Fun Ice Skating Picture

Among winter sports activities, ice skating is one of the most common. People love to ice skate at their local skating rink, or frozen pond. Ice skating is a wonderful physical activity, and a great way to get out and enjoy the winter months. Watching graceful figure skaters on television or at a live presentation or competition is a favorite activity for many people of all ages. Ice skaters have that certain grace that is truly a beautiful sight to behold. That's why ice skating is so frequently photographed and videotaped.

The beauty of ice skating can also serve as the inspiration for some fun craft projects. This ice skating picture is easy enough for even a small child to create with just a bit of help. Your finished project will be beautiful enough to keep on display all winter. Here's how to make it.

Supplies Needed

• Piece of light blue card stock or construction paper
• Piece of white card stock or construction paper
• Piece of yellow card stock or construction paper
• Aluminum foil
• Cotton balls
• Fine-tipped black marker
• Small twigs
• Pictures of figure skaters
• Glue
• Scissors

Directions to Make an Ice Skating Picture

1. Cut the white card stock in half lengthwise, but instead of cutting in a straight line, make some subtle curves. Glue the cut out piece onto the bottom half of the blue card stock to make a snowy ground.
2. Use the scrap of white card stock to cut out some cloud shapes, and glue them onto the blue sky. Cut a circle out of the yellow paper to make a sun, and glue it onto the sky as well.
3. Cut an oval shape out of the aluminum foil. Glue it onto the white card stock with the shiny side up to make a reflective pond.
4. Find some small pictures of figure skaters, either in a magazine or book or online. If you can't find any that are small enough, you could use a computer graphics program to resize them and print them out, or even draw some on white paper or card stock. Cut out the figure skater pictures and glue them onto the aluminum foil pond.
5. Glue three cotton balls onto the “snow” in a vertical line to make a snowman. Draw a face and some buttons on with the marker, and glue two small twigs into place to make arms.
6. Hang up your work of art for all to see!

Tips

• For best results, use heavy duty aluminum foil. Regular aluminum foil tears more easily, and might rip as you're gluing it onto the paper.
• To make sure your pond is smooth and bubble-free, use a craft stick to smooth it down after gluing it into place.
• If you want to make it look like it's snowing in your picture, you could splatter paint it once you've done all the cutting and pasting. Simply splatter white paint onto the picture with a toothbrush, and let dry.

Frozen Sun Catcher

When I ran across the idea for this frozen sun catcher, I was hooked by the idea. Take advantage of the natural winter conditions to try this out for me. Living in Arizona, I am not going to get the opportunity to try it out myself. I would love to see the results if you try it out. Let me know if I can post your pics of it here with the instructions!

When you think of winter, most of us think of cold and snow. I think of beautiful scenes of the sun glistening of off the freshly fallen white snow. This sun catcher is bound to suit the bill and take advantage of the freezing temperatures and the winter sunlight. It is bound to add beauty to your porch or lawn, or anywhere you grace with it's presence.

This sun catcher uses the crystal clearness of frozen water to encase your treasures and display them in the sunlight.

Supplies Needed

• Water
• Any color of food coloring
• Shallow disposable aluminum pan (pie pans work nicely)
• Round orange slices
• Dried flowers
• Pressed pine needles
• Small pine cones
• Cranberries
• or any other tidbits you want to use 
• Sturdy twine
• Scissors

