My Instagram account has made no secret of how we are enjoying wintertime and while most of the country is entrenched in a cold spell, we are here in Florida, sweating it out.
Truly, one of the hardest things about living in Florida is the severe lack of seasons, unless you consider hot, rainy and not as hot seasons. And snow is one thing I miss being able to share with my kids (though I can’t say I miss driving in the snow or shoveling out!) My kids aren’t strangers to snow, they’ve seen it regularly and got to play just a few weeks ago when we were visiting family up North, but it’s not a regular part of our lives and it definitely doesn’t feel like winter where we are.
So we decided to spend this week creating our own winter wonderland, making different snow and snowflake crafts.
We of course, started with the traditional paper snowflakes, cutting out shapes and exploring different ways to make them beautiful and the girls quickly learned how important it to not let the cuts run into each other or they will end up with a severed flake! But once they got the hang of it, they came up with some really nice creations!
We also made crystal snowflakes which were so easy (though ours didn’t come out as crystally as the ones in the directions I followed, which are here). We started by making pipecleaner snowflakes then mixed together Borax and boiling water until the Borax was dissolved. I tied our snowflakes onto a wire rack to hang over the top of the pot with the snowflakes in the mixture and wait. It’s supposed to create snowflakes covered in crystals so we may need to try this one again though the girls were still very excited about their creations!
The girls have also been working since last year on making snowflake ornaments using pre-made wire bases we found and fancy beads but you can also make your own bases out of pipecleaners for the beads. The final products are beautiful and so pretty on the tree!
Our last project was to make “snow”. The simple combination of shaving cream and baking soda creates a substance very much like real snow that sticks together and is moldable yet crumbles easily and is actually cold! The girls and even Doodle had a great time squishing the snow, making snow balls and at the end we threw it in some vinegar and watched in explode!
And what’s a craft week without an edible treat? Check out how to make these amazingly easy and adorable marshmallow snowmen!
Do you have a favorite snowflake, snow or wintertime craft?
