cute penguin craft

What a cute penguin craft to brighten up these dark winter days! I am so proud of Claire, because she cut all of the penguin pieces all by herself. This was just the second time that I traced shapes on paper and asked her to cut them out.

What you need:
black paper
white paper
orange paper (scrap)
patterned paper (with a small pattern)
12x12 background piece of paper (your colour choice)
decorative ribbon
black marker
scissors
glue
template

Start by printing off the template. Cut the pieces out of the template and trace them on the paper. The main body and wings need to be traced on black paper (I used a white colouring pencil which worked well.) Then penguin tummy and eyes need to be traced on white paper. I used an embossed piece of white paper for the tummy. I like the extra piece of texture that it adds to the penguin. Trace the beak on orange paper. I forgot to include the template that we used for the earmuffs, so just make sure the circles that you use are bigger than the penguin's eyes.

Have your child cut out all of the shapes. Once cut, you can start to assemble your penguin on the paper. We started with the main body, followed by the penguin tummy, eyes, beak (fold in half) and earmuffs. I cut a scrap of ribbon for the long bit of the scarf, and then two small pieces for the tails of the scarf. Once Claire glued the scarf on the penguin, she glued the wings on, so that they covered up the cut edges of the ribbon. Lastly, she drew (traced) a line to connect the ear muffs, and dots for the eyes.

Click here for the link to the template.

Linking up with: Six Sister's Stuff &  Skip to my Lou & Tip Junkie & Weekly Kids Co-op & Tatertots and Jello

bird seed wreath

More snow = more outdoor activities. This time Claire and I made a birdseed wreath. I've seen these made all over blogland where the people used cookie cutters to make the bird feeders but I wanted to make one larger bird feeder. 

What you need:

3 cups of birdseed

2 packets of gelatin

cake pan to form the wreath

non stick spray 

small container to form the hole in the wreath (not pictured)

piece of fabric to hang the wreath, I used an old dress shirt (not pictured)

I used the instructions found here. Sprinkle two packages of gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water. Let it sit a couple of minutes until gelatin has absorbed the water. Heat 1 3/4 cups water in a pan, then add in the gelatin mixture. Stir until dissolved. Stir in 3 cups birdseed. Allow mixture to cool until gelatin is thick and coats all the birdseed. (I think that I should have let the gelatin thicken a bit more before I put it in the pan.)

I sprayed the cake pan, put a small container in the middle of the pan and then poured dumped in the birdseed mixture. I put the pan outside the back door so that it would harden quickly. Then, I just ripped a strip off of the old shirt and used that to hang up the wreath.

 The birds loved it. We saw chickadees, bluejays and

 

 even a few woodpeckers. Now, I'm not sure if our wreath didn't really hold up because it was so large (maybe there's a reason why everyone used small cookie cutters), or if it was because the woodpecker chewed through the wreath. However, as it turns out, the birds don't seem to care if the wreath is hanging on the tree, or laying on the ground- lucky for us I guess!

  

Linking up with Red Ted's Art Blog &  Somewhat Simple & ABC and 123 Learning

coloured ice blocks

 Well, the snow just keeps on coming here. I am so ready for summer to some, but apparently that doesn't seem to matter much to Mother Nature. I saw this idea on Craftberry Bush and I thought that it looked like so much fun. She made her own molds out of tin foil, but I had quite a few muffin/cake tins that I knew would be perfect for this. Even standard muffin tins would be nice. 

 I just filled the tins with water and added a few drops of food colouring to each cup. Since it is so cold here, I just put the tins outside to freeze, since they would have taken up a lot of room in the freezer.

 This was a fun winter activity for Claire and I. I got to take loads of pretty pictures, and Claire got to play with blocks of pretty ice. I would like to suggest that if you are going to do this with a toddler, and you would like to take photos of the blocks of ice, (much like myself) do it during naptime! All I wanted to do was arrange the ice and  take pictures, and all Claire wanted to do was play with it.

Linking up with Red Ted's Art Blog & ABC and 123 Learning & Tatertots and Jello & Somewhat Simple

snow castle flags

We have had SO much snow lately that I've been trying to think of things that Claire and I can do outside. When I went to Dollarama the other day they were starting to put all of their summer toys out (a tad early if you ask me!) All summer long Claire loved playing in her sandbox building sand castles, so I picked up a couple of new sand castle buckets so that we could make some snow castles. Of course, a snow castle wouldn't be complete without some flags on top of the castles.

 They were so easy to make too. I had everything that I needed to make them already at home.

masking tape (electrical tape comes in lots of colours of you don't have coloured masking tape)
lollipop sticks
scissors

Just wrap the tape around the stick and then cut a dart out of the tape.

 Then, head outside and build a little snow city. We'll probably have to start all over tomorrow, since we're supposed to get another 15 cm of snow tomorrow!

 Linking up with Tatertots and Jello &  Somewhat Simple & Today's Creative Blog & The Trendy Treehouse & ABC and 123 Learning