Directions to Make a Frozen Sun Catcher

1. Run enough water into a pitcher or bowl to fill the aluminum pan. Add food coloring until the desired color is achieved.
2. Pour colored water into the pan until it is about a quarter of an inch deep. Keep the rest of the water for later use making the second half of the sun catcher.
3.  Place the pan in the freezer or outside overnight so that it freezes solid.
4. Cut two pieces of twine, each about a foot long. Place the end of one piece about halfway down one side of the ice, and run it along the side up to the top, leaving the remainder outside of the pan. Do the same on the other side with the other piece of twine.
5. Arrange the orange slices, flowers, pine needles, pine cones, cranberries, or other tidbits on the surface of the ice. When you have arranged them to your liking, slowly pour another quarter inch of the colored water into the pan. You can either pour the water over your layout, or arrange your layout in the freshly poured layer of water.
6. Place the pan back in the freezer or outside overnight so that the new layer of water will freeze into ice, locking your design in place.
7. Sit the sun catcher out in your home at room temperature until you can easily remove it from the mold. Or if you prefer, run warm water over the back of the pan until the sun catcher is released.
8. Sit the sun catcher out in your home at room temperature until you can easily remove it from the mold. Or if you prefer, run warm water over the back of the pan until the sun catcher is released.
9. Find a nice spot outside, and tie the pieces of twine together to hang your sun catcher!

Tips

• You can use lemons or lime slices in addition to or instead of the orange slices.
• For best results, use a light color of food coloring. Darker colors could soak into the orange slices and change their color.
• Keep in mind that the sun catcher will eventually melt. Make sure you put your sun catcher somewhere that will not be affected by the dripping water as it melts.
• Consider putting it in a spot is shady for at least part of the day to keep it frozen and looking good longer.
• If it's nice and cold outside, consider doing the entire project on the porch or patio. That way you won't have to move it after adding the decorations and the water, and the items won't shift around as much.
• You may want to try running the twine right down the middle of the pan. It might hang onto your frozen treasure just a little bit longer this way.

Enjoy trying this green nature project by yourself or with your kids. Find more green craft projects in Green Crafts for Children: 35 Step-by-Step Projects Using Natural, Recycled, And Found Materials to try out all year long with your kids.

How to Make a Halloween Handprint Spider

Halloween is the time of year for fun costumes, candy and ghost stories. And what would this fun and spooky time of year be without spooky decorations? Having lots or even a little scary things hanging around the house  really sets the mood for this spooky holiday just as like a decorated tree and mistletoe sets the mood for Christmas.

Spiders may not be supernatural creatures like ghosts, goblins, or witches but they are pretty scary! However these 8 legged creatures are not too scary for the little ones. Plus, spider crafts provide an opportunity to learn about living things. Here is a cute and fun spider decoration craft for preschoolers to make. In fact, it's easy enough for even toddlers to do with a little help from an older person or adult! These spider crafts make a great decoration to put on your front door or window to greet trick or treaters on Halloween!

What You Need

*Card stock or construction paper (any color but black)
*Black tempera or poster paint
*Paintbrush
*Googly eyes
*Glue

Instructions

1. Using the paintbrush, paint your child's palm and all fingers but not the thumb with black paint.

2. Have your child press their hand down on the paper firmly.

3. Paint the child's other hand the same way as instructed above.

4. Have your child press that hand down on the paper, overlapping the first handprint and making sure the fingers are across from the ones in the original print. This will form the spider's body.

5. Have your child use the paintbrush or his or her fingers to paint any areas of the spider's body that are not filled in. Let the paint dry.

6. Glue on googly eyes. Let dry.

However this is not the only way to do it! Here are some tips are suggestions to make it even more fun to do with your child!

Cover the work area with newspapers. This project could get messy!

If you prefer, you could use black construction paper and a different color of paint.

If you want a spider cutout, trace the child's hand (minus the thumb) onto a piece of construction paper. Place the other hand so that it overlaps the first handprint, trace all but the thumb, and cut around the edges. Glue on googly eyes, punch a hole in the top, and hang up with a piece of string.

Your child might like to use paint in a different color to add a mouth and/or nose.

To really make the spider stand out, let the paint dry completely and embellish with glitter glue or metallic paint. Or you could glue on some pom poms or stick on some stickers.

To add to the educational aspect of this project, find a book or website that has lots of pictures of different kinds of spiders to look at with your child. Then encourage him to make a spider that looks like their favorite one. This is fun for you and your child. It even encourages them to learn about nature and express their creativity!