Kids Art: Penguins and Snowmen Winter Holiday Cards

The younger child is still fascinated with penguins and wanted to do some penguