Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Paper Plate Snowmen

So, I was looking at a stack of paper plates that was sitting on our table this morning as I was eating cereal with my girls, and I got to thinking... "Hmm... I wonder if we could do some sort of Christmas craft with these plates." (yep, I'm crazy like that) And then it hit me... Snowmen! Perfect! So we pulled out some scissors, glue, yarn, and construction paper, and before we knew it, we had two adorable little snowmen adorning our kitchen wall. It's just a fun little craft that was quick and easy and the girls thoroughly enjoyed it.
My 3-yr old did hers all on her own and I helped the 2-yr old with hers (although she did surprisingly well), but I think they both did awesome. The trick was marking a little "x" on the paper plate where the different pieces were supposed to go. I even color coordinated the ink of the "x" to match the color of construction paper so that my oldest wouldn't have to ask me what to do but could do it more independently. I think she loved that. She even started learning how to tie the knots to hold the snowman together. (She'll be tying her own shoes before I know it!!) :)
Here are the masterpieces:


Anyway, here's the basic idea of how I did it, in case you get the itch to make one too. (You know you want to!) :)

What you'll need: 3 paper plates (per snowman); black, orange, and blue (or whatever color you want the eyes to be) construction paper; scissors; glue; hole puncher; white yarn; black marker (for drawing on the mouth)
What to do: Cut out your shapes (eyes, nose, and buttons) from the construction paper according to the design above, or however you want yours to look. (Note: the design above is not to scale. It is just a guideline for referencing.)
Mark your paper plates with the "x"s where you want your pieces to go. (Use different color ink to match the coordinating piece. i.e. a blue x where the blue eyes go, a black x where the black buttons go.)
Place a dot of glue on each of the "x"s and then place the coordinating piece on top of the glue and press.
Punch two holes in the top and/or bottom of your plates as necessary. Cut 4 pieces of yarn and tie your snowman together.
Now enjoy your winter creation! :)
Merry Christmas!

(Oh, and we did our snowmen with the plates concave, but I think it might actually be cuter with the plates backwards so they have more of a real snowman look. It would just make it harder to stick it to the wall that way. But either way works.)

2 comments:

Stuff by Ash said...

Saw this at Ucreate w/ Kids, just wanted to come over over and tell you what a brilliant cute idea! Love it! Thanks for sharing.

Unknown said...

I loved this idea!! In fact, I loved it so much that I did it with a group of 30 YMCA kids ages K-6. Even the older kids loved it. They turned out super cute. Thanks for the idea!!

Cami