Polar Bear Flower Pot

Flower Pot Polar Bear

Ages:  8 and up

Parental supervision recommended

Difficulty: *****

Time:  30-40 minutes

Making a miniature polar bear is a great winter evening activity.  Since the materials needed are fairly inexpensive, you can make a whole bunch of them!  You can label each with the name of a dinner guest and set them out for everyone to take home. 

Tips & Warnings: Parental supervision is required when using glue gun.  If you don’t have a glue gun you can use white craft glue, but you will have to allow additional time for glue to dry.

Materials needed (located at your favorite craft store):

• Ornament base ­ - 2 ½” clay pot
• Ornament face - 1 ½” clay pot
• Ornament hat – 1” clay pot
• White Acrylic Craft paint (2 oz bottles)
• Blue Acrylic Craft paint (2 oz. bottles)
• White felt (for ears)
• Paint brush
• Black sharpie marker
• Cotton balls (optional for snow on top of hat)
• Glue gun
• Scissors
• Water based polyurethane or acrylic craft sealant (optional)
• 8” fabric (or ribbon) for scarf (optional)

 How-to-Steps:

1. Paint 1” clay pot blue, let dry.
2. Paint 1 ½” and 2 ½ “clay pot white, let dry.  If preferred, leave the inside of pot unpainted.
3. Using glue gun, glue the bottom of the 1” pot to top of 1 ½”  pot, let dry.
4. Using glue gun, glue the bottom of the 1 ½” pot to the top of 2 ½” pot, let dry.
5. Glue ½ “ white felt circle on side of 1” hat pot for ears.
6. Glue small cotton ball to top of hat pot for snow.
7. Using black sharpie marker draw eyes, mouth and nose.
8. Cut ends of fabric and tie scarf around base of 1 ½” pot.

Miniature Toboggan Caps

Miniature Toboggan Caps

Age: 5 and up.  Younger children may require parental assistance with measuring and cutting.

Parental supervision recommended
Difficulty: *****
Time: About an hour

If you can tie a knot, you can make this cute little hat. 
Completed crafts can be used as ornaments, tied on packages, or displayed on small stuffed animals. 

Materials Needed (located at your favorite craft store):

• Toilet paper or Paper towel tube
• Yarn
• Ruler
• Scissors

How-to Steps:

1. Measure and cut a ½ inch ring from one end of the tube.  (Save the rest of the tube for another project if you’d like.)
2. Measure and cut 8 inch lengths of yarn.  You will need 30-40 pieces.
3. Fold one piece of yarn in half.  Insert the folded end through the tube.  Bring the loose ends through the folded end and pull into a knot.
4. Repeat with additional pieces of yarn. (Be careful not to flip your project.  All of the knots need to point the same direction.)
5. When you have covered the ring with knotted yarn, push all of the yarn back through the tube.  (This creates the brim of the hat.)
6. Straighten out the yarn.  Wrap one more piece of yarn around the gathered pieces, about ½ inch from the ends, and tie it in a double knot. 
7. Trim the loose ends if needed to form the pompom. Try using two colors or making caps in your favorite team’s colors.

Snowflakes

Paper Snowflakes

Ages 4 and up

Parental Supervision recommended for younger children or those who are practicing cutting and careful folding skills.

Difficulty: *****

Time: 15 minutes or less

Snowflakes are hexagon prisms of frozen water.  They are rarely flat, and most often have six sides.  You can fold and cut a piece of paper to create snowflakes that are simple or complicated.  Each one will be as unique as the snowflakes that fall around us this winter.

Materials Needed (located at your favorite craft store):

Paper  –  you can use different sizes of paper, even scrap paper.  You do want to use thin sheets of paper.  It is very hard to use construction paper for this project.

Scissors

How-to Steps:

Start with a square of white paper.  If your paper is not square, fold a right triangle as shown in this picture, cut off the extra paper.

Leave your paper folded in a triangle.  Fold it over again.

This is the trickiest part of making a snowflake.  You need to fold it in thirds.  The more times you try this, the better you’ll get at it.

Now it is time to cut!  You can cut simple designs along the folds, or more complicated ones.  Cut slowly.  It may seem hard.  You are cutting through 12 layers of paper.

When you are done cutting, unfold.

You can tape your snowflakes to doors or windows, use a thread to hang them from the ceiling, or find other ways to decorate with them.