Somewhere from early to mid-December, a hot season begins for parents whose children go to kindergarten or school. Winter crafts are needed for various competitions and thematic New Year's exhibitions, so you have to break your head to make the work interesting and within the power of the young creator. This article will greatly simplify this task, because it contains all the novelties of various options for such creativity using a wide variety of materials and designed for any age.
There are crafts in this article:
- Cones
- From paper
- From cotton pads and sticks
- From light bulbs
- From plasticine
- From the plates
- From felt
- From glass jars
- From sea pebbles
- From candles
What can be made from cones
Most children enjoy picking chestnuts, leaves and cones while walking. They proudly carry all this wealth home. Adults manage to appreciate the true value of these materials when they need to make something for school, and there are a lot of options for using cones in thematic winter works.
You can make of them:
- Figures of various animals, additionally using pieces of felt (owls), details molded from plasticine (deer, Santa Claus) or other natural materials (squirrel). If you attach loops to these figures, you will get beautiful eco-friendly toys for the Christmas tree.
- Pendants, Christmas tree decorations. For them, it is not at all necessary to make some kind of figurine out of a cone, it will be enough just to paint it with paints and decorate it with sparkles, bows, beads, pom-poms or other available decor.
- A miniature or large Christmas tree. A well-dried bud opens up beautifully. If you fix it vertically on a stand and decorate it (for example, with small colored pompoms or beads), you get a small Christmas tree. For a larger-scale work, you will need to make a base in the form of a cone of cardboard, which should then be pasted over with cones. Both the first and second options will be within the power of even a kindergarten pupil, if, of course, help to make a cone-base.
- A figurine of a snowman made of cones. It can be made by analogy with a large Christmas tree made of cones, but instead of the base, use foam balls, which can be bought in creative stores. The head can be sculpted out of airy plasticine or you can use a smaller ball covered with white cloth, on which the face of a snowman is painted.
- Candlestick. For the simplest option, you can tie several cones with twine, and install a candle inside. The second way is to remake the usual half-liter jar, which is wrapped in lace and decorated with cones.
- Here are other cone craft ideas.
Getting started, it is important to thoroughly dry the buds so that later the finished work does not deform and remains as interesting and aesthetic.
Beautiful paper crafts
Paper is a versatile material with which you can create crafts of varying complexity using various techniques. Without stopping at paper snowflakes (the first one that is associated with winter paper art), all works can be conditionally divided into two groups:
- Applications of varying complexity from colored and white paper. Such work is suitable for children who go to kindergarten or grade 1. In addition to paper, you can additionally use cotton pads, thread pom-poms, sequins, cotton wool, and more.
- Volumetric 3D crafts from white paper. With the help of packaging office paper, a sharp knife, scissors and glue with your own hands, you can create whole landscapes with houses, snow-covered fir trees and trees. A saw cut from a tree will look perfect as a stand for such a craft.
To create a festive atmosphere in voluminous paper crafts, backlighting is often used. It can be an ordinary Christmas tree garland or LED strip.
Snow-covered work from cotton pads and cotton swabs
Winter is, first of all, snowy weather. Now, to sprinkle a green beauty with snow, a few sprays from a spray can are enough, and not so long ago, white flakes of frozen water on thorny branches imitated small scraps of cotton wool.
Such a similarity of this material with snow makes it possible to use it in various winter crafts, be it a winter landscape made of cotton pads or a snow-covered log cabin made of cotton swabs. By analogy with cotton wool, in works you can use white (preferably woolen threads), cut into small pieces.
Christmas toys from light bulbs
A burnt out light bulb can also serve as a basis for creating Christmas tree decorations. There are many options for how to create such a toy:
- With the help of sparkles - a burned-out light bulb is greased with glue and sprinkled with colored sparkles, after the glue dries, a loop is attached and the original craft is ready.
- Decoupage - a light bulb is primed, covered with white acrylic paint, then selected motifs from napkins are glued using decoupage glue, and after drying, they are covered with acrylic varnish.
- Artistic painting - at the beginning, the sequence of work is the same as in the previous example, but then the light bulb painted with white acrylic paint is painted in the form of a snowman, a penguin, or as your fantasy tells you. Additionally, you can make parts from felt or colored cardboard, such as a hat, wings, paws, and more.
- Crochet - a painted light bulb can be crocheted with a beautiful openwork pattern.
An important point: small children working with a glass bulb can break it and get hurt, so bulbs with a plastic bulb are suitable for them.
Plasticine winter
Interesting winter crafts-applications are obtained from plasticine. To create them, it is enough to print your favorite winter picture, transfer it with tracing paper to the base (thick cardboard or plywood sheet), and then paint it with plasticine. You can simply grind it or assemble a mosaic from small plasticine balls. With the help of stacks, you can create a realistic relief of the plumage of a bird or needles on a Christmas tree.
Some types of modern plasticine (for example, air) or modeling masses freeze when exposed to air. This makes them an excellent material for creating three-dimensional figures, from which you can create a beautiful winter diorama.
Crafts from plates
Unusual, but very interesting crafts are obtained from disposable (paper or plastic) plates. Such dishes can be the basis for a winter panel or an original canvas on which a young artist can depict what he associates winter with.
The second option for using plates is to create New Year's characters (Santa Claus, deer or snowman) on their basis. To do this, in addition to disposable tableware, you will need:
- multi-colored gouache;
- paint brushes;
- polymer glue;
- various decorative elements (rhinestones, pompons, bows, felt details).
Priority of actions:
- On a plate, use paints to paint the face of the selected winter character.
