Shaving Cream Snowmen

Here is project #2 that we made on this "snow day." I decided that we had to make some snowmen. We attempted to build one 3 days ago when we had a snow day that truly involved snow, and enough of it for building a snowman. The only problem was that it wouldn't pack. So, alas, we have yet to build an actual snowman this year. This was another craft idea gleaned from the library story time lady. I already had the glue out, so it wasn't much of an effort to mix some shaving cream in with it.

{Snowman by Mia, Age 6}

Materials:

• construction paper
• white glue
• shaving cream
• bowls
• mixing spoon
• paint brushes (optional)
• pencil
• decorative items: pom poms, googly eyes, pipe cleaners, felt, buttons, construction paper, etc.

Directions:

1. I started by tracing various sizes of bowls and other round things to make the snowman outlines onto two pieces of blue construction paper. Mia requested a 2-ball snowman, and Logan wanted a 3-ball snowman, although you can't see it any more since he went hog-wild with painting. You could skip this step and just let them paint, too.
2. Squirt some shaving cream into a bowl. Add about 1/2 that amount of white glue and mix together with a spoon. (Tip: If doing this craft with more than one child, you may want one bowl per child.) My proportions are approximate. It should be spreadable and not too sticky.
3. Have your child paint the snowman. My kids used a combination of mainly finger-painting with a small amount of using the Q-Tips left over from the previous project. You can also use paint brushes for this.
4. Let your child decorate the snowmen. There are tons of options here. Mia used googly eyes, buttons for the mouth, an orange pom pom for the nose, pieces of scrap felt for a scarf, and my favorite accessory: ear muffs made from part of a pipe cleaner and two purple pom poms. I suggested twigs for arms but she didn't like that idea. Logan's snowman had turned into a big mess covering most of his paper. Rather than tossing it out, I suggested that we make it just the snowman's head, and he agreed. He made button eyes and a button mouth, which is frowning for some reason, but is still cute. We took a two-inch piece of orange pipe cleaner, folded it in half, and added it for the nose. I cut out a hat from black construction paper, and we trimmed the brim with a strip of yellow felt. We just added a bit of extra glue-shaving cream mixture to adhere it.
5. Make sure the shaving cream/glue mixture dries completely before displaying your snowman craft.

   

   {Snowman by Logan, Age 3}

Build-a-Snowman Snack

Once again, we sat down to do a project that I pinned to Pinterest last winter. The idea was to make a snowman craft using mini marshmallows, but I decided it would be a shame to glue those tasty treats to paper when we could eat them instead. So, I switched it up and decided that Mia could build her own snack. I gave her a plate with some mini marshmallows, a skinny baby carrot, two pretzel sticks, and some mini chocolate chips. (I had originally thought to try to make it even healthier by getting out the raisins, Craisins, and peanuts, before deciding that it hardly mattered since the main ingredient of this snack was sugar considering how many little marshmallows it takes to make a decent looking snowman.) Here is what she came up with. Obviously, it didn't last long, but really, I didn't need a paper project with food on it that I would be concerned about somebody eating.

{Mia recently made this snowman snack.}

For Logan, I arranged the stuff on the plate in a snowman and let him have at it since I didn't figure he would have the patience to build a snowman himself. As you can see, mine doesn't look all that different from my five-year-old's handiwork. The kids both enjoyed this, and it wasn't time-consuming or difficult to do with items we already had in the pantry. Now, I am thinking that a gingerbread house with a snowman design would be another project for the future.

Salty Snowman Scene

{I like to think of this guy as "Salty the Snowman." Created by Mia, age 5}

Here's another one I have had pinned in Pinterest for quite awhile, and we tried it out. Mia enjoyed it, of course. She is very much into crafting, just like her mama. This project, however, was not a good one for Logan, age 3. He ended up with a snowball scribble covered in A LOT of salt. I am not even ashamed to tell you that I threw it away, especially since he did not even notice. The end result is a fun, textured snowman, no glitter required.

Please note that this is not an original idea. I keep trying to find the blog of the original idea for this, but the link seems to be broken. I guess that can happen over the course of 40 weeks (crazy, but true, this is how long ago I saved this idea), so my apologies to whomever came up with this idea. I really did try to give credit, but it is just not working out.

Materials:

• construction paper (any color)
• crayons or colored pencils (white and any other color you choose)
• paint brush
• white glue
• salt
• baking sheet (optional for containing the mess)
• small cups (optional for holding glue and salt)
• other optional decorative items: puffy paint, buttons, sequins, pom poms, etc.

Directions:

1. Have your child use a white crayon or colored pencil to draw a snowman. You can also put your snowman on the snow covered ground and make snowflakes falling in the air, as Mia did in her winter scene. Mia also drew a black top hat and a blue scarf.
2. Lay the paper on a baking sheet. (Tip: You can add wax paper, tin foil, or parchment paper as well if you don't want to craft directly on your baking sheet.) Have your child add glue to the parts that he or she wants to be snowy. (Tip: For less mess, put some glue into a Dixie cup and let your child apply it to the paper with a paint brush.)
3. Next, add salt to the glue. (Tip: I definitely recommend giving him or her another small cup of salt.) The salt can be added in little bits, shaken off, and then used again as needed. Allow the salt/glue mixture to dry.
4. Decorate your snowman as desired. Mia used orange puffy paint for the carrot nose and red puffy paint for the eyes, mouth and buttons. Other materials that you could try are buttons, sequins, and pom poms. Make sure that all glue is dry before displaying the snowman project.

