suggested using either a glass baking dish or heavy plastic bag.  I tried both and prefered the plastic bag.)

snow flake template (you can find one at the link above or draw your own design)

Place the template into the freezer bag and start tracing with your fabric paint.

Wait until dry and carefully peel off.

Stick on your window and enjoy!

.......I think you might be seeing some Valentine window clings.......and St. Patrick's Day ........and Easter.  

I love these clings!

Borax Crystals

This was a COOL experiment/craft.

Here is what you will need.....

Borax Laundry Booster

boiling water

jars or glasses

pencils

pipecleaners

Create a shape out of your pipecleaners and attach it to the pencil {either with the pipecleaner or some yarn/string}

Boil water and dissolve Borax into the water - I used about 4-5 tablespoons of Borax per glass.

Put your pipecleaner shape into the glass being sure that it does not touch the sides of the glass.

Note - while Borax is a natural product it should not be consumed or inhaled so be careful and follow the precautions on the box.

Here is our snowflake before adding water to show how it will hang in the glass without touching the walls of the glass.

Here it is after a few hours with crystals starting to form.

Here are the final products after sitting in the solution for 24 hours.

So pretty....

.....and so easy!

Snowflake Craft and Treat!

Tin Foil Snowflakes

Frugal Family Fun Blog had this really easy activity to try!

Just take some tin foil and tear it into small pieces.

Then use double sided tape to make a snowflake design on your paper and start sticking the tin foil onto the tape! 

Super easy!

Sarah sped through her snowflake and Matthew left half way through the activity but Jillian sat and carefully placed each little piece onto her paper.  Here are some of the finished results.

Baked Snowflake Treat

After you have made your shiny tin foil snowflake here is a yummy snowflake treat!

Take a flour tortilla and fold it and cut it with a pair of kitchen scissors as if you were making a paper snowflake.

Place the tortilla snowflake on a foil lined cookie sheet and brush with melted butter.

Sprinkle with some sugar sprinkles.

Bake for 5-7 minutes in a 350 degree oven.  Remove when the edges are lightly browned.

Dust with powdered sugar and enjoy!

YUMMY!

Make your own Snowflake Clings

It was a SNOW DAY today! 

Our town declared a 'State of Emergency' from all the snow we had!  You can see that we had between 21" and 24" of snow!

No school!  Daddy's home from work!  No place we had to be!

Yippee!

We started with a 'special breakfast' of waffles and bacon (which I will have to post about - it is so delicious).

We decided to stay in our jammies and start crafting!  Here we are making our own Snowflake Clings by using Elmer's glue on wax paper.

{you can also sprinkle glitter on the glue for a sparkly snowflake}

Then we went outside to play.

Here the girls had just jumped off the deck railing into the drifts of snow below!

Here is how our Snowflake Clings turned out.  You can peel them from the wax paper when they are still a bit wet so they will stick OR you can use some water on on the back of them to stick them to the windows.

{Update - we woke to almost all the snowflakes on the floor.  They were directly above a heating vent which may have dried them out too much.  You could lots of water to restick them but then it gets a bit messy}

I got this idea from one of my FAVORITE blogs called Almost Unschoolers.  She has fabulous ideas that are the inspiration for a lot of our crafts and educational activities.

Snow Day

It's our first SNOW DAY of the year! 

We were unpleasantly awakened by an automated 5:45am phone call from the school announcing the school closure.  I knew last night that we would probably have a snow day so I was ready with snow related activities and books for the kids.  Usually I only have Nathan on Friday's - the prospect of having all 4 kids at home all day had me scrambling for activities to keep them busy.

Snowman Glyph

Have you ever heard of a glyph?  I had never heard of one before until Sarah started bringing them home as homework.  You use a legend (key) for what different parts of the glyph mean (like what kind of hat the snowman will wear, color of the scarf, how many buttons and what kind of footwear).  

Shaving Cream Snow Painting

The next craft we did was so fun!  I took some sky blue cardstock and drew a tree with brown marker.  Then I mixed good old Elmer's glue and shaving cream together and gave the kids Q tips and spoons to dot and smear the 'white snow' on their picture.  The results were great!  The 'snow' dried to a soft marshmallowy texture and the kids loved applying it to their winter tree.

You could also add food coloring to the 'snow' and decorate a Christmas tree with snow or make snowflakes on a dark blue piece of cardstock.

Then we sat down to read some snow themed books. 

Coffee Filter Snowflakes

The books reminded me of another craft I was thinking of making - snowflakes!  I filled small bowls with water, tinted with food coloring, and had the kids use droppers and Qtips to color coffee filters.  We let the coffee filters sit on paper towels to dry and then cut them into snowflakes to hang on our kitchen door.

And here is the little sweet baby that so patiently sits, watches and observes while we craft.