Kids Crafts - Snowflakes in Autumn - Using Nature to Make Snowflakes - Red Ted Art

Welcome back to Kids Get Crafty. Today we are making snowflakes with nature’s “very own snowflake stamp” – waiting for you to pick it and have a go. Once you have the stamp, you can make pictures, cards, wrapping paper etc etc. Come take a look! Don’t forget Kids Get Crafty is also a link up party/ blog hop for all craftiness with and for children! Do take part. Do be inspired! Link up at bottom of post! Hooray!

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There a number of reasons why I am bringing you snowflakes in autumn.. one is, that as we are using “nature’s very own snowflakes stamps” and I am not sure how much longer they will be around! The other, is that Christmas Get Crafty is around the corner, and I would love to bring you as many simple and inspiring ideas for your own Christmas crafts as possible…. I find that MY creative process works in a way, where I let things “sink in”, then I develope it and then I make something.. so hopefully you will be getting very crafty with your little ones for the festive season!

First to our book.

The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats. Read together age: from 2yrs. Winner of the Caldecott Medal.

Peter wakes up one day to find that the worlds I covered in a beautiful white blanket. He goes out to play and explore. He sees his footprints, makes tracks, shakes snow of the tree and learns about snowballs and snowmen! He loves the snow so much he even takes some home for later. After his evening bath the snowball is gone! Oh no… but the next day brings more snow and beautiful snowflakes.

It is a simple story of a children enjoying snowy days. Illustrated in beautifully simple and bold colours. Very appealing.

Our craft – Poppy Flower Snowflakes

Ahem, this is a classic example of “toddler led crafting”, i.e. he really wanted to do his own thing and not what I wanted him to do. That is ok. I decided to “do a sample” anyway for two reasons 1) you may still like to do it with your older children (or yourself!) and 2) children learn through watching and sometimes him not wanting to do something is Red Ted telling me that he doesn’t know how and that he would rather watch. So maybe next time… Interestingly, the “final final product” was led by him…

Poppy Flower Husks

Here is what we did. At the end of the summer weeks, I noticed this lovely little pattern on the Poppy Flower Husk. “Oh ho! that looks pretty.. could that be a snowflake or star even?” So I “gathered” some, shook out all the poppy seeds and soaked the husk. (Dried, the husk is concave and will therefore not print flatly). Once soaked, squeeze out excess water, but take care not to damage the pattern.

Get a bit of paint and hey presto you have a snowflake. It does take a bit of fiddling and less paint is definitely more. But once you get the hang of it, you will get these delicate little flakes. So pretty. I think children slightly older than Red Ted (2.5yrs) should manage fine.

Wax Crayon Snowflakes

I also showed him the “wax crayon” magic trick: Draw some white crayon snowflakes and then paint over it with coloured water, the snowflakes magically appear. Red Ted was fascinated!

Glitter Snowflakes

We also made some Glitter Snowflakes just to get things messy! They will look lovely cut out on a card. I helped a little with the glue, but mainly as it was a bit tricky to squeeze it out. I tried to let Red Ted do all the “guiding” of the lines, but did turn the paper at 45 degrees to get the right shape. Red Ted then added the glitter!

I let The Snowy Day inspire the colours I chose.

After they had dried, Red Ted grabbed a sheet and demanded we did some cutting! So I helped him cut out circles (ok, I cut them all) and he started playing with them… which then gave me the idea to get him to stick them on cards. So we did. You can add “little lines” and make the “snow balls” into Christmas Baubles, woudn’t they look sweet? Also, this works lovely as wrapping paper or printed on fabric it makes a lovely jam jar/ chutney jar decor (we like making green tomato chutney and jam!! and they make great stocking fillers).