Saturday, December 09, 2006

Snow fun

Passing along a suggestion for a fun little book for the snow lover in your life: Snowmen: snow creatures, crafts, and other winter projects includes instructions for making more than twenty creations from snow and easy to find materials. Why make a traditional snowman when there are so many other possibilities for sculpture!

The snowbugs at left are made with wooden skewers, pine needles for antennae, raisins for eyes, twigs for legs, and snow spots colored with dry tempera paint. Just the thing to brighten the winter garden.

I bought this book a few years ago for my husband who likes to play in the snow when he's not out plowing it. One year he made a big teddy bear holding a bright red heart colored with food coloring on our side lawn - very cute! Mostly I've used the ideas in the book and really enjoyed making the porcupine, although those long pine needles were hard to find in the neighborhood. The authors suggest using a layer of leaves instead to make an armadillo.

If you have kids or a sense of whimsy yourself, I think you just might enjoy this one. So far, there's no snow for me to play in, but I know some of you have had a fair amount already. Get out and have a little fun!

Note: All photos are scanned from the book and weren't done by me.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting ideas! We have always stuck to the tried and true, snowmen, snow angels, snow forts.
Lots of raw material around here today. Glad to hear there are adults who still like to play in the snow.

Mary said...

If I had snow, I would play. Poor me. It's been cold enough lately, so maybe Charlotte will have some snow this year.

Rurality said...

Cool. If only snow were an easy to find material around here. :)

Ann (bunnygirl) said...

That is so cool and creative! Makes me almost wish we got snow around here.

Susan Gets Native said...

Well, that's just the cutest damn thing I have ever seen!
The girls are going to LOVE doing this!

Endment said...

Now this is the kind of decoration I would enjoy... Have to get the book

silverlight said...

what an absolutely cute idea.
wish there had one like this, when I was a kid up north of here.

Ontario Wanderer said...

There is a neat series in "Calvin & Hobbs" of Calvin's snow creations. I've been wanting to get out to do some snow sculpture for a few years but it seems that either the snow is too cold or too wet. Maybe this winter? I do have some new heavy rubber gloves to help keep my hands dry. (Seems that cold fingers come a lot faster at 60 than at 6.)

Jayne said...

LOL... I was just thinking that here in Georgia we'd think it was the second coming if we had that much snow to play in on a regular basis that did not melt the very next day. Very creative ideas!

NatureWoman said...

Great ideas! What fun - thanks for sharing the book title and ideas.

robin andrea said...

What a great idea for snow art. I love the snowbugs and the porcupine. I wish I had thought of this when we had snow last week. It's all gone now. But there's always next time!

Anonymous said...

I like that porcupine, but don't know if we have the right kind of pine needles.

Unknown said...

That's adorable! I wish we lived in snow country! :)

dmmgmfm said...

I have absolutely no imagination for that sort of thing, so I am definitely buying the book. Thanks!

LauraHinNJ said...

Ruth: I love to go out with the dog in the first hours after the snow has ended - it's so quiet and beautiful! Hope you're enjoying the excess raw materials!

Mary: I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

Rurality: lol!

Bunnygirl: But you have all that wonderful heat and humidity as a consolation. Not!

Susan: Lots of fun projects for those snow days!

Endment: I can just picture you out in the snow making these - there's lots of other neat things - I just picked two of my favorites from the book that are easy to make.

Silverlight: When we were kids we used to try and make *forts* from the big piles left by the plows at the end of our driveway - these are much more fun, I think.

OW: Rubber gloves and lots of breaks for hot cocoa will do ya.

Samtzmom: I'd bet your Sam would have fun.

Naturewoman: Glad you liked it.

Robin Andrea: Right - always next time.

Anonymous: Is that you, Sandy? That's the problem I had too - eveyone around here has short-needle pines!

Liza: Maybe make sand sculpture instead?

dmmgmfm: I like that they're so simple to do (no imagination required!)