Wonderful Snowflakes on our Window

Today we were decorating the window in the kitchen, one of the activities still left in our Christmas countdown activity garland. Our themes were snowflakes and transparency of colours. The structure of a snowflake is nearly completely unique, because complex shapes emerge as the flake moves through differing temperature and humidity regimes. However, most snowflakes have a hexagonal symmetry. The vagueness and wonder in snowflake patterns, combined with the fact that there are certain rules to follow, make them an ideal craft project.

Paper snowflakes, plain and rainbow-coloured

We started by folding and cutting an A4 sheet of paper to make a square. Ju loves folding paper and experimenting with cutting through several thicknesses of paper at the moment, so he was very keen to do this.

Ju folds his paper

Because we used standard printing paper, it was actually really hard to cut through the many layers of paper once we had folded it as per this tutorial. Ju helped with the folding, but I had to do the cutting. We folded a square in two to make a triangle, then in two again; then we folded the two outer corners onto the middle line, and folded this in two. Then we cut the outside to give us a wedge. I recommend you look at the tutorial linked above, it's very clearly explained.
Once we had a wedge, I just cut into it to make patterns, and then we opened up the piece of paper. What wonder awaits when the insignificant wedge reveals itself into a beautifully symmetrical and delicate snowflake! And so, we made two paper snowflakes today.

Our two paper snowflakes, before and after unfolding

One of them went up on the window.

We had a little fun laminating the other snowflake, sandwiching it together with some coloured tissue paper. We cut the laminated shape out, and made a hole with hole punch to hang it up. Ju threaded some wool into the hole and we hung it on the window too.

Snowy soft snowflakes

For this, we took some glittery Christmas drape and cut out two large six-pointed snowflake shapes. Really simple, but it looks like fresh, soft, giant snow.

Drape snowflake on the window

Hot glue snowflakes

I have to thank We Lived Happily Ever After for this idea. My hot glue gun and I set to work on the window to create some six-pointed snowflakes by drawing them free-hand, while Ju and Lilo had their lunch (cunning trick to keep them away from the hot glue). 

I put a little bit of silver glitter just before the hot glue set to make them extra sparkly. Drawing the snowflakes wasn't hard, but I found mine were a little bit messier looking than I would have liked. I expect I should get better at it with some practice. As the evening is drawing in, these are looking even prettier as their three-dimensional opacity is reflecting the street lights glowing outside. 

Please note that this is not to be attempted if the weather is very cold, as the difference in temperature between the hot glue and the freezing outside surface of the window could cause the glass to crack. Thankfully we had no such worry. And ours is also a low temperature hot glue gun.

Hot glue gunning a snowflake on the window

My three hot glue snowflakes

We added to the snowflakes a few homemade stained glass effect window ornaments, including the Sharpie marker recycled stained window ornament we made on Day 8. We can now consider our kitchen window officially decorated. It will be lovely to look at our window from the street too. I wonder if Darling Him will notice when he gets home tonight.

Snowflake decorated window

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Christmas tree fairies and hot chocolate

It was a beautiful, cold sunny day today so we met up with friends and their 3 year old son in town, and we all went to see the reindeer on display as part of the Christmas celebrations in our town. Our favourite was a 7-month-old white calf called Gavin. They were eating lichen and we found out lots about their antlers. 

Reindeer

We spent a lot of time outside  today, going up on the Ferris wheel and playing in the play park. A lovely hot chocolate with marshmallows was a well deserved treat, and it was also one of our Christmas garland countdown activities.

View from the top of the Ferris wheel

Hot chocolate and marshmallows

Our recipe is for a thick, Spanish-style hot chocolate, courtesy of Jamie Oliver. This makes a mix, which you can keep in a jar and re-use as required, or give as a gift.

• 2 tablespoons Horlicks

• 2 tablespoons cornflour

• 3 tablespoons icing sugar

• 4 tablespoons quality organic cocoa

• 100g quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), finely grated

• a pinch of ground cinnamon

• a pinch of sea salt

For 1 pint of semi-skimmed milk, you need 5 heaped tablespoons of the hot chocolate mix. Heat up the milk (don't let it boil), then add the hot chocolate mix and stir over a medium heat until the chocolate starts to thicken. Ju likes to help stir the hot chocolate with a wooden spoon. For the children, I dilute the hot chocolate half and half with cold milk, which makes it slightly weaker and cools it down instantly. For Darling Him, I add a pinch of chilli powder. We all add some mini-marshmallows for an extra special treat and then it's time to enjoy...

Christmas tree fairies

We also made some quick tree fairies today, using wooden pegs. I cut out circles from some glittery Christmas drape which we got from the pound shop. I made a small hole in the middle, through which Lilo and Ju pushed the head of the wooden peg through.

Ju pushes the wooden peg through the hole

We then wrapped a white pipe cleaner around the neck and the fabric, and twisted it to the back, then wound the two ends of the pipe cleaner into 2 fairy wing shapes.

Creating the fairy wings with pipe cleaner

Then we glued some poylester filling on the head to make the hair and a silver bead chain around the waist to create the body and the skirt.

Glueing on hair and creating the waist of the fairy

It was then time for Ju to draw on some eyes and a smiley mouth with Sharpie marker pens and our beautiful tree fairies were ready.

Ju draws eyes and mouth on his fairy

Lilo's tree fairy

The boys enjoyed putting the fairies on the branches of our Christmas tree, although they first had to work out how to slot the branches between the fairies' peg legs.

