We have Randi from Swoon with us today to share a fun project that families can enjoy together during the holiday season.
You may have heard of projects that involve creating your own crystals, but this amazing concept is new to me! While researching winter projects for kids, I came across several recipes for making “frost” crystals on your windows. The recipes I found were all different, but the basic concept is to create salt crystals on glass that look a lot like icy winter frost. My kids had SO much fun with this one! I think this would be especially fun if you live in an area that doesn’t get very much snow or frost-just create your own!
I love it when a fun project turns out to be easy too! All you need to make your own frost is: a small saucepan, 1 1/2 cups water, 1 cup Epsom salt, a wooden spoon, 3 Tbs. dish soap, a heat proof bowl or dish, and paintbrushes.
1. Bring water to a boil in your saucepan. 2. Slowly add the salt to the water in small increments, stirring vigorously with wooden spoon to dissolve completely. 3. Remove pan from stove and let water cool for a few minutes. Stir in dish soap. 4. Transfer mixture to a heat safe bowl and use paintbrushes to paint designs on your windows! 5. Salt crystals will begin to form on your designs as mixture begins to dry.
A few tips:
1. This project is fun, but messy! The solution is a little runny, so you will want to protect the floor with a towel. It’s also handy to have a few paper towels ready in case your designs drip a bit.
2. The liquid cools off fairly quickly, but it might be wise to put a portion of it in a small cup and cool it off a bit before giving it to little ones.
3. Once you’ve made a design, let it dry completely. Once it begins to set, don’t go over it again with your paintbrush as it will lose its crystalline appearance and start to look cloudy.
4. To remove crystals, wash windows with soap and water.
We have Randi from Swoon with us today to share a sweet holiday craft that families can create and enjoy together during the holiday season.
During the Holidays children get so excited to help with anything they can, from decorating the house, to wrapping gifts. It can sometimes be hard to find ways to include them in tasks that might be too challenging for them, or when delicate materials are involved, like your favorite glass ornaments. When kids want to help with projects around the house though, I try to always say “yes.” This little project is the first in a series of Holiday projects I’ve come up with this month for my kids to do. I hope your little ones will enjoy them too!
For your trees you will need: A small flower pot, a foam ball (we found some that were covered in pretty moss at the craft store), a floral pick or skewer, and a few pieces of plain copy paper.
First, you need to cut your squares. If you have older children, they can help with this process. You might do a little experimenting to see how many different sizes of squares you would like to use to make your tree. I cut six different sizes of squares (pictured above), but ended up adding four more sizes in between to make our trees a bit fuller. We ended up using ten different sized squares, the biggest being 3″x3″, with each size getting progressively smaller by 1/4 of an inch, down to the smallest size, which was 3/4 of an inch. We cut four to five pieces of each size.
Next, place your foam ball into your pot and stick the flat end of your pick into the center. Ask your children to poke the pick through the center of each square, from the biggest size to the smallest. When you’re finished stacking, you will probably need to spin the pieces a bit so the corners of the squares are fanned in different directions.
My girls were surprised when the stacked paper started to take the shape of a tree! They’re so proud of the decorations they made, and I’m happy to see them participating in the festive spirit of the season (glass ornaments still intact).
A few years back we started the holiday tradition of creating and keeping an advent calendar. I love that it encourages us to savor the holiday season, as well as keep us on track in terms of holiday preparations.
This year we decided to use a magnetic board that we had on hand. We attached rows of twine with magnetic clips on the back of the board (see above) and added 25 little envelopes to the twine using wooden clips. With a touch of colorful red washi tape and a list of advent activities (secretly inserted into the envelopes by me), we are set to go.
Here are the activities that we have lined up this year (in no particular order)…