- While the drawing is drying, prepare additional elements. For example, cut horns and ears for a deer from hard felt or make pompons from threads for Santa Claus's beard.
- When the paint stops sticking to your fingers, finish the job by gluing the missing parts.
Children who are already attending high school can be offered to paint not a disposable, but a porcelain or ceramic plate.
For this you will need:
- plate;
- acrylic paints;
- brushes;
- palette for mixing colors;
- cotton swabs;
- alcohol or glass cleaner;
- oven.
Painting technology:
- First, the dishes must be degreased with alcohol or window cleaner.
- Then, with the help of brushes, apply the drawing with paints. If suddenly, some element is drawn incorrectly, you can simply wipe it with a cotton swab until the paint has dried, and after drying - with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol.
- The finished drawing should dry at room temperature for 24 hours.
- Then the plate must be placed in a cold oven, heated to 150 degrees, kept for half an hour and allowed to cool completely in a closed oven.
After that, such a plate can not only be taken to an exhibition of crafts, but also used for its intended purpose. The drawing will not wash off either in the dishwasher or when washing by hand.
Since acrylic paints are translucent, it is better to paint white or plain plates. To make the color thicker, you can mix colored paint with white acrylic.
A kaleidoscope of ideas from felt
In children's crafts of kindergarten pupils, felt is most often used for applications. Toddlers at this age learn to work with scissors and glue. School students will already be able to work with a more complex instrument, such as a needle and thread. This opens up more opportunities for working with felt. They can sew winter crafts.
To create various felt pendants and other things you will need:
- sheets of multi-colored felt;
- sewing thread and needle;
- folofiber to add volume;
- buttons, beads, ribbons and more.
Before starting work, the child needs to be introduced to the two main seams that are used - the “needle forward” and the looped seam, and then proceed as follows:
- Draw a sketch of the future toy on paper (you can use the ideas given for inspiration) and cut out the necessary details from colored felt.
- Sew the parts together using one of the two stitches.
- Stuff the toy with holofiber and attach a loop.
If there are very small details, then they can not be sewn on, but simply glued with hot glue.
Here are some more ideas for New Year felt crafts.
Winter's tale in a glass jar
In every home there is a glass jar, perhaps even a very fancy shape, that can be turned into a handmade candlestick or an atmospheric winter lamp. For its decor, you can use various natural materials (cones, branches, acorns), as well as paints, burlap, lace.
The idea of creating such lamps is not difficult at all to repeat, based on a photo selection.
It is only important to remember: an open fire is always a fire hazard, so it is better to take a candlestick with LED candles to school, which are not much more expensive than ordinary ones.
If the glass jar has a tightly screwed lid, then a craft can be made from it by analogy with a snow-covered ball. For this you will need:
- glass jar with a lid;
- white tinsel and silvery sequins;
- figurines for the composition inside (it is possible from a kinder surprise);
- glue "Moment";
- glycerin and purified water.
How to make a snow globe:
- On the inner side of the lid, glue the figures that will be inside the "ball", let the glue dry well.
- Pour glycerin with water into a jar. The less water is in the mixture, the slower the snowflakes will fall.
- Pour white tinsel and sparkles into the liquid, stir and watch the snowflakes come to life.
- Treat the neck of the can from the inside with glue and tighten the lid.
After drying, you can decorate the outside of the jar and enjoy the man-made winter fairy tale.
Paintings on stones
During trips to the sea, children, and often adults, grab beautiful smooth pebbles as a souvenir. Then the pebbles can gather dust in a conspicuous place for some time, and then they are removed away from the eyes. So, the winter time is the time when it's time to get the hidden stones and make new crafts out of them.
Large instances can be beautifully painted using:
- acrylic paints and varnish (you can take gouache and colorless nail polish);
- PVA glue;
- brushes;
- an eraser and a pencil.
Progress:
- PVA glue should be diluted with a small amount of water and the surface of the stone should be primed with this liquid, preferably twice.
- After drying, use a simple pencil and eraser to sketch the future drawing.
- Draw all the details with paints, and after drying, open the work with varnish.
If the artistic ability leaves much to be desired, then the drawing you like can be printed on paper, and then transferred its outline to the stone using tracing paper.
Decor and decoupage of candles
Candles in many homes are an invariable attribute of cozy winter evenings. They are often decorated, so some of them can be called true works of art. Simple decor options can be repeated at home by making an original craft.
For example, a thick candle can be decorated in a circle with cinnamon sticks and other spices and herbs (for example, star anise, anise, cloves). To keep everything in place, tie with twine or lace, a wide burlap ribbon.
The second option for decorating candles is decoupage. To complete it you will need:
- paraffin candle (the thicker the better);
- napkins;
- scissors;
- white acrylic paint and sponge:
- a spoon and a pill candle or hair dryer;
- soft cloth.
Drawing method:
- Choose a suitable image from napkins and cut out. Then lay out the napkin, leaving only the pattern layer to work with.
- Attach the image to the candle and smooth it with a hot dry spoon or warm it up with hot air from a hair dryer, moving from the center to the edges.
- After the candle has cooled down, it must be polished with a soft cloth until smooth, and in places where the napkin is cut, walk with a sponge dipped in white paint so that they do not bristle.
It is very important that children work with heated objects (a spoon or hair dryer) and light candles only under adult supervision to avoid burns and fire hazards.
Winter crafts do not have to be prepared for school or kindergarten, many of the above ideas can be a wonderful New Year's gif.webpt, an element of home decoration, or a way to spend time with children in an interesting way. You should not completely copy this or that work, it will be better if you allow the child to show their imagination and taste.