It's hard work putting the fairy on the tree

Ju's tree fairy

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Smiley Sock Snowmen

We have written on our Christmas countdown activity garland that we will build a snowman. Construction materials are unspecified, but I have somehow assumed that it would be made out of real snow. However, the couple of snowy sprinklings we have experienced here in Edinburgh have not been quite enough for that. There have been sub-zero temperatures and clear crisp blue skies lately, which has been lovely for hanging out. But we haven't seen the thick layer of beautifully sparkly snow we need to build a snowman in our diminutive garden. So today, having stumbled upon this post by House of Hodge Podge, I decided we would make our snowmen out of s...ocks.

First, we took some white baby socks, which Lilo has grown out off, and we filled them with a couple of tablespoons of rice. A lot of it went on the floor, some of it was munched and crunched throughout the activity.

Filling the toe of the sock with rice

We then filled the sock with polyester stuffing, up to the bottom of the ribbed top.

Ju is trying to work out how to keep the sock open while getting the stuffing in

We have to push the stuffing down so as to leave room for the hat

We then rolled the hat down and put a rubber band around the neck to form the head and the body.

The snowman is taking shape

The boys then wrapped a thick pipe cleaner around the neck to make a scarf, and glued some googly eyes and an orange foam triangle to make a carrot nose.

Snowman's scarf, eyes and nose

I then realised we must have missed out a crucial step, as I could see the stuffing at the top of the hat. Oops! Re-read the instructions, un-rolled the hat and tied a knot at the top of the head (or base of the hat) with a piece of wool. No harm done. Phew!

We tie a knot to create the hat

Ju drew smiles with a black marker to cheer up both snowmen.

Cheer up, snowman!

 Both boys enjoyed gluing mini pompoms to make buttons and a large pompom on top of the hat to make a bauble.

Pompom buttons

Lilo focuses on the hat bauble

The finished snowmen look very expressive due to their googly eyes and the boys enjoyed playing with them while I was getting their lunch ready.

"Where do snowmen go to dance?"
"Snowballs!"

Ju put his snowman on a bed of snow made from leftover polyester stuffing, and our joky snowmen even had a snowball fight with cotton wool snowballs.

Ju's snowman enjoys chilling in the snow

Snowy Landscape and Angel Hand Print Card

Today was all about making simple Christmas collages. Christmas seems to be an endless source of crafty inspiration, probably because there is such a brilliant range of colours and shades (monochrome white or red/green, sparkle), shapes (round baubles and snowmen, triangular trees, hexagonal snowflakes, stars), sensations (fluffy snow, cold ice, spiky holly), smells (pine needles, cinnamon, anise, ginger)... Collages could involve any of these and, as abstract as they might be, one would always recognize the Christmas spirit in them. Our theme of the day was a snowy landscape. I mixed some PVA glue with white paint and a little water; I put on the table lots of silver glitter, some cotton wool and the cut-out snowflake shapes we had left over from the Craft Workshop last Saturday.

I started painting Lilo's hand so he could make some hand prints on some black card paper. He enjoyed seeing the white impression of his hand on the black card, sliding his fingers in the paint and sprinkling everything with silver glitter.

Lilo painted his own hand as well and painted the paper using the brush too. He then explored the cotton wool and tried to shake it off his hands, where it had got stuck, as they were covered in the paint and glue mix.

Lilo paints his hand to make a hand print

 Some snowflake shapes were placed onto the landscape.

Lilo sticks some snowflakes onto his landscape

Glittery blizzard

Sticky hands and cotton wool

A finished snowy landscape... brrrr!

Some of the hand prints looked so dainty, all covered in silver glitter, that I cut them out and made them into snow angels, by sticking a little bit of cotton wool at the top of the picture for hair. Lilo glued them on some blue card and we will use these for some of our Christmas cards (still to be sent!!!).

Lilo puts glue on the back of the cut-out angel hand print

Lilo's angel hand print card

Sparkly White Ornaments

 It is Day 6 and we have on our garland an activity entitled "Make salt dough ornaments". However, since we wrote down our countdown activities on Day 1, we found out about White Clay Ornaments from The (amazing) Imagination Tree, and fell in love with them. So this activity has been changed to allow us to make white clay ornaments.

Ju mixed up the dough (1/2 cup corn flour, 1 cup bicarbonate soda and 3/4 cup warm water) and then I heated it up on the hob, stirring until it started coming off the side of the pan. Having frequently helped out with making playdough at nursery, Ju instructed me to stop cooking it at that point. We let the dough/clay cool a bit and then kneaded it. Wonderful texture and beautifully white!

Ju and Lilo rolled it out and cut out different shapes using our festive cookie cutters.

Ju and Lilo get cutting

They then sprinkled silver and red glitter onto the shapes.

Ju sprinkles silver glitter onto some snowflakes

We ended up mixing the glitter into the dough.

Glittery white dough... just like new snow sparkling in the sun

Lilo enjoyed poking holes in the rolled out dough with the stick we used to make the holes for hanging.

Lilo pokes holes in the clay

Ju noted that the candy cane shapes look like "J for Juju"; he also designed a snowman with the white clay.

Some of our shapes, including the snowman

 We baked the shapes for one hour at 100 degrees C and let them cool down.
 Ju then threaded some red wool through the holes to allow us to hang the ornaments.

Ju uses fine motor skills to thread the wool through the holes

We then hang them up on our tree and they look wonderful. Apparently they can be painted, but their dainty white, glittery simplicity is a real winner... We will definitely give some of these away to our friends as gifts, as they can complement any Christmas tree.

Ju hangs a gingerbread man ornament in the tree

Bell ornament 

Snowflake, heart and candy cane ornaments

"J for Ju" candy cane next to one of our dried orange slices from Day 4