Your child can make one big snowflake or several smaller ones. She’ll need to dip the cotton ball into the paint several times.
How to make a snow-inspired textured paint
Craft Recipes and Tips
A lot of these recipes can be made using items found around the home. These recipes are not intended for consumption but for crafting purposes only. This is especially important when crafting with children.
How to make Snow Paint or Textured Snow
You need: white acrylic paint, sand and craft glue
Mix 4 p arts white paint, 7 parts sand and 1 part craft glue in a cleaned jelly jar or other jar of choice.
The mixture is thick. You can increase/ decrease the thickness by adding or reducing the amount of sand in your recipe. Apply with a flat paint brush or a small spatula on your item. The paint will need to dry overnight.
This is great for giving a winter effect on your Christmas crafts. This Clay Pot Snowman is an example how the paint can be used.
How to make Textured Color Paint
Follow the instructions above for the snow paint but use colored paint instead of white paint.
How to make salt dough
You need: 2 cups of flour, 2 cups of salt, 2 Tablespoons of wallpaper paste powder and 1/2 – 3/4 cups of water.
Knead all of the ingredients in a bowl and cover. Let it sit for about 30 minutes. Afterwards knead again. It should be smooth.
Cover your baking pan with baking paper. Make the desired figures and place them on the baking pan. Let the figures rest overnight.
The next day you can bake the figures according to their thickness: For each 1/4 inch thickness you need to bake for 1 hour in a 175� oven. That means for 1 inch you need to bake for 4 hours.
Then for all thicknesses you need to continue baking:
1/2 hour at 210�
1/2 hour at 250�
and 1 hour at 300�.
You can paint your salt dough figures after baking them with water paint, acrylic paint or tempera paint. When the paint is dry, seal the figures with acrylic clear gloss sealant.
How to make dried orange and apple slices
You first need to cut your oranges and/ or apples into thin slices. Take kitchen paper towel and lay it on a microwavable plate. Arrange your slices on the paper towel and place the plate in the microwave. Set it to the lowest setting and turn it on for 15 minutes. Then turn the slices over and repeat. Continue until the pieces are dried out.
If you have a radiator, you can also lay paper toweling on the top and arrange the slices on it. Turn the pieces regularily. It will take days for them to dry but this method is cost efficient if the radiators are anyway turned on. Also this method will add also a slight apple or orange scent to the room.
Paper Mache for Small Projects
Creating paper mache projects is not only fun for the kids, but for adults as well. For small projects, wallpaper glue makes an excellent paper mache glue. It is easy to mix together (mix about 1 part wallpaper glue to 3 parts water). You do not have to use it all up right away as it keeps well for days if kept in a closed container such as a plastic bowl with lid. It is recommended to cover your working area with a plastic table cloth or a large trash bag, as it can get messy. To get started, you will need newspaper torn into strips and your wallpaper glue. Now you will need to decide what you like to do. If you would like to make a mask or maybe an Easter basket, you will need also a balloon. If you want to use, for example, a plastic butter bowl to create a paper mache bowl, you will need the butter bowl and plastic wrap. Before covering the bowl with the strips, you will first wrap the outside and the outer rim with plastic wrap, which will make removing the bowl easier once the paper mache is dry. To cover your item, take a strip of newspaper and dip it into the glue. Remove excess glue by gliding your fingers down the strip and then adhere the strip to the item. You will continue in this manner by adding more strips and overlapping them as you go. You will need about 3 layers on your item and then you will let it dry overnight. The next day, add one layer of white paper strips and let it again dry. White paper is helpful later when you want to paint the item.
Paper Mach� Fish
Here you will find the finished paper mach� fish (the fish from the picture above) and the instructions on how to make it.
Make your own glitter glue
You need: School glue, an empty squeeze bottle (like a glue bottle) and glitter.
Fill your empty bottle about half full with glue. You simply add glitter to the glue in the bottle in the amount you choose. You may wish to enlarge the hole on your squeeze bottle if the glitter blocks up the opening. Apply it to your project. If you would like, sprinkle glitter over the still wet glue on your project for a more glitzy look. Allow your project to then dry for around 24 hours.
Create Colored Sand – Great for Kids!
You need: Salt, street chalk in different colors, small bowls for mixing and glasses, jelly jars, mustard jars, etc. to fill the sand in.
The first step is to fill a small bowl up with the amount of salt you need. Insert the chalk and work it around the salt in a circular motion. This will start to color the salt. A little patience is needed but the salt will start changing colors! Continue until the color is as intense as you would like it to be.
Colored Salt Project for the Summer
This craft project can be made by kids and adults.
Playdough – safe for kids in case they do put some in their mouths (but does not taste good!)
You need: 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt, some water and oil
Mix the flour and salt together and add water and oil. Knead until smooth. The kids can create various figures or use a rolling pin and use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. When they are finished playing, place the dough in the bowl place the lid on it to keep fresh. It will hold for a couple of days.
If you would like the dough to harden, omit the oil.
Textured Snow Paint
It’s cold out. Too cold to play outside. But, your kiddo sees the snow and wants her chance with it. Now what? If you just can’t imagine bundling your child up and taking her out into the freezing temps, try a snowy art activity indoors with this textured snow paint. This texture art projects is so simple it is fun for toddlers, preschoolers, kindergartners, grade 1 and grade 2 students.
Before beginning this art exploration, talk to your child about what she sees outside. If you don’t live in a cold climate, take a look at a snow-filled picture, a photograph or a video online.
- Ask your child how what she sees is different from other seasons.
- What does the winter have that the spring, summer and fall don’t (snow)?
- What colors are different?
- How do you dress differently?
- Why do you need to dress differently?
- You can also come up with your own open-ended questions (questions that don’t have “yes” or “no” answers) about winter.
- If it’s possible, bring a bucket of snow inside – use a magnifying glass to examine the flakes, touch the snow and watch it melt!
Van Gogh Art Project
Okay, so we’re still not ready for the art-making. At least, not yet. It’s time to talk about texture and the artists who use it. Use the word “texture,” giving your child a new vocab word. Ask your child to touch different objects (such as the floor, a carpet, a towel, a plate) and tell you how they feel. Younger children may have difficulty differentiating between “feel” as in texture and “feel” as in emotions. If your child says that the towel feels happy, rephrase the question as, “What texture does the towel have when you touch it?” (and giggle at the adorable answer).
You can connect the idea of texture to real works of art. It’s time for some art-viewing! Take a look at a reproduction (in a book, a poster or online) of a highly textured artwork. Van Gogh, Renoir and Monet all have examples of works where you can see the texture. Ask your child how she thinks
an artist can create textures using paint? If she’s not sure, talk about making the paint thicker, layering it on and using shorter brush strokes.
Now it’s your child’s turn to create a textures painting (with a snowflake theme).
Here’s what you’ll need:
- White tempera paint
- Cotton balls
- Blue card stock paper
- Silver, blue or opal glitter
- Optional: Other glitter colors or craft sand
Texture art for kids
Pour the tempera onto a piece of wax paper or a paper plate (as a palette). Dip a cotton ball into the paint.
Press the paint-covered cotton ball onto the blue paper (it’s the winter sky!) over and over again.