Frosty Friends Recycled Craft

{Some frosty new friends made by Mia, Age 4}

Mia and I almost had our entire snow family made earlier today when Logan decided that the stacks of snowballs were like big blocks and he "boomed" them all down. So, once he was napping, I came up with a snowman craft for her to do (that should last a bit longer than our original snowmen). I had been wanting to do something with these plastic containers for months, anyway.

Materials for Snowman:

• plastic container (We used toddler puffs container.) 
• felt 
• scissors 
• pom poms 
• hot glue gun (adult use only)
• corkscrew pasta 
• black permanent marker 
• 2 black bottle caps (ours are Powerade)
• 1 black jar lid (from a container of peanuts)

Materials for Snowlady:

• plastic container (We used a toddler puffs container.)
• felt
• scissors
• pom poms
• hot glue gun (adult use only)
• corkscrew pasta
• black permanent marker
• cardboard ribbon spool
• large pom pom
• tape 
• optional materials: buttons, ribbon, pipe cleaners, fabric flowers

Basic Snowman Directions:

1. Cut a strip of felt for the scarf and glue it around the top indentation of your clean, dry plastic container. Tie a know and cut fringe on each end. (Tip: If your felt isn't long enough, cut a second strip, tie a knot, and glue it onto the first band of felt.) If you don't have felt, ribbon or pipe cleaners would work.
2. Place two dots of glue on the top section of the plastic container and adhere 2 pom poms for eyes. Any color will work. (Tip: If you don't have pom poms, buttons would work. Or you could draw eyes with a permanent marker.)
3.  Place a dot of glue beneath the eyes and adhere a piece of corkscrew pasta for the carrot nose. (Tip: You can dye your pasta first. Or, if you prefer, use an orange pom pom, button, or a small piece of orange construction paper rolled into a cone.)
4.  Draw a mouth on the snowman face using a permanent black marker.
5.  Place three dots of glue down the middle of the snowman body and adhere pom poms. You could also use buttons or draw them on with a permanent marker.   

How to Make a Snowman Hat:

1. Run a line of hot glue along the bottom edge of a black jar lid. Press down onto the top edge of the snowman.
2. Place glue on the top of one black bottle cap and press down on top of the lid.
3. Run glue along the bottom edge of a second black bottle cap. Press cap down so that it lines up with the bottom edge of the first bottle cap.
   

How to Make a Snowlady Hat:

1. Pull one cardboard circle off of an empty ribbon spool. (Tip: If you don't have a ribbon spool, you can cut a circle from a cereal box. You will also need to cut a hole in the center.)
2. Pull a large pom pom partially through the center hole. Secure the back with some tape.
3. Cut a square of felt slightly larger than the cardboard circle.
4. Run a line of glue around the cardboard (on the side with the tape). Cover the top side with the felt, wrap the edges around the underside and press down onto the glue. Add extra glue as needed.
5. Decorate the hat as desired. We used a gold pipe cleaner, twisted at the end to secure it, and then glued on a fabric rose. 
6. Finally, line the top edge of the plastic container with hot glue, and press the hat on top.

Frosty the Treat Cup

Does anyone else ever have to get out of bed to write down craft ideas that pop into your head at night? I'm guessing this doesn't happen to that many people, but you're in luck because this is the result of the "visions of sugar plums" that were dancing in my head. I decided that it's a cute idea for a teacher gift so Mia's preschool and dance teachers will each be getting one of these snowmen filled with homemade goodies. Note: I'm labeling this as a kids craft, although I did most of the work. Mia chose the colors of the buttons for the eyes and mouths and also the colors for the pop pom/pipe cleaner ear muffs. Older kids could do more themselves, and if you substituted tacky glue in place of hot glue, I would feel more comfortable suggesting that. Hot glue guns should only be used by adults.

Materials:

• tin can
• white paint
• paint brush
• newspaper
• something to hold paint
• glitter (optional)
• buttons (for eyes and mouth)
• pipe cleaner
• scissors
• 2 large pom poms
• broken bit of orange crayon (or pom pom or button)
• hot glue gun (or tacky glue)
• felt (optional for adding a scarf)

Directions:

1. If you are planning to use a hot glue gun, plug it in to warm it up.
2. Cover work surface with newspaper. Pour some white paint onto a Styrofoam tray (or a plate) and paint the outside of a clean, dry aluminum can. If you want your snowman to be sparkly, sprinkle glitter onto the paint while it is still wet. Set can aside so paint can dry.
3. Cut a pipe cleaner in half. Take one half and bend it slightly to form a "u" shape.
4. Decide which part of your can will have the snowman's face. I recommend avoiding seams for this. Once paint on can is dry, apply hot glue to the inside of each end of the pipe cleaner and press down each end to make an arc across the top of the can. Apply hot glue to two large pom poms and then affix the pom poms on the ends of the pipe cleaners to finish the ear muffs.
5. Lastly, make your snowman's face. Use hot glue (or tacky glue) to adhere buttons for eyes and mouth. Hot glue works best if you are using an orange crayon stub for the nose. If you don't want to use crayon for the nose, tacky glue will work to hold a button or pop pom nose. Tip: If using a crayon, rub it down so that one end is relatively flat. This is the part you will attach to the tin can. For the other end, you can color with or use a sharpener to shape it as desired. 
6. We didn't do this, but you could also cut a strip of colorful felt and tie or glue it around the base of your tin can to add a festive scarf for you snowman.
7. Allow all glue to dry before moving or filling your snowman treat cup.

P.S. Don't forget to check out my book review and giveaway for Green Grandma's Vinegar Fridays. Giveaway ends Wednesday, December 14, 2011, so you still have time! This book has many amazing tips for cleaning just about everything including pet messes and crayon marks from the walls. There is something for everyone, so be sure to like Green Grandma's Facebook page and let her know I sent you.