paint cut paste

ooo, that title sounds yummy, cozy, and wintry! happy winter solstice! (which, by the way, is also my birthday!) we posted about paper snowflakes last year, but this year we let our coffee filters and cupcake liners help us out with creating snowflakes!

one of our advent activities was “make snowflakes!” and it came along with this lovely book full of photographs of real snowflakes, for inspiration. (since we can’t observe the real thing where we live.)

the thin papers coffee filters and cupcake liners are made from are so kid-friendly to cut in thick, folded stacks. their round shape is perfect for snowflakes and makes it easy to fold them into six sections, as snowflakes are six  sided. so we put on the christmas carols, prepared some pear cider, and got to work.

i also realized that if i left pre-folded cupcake liners on N’s art desk, snowflakes would spontaneously appear – like magic!

we taped ours to a front window in our home, to be admired by passers-by. day by day, the snowfall is thickening around these parts… happy winter!

i think we’ll leave these up all winter long!

winter is upon us in a few short weeks, the winter solstice being my favorite holiday! (ahem, it is my birthday, afterall…) today N and i practiced our folding and cutting while decorating for the winter by making paper snowflakes!

we gathered up some scrap paper and both grown-up and kid scissors. if you want an idea for something to do with those watercolor paintings that come home from preschool or lovely marbled paper, this is a great transformation for that art work to have a new life.

first, i had to brush up on my origami paper folding for snowflakes. sure, you can fold it in half and in half again, but there is a more intricate way that involves a 60 degree angle. this youtube video really seemed simple and friendly enough for me (or your older children) to follow. here are some of the papers in various stages of folding…

after properly folded, we were able to cut like crazy (as he says in the video.) here is where we found that a 3 year old using her little kid scissors just might get frustrated when cutting layers upon layers of folded paper. gotta hand it to N – she tried. if you have older children, they’ll be able to do this just fine.

then she opted to cut a bunch of other things out….

…while i cut the folded snowflake paper.

blue and white preschool painting turned to snow!

N also modeled the finished snowflakes, lined them up, counted them, threw them in the air like it was snowing… lots o fun!

when we were finished, it looked like a snowstorm in our den!

we hung these paper snowflakes up on the back door. i’ll likely make more to hang from our chandelier or to string into garland — i’m such a garland addict! help!

a little golden one landed on our christmas tree

who says it doesn’t snow in the bay area?

okay, so we don’t have any snow here in the SF bay area, but most of my east coast friends and family have been enduring the white stuff for weeks. i’ve gotten several requests for my family’s snow ice cream recipe, so i thought i’d share the ritual here that i’ve been enjoying since the 70s. it’s the yummiest snow activity i can think of! (hot cocoa is amazing, sure, but this is such a treat!) we made snow ice cream last march when we were living in virginia, so i’ll put those photos here for nostalgia’s sake.

first put a big bowl (about a gallon sized bowl) on your deck or porch to catch the freshly fallen flakes when it’s about to snow.

then bring it inside and stir one can of sweetened condensed milk into the snow. then add a one teaspoon of vanilla extract.

if you don’t have a can of sweetened condensed milk and can’t get to the store, you can always use vanilla pudding (my mom’s recommended substitute) or a cup of sugar and a cup of cream or milk… but NOTHING beats some good ol’ sweetened condensed milk, so stock up for the winter!

eat it immediately. if you don’t finish it, you can freeze some, but let it get soupy before eating it again. you can also add crushed pineapple (my mom’s fav) or other fruit, but i like mine straight up!

enjoy… and don’t you eat that yellow snow! now i’m counting down the days until my family can make snow ice cream in tahoe… sooon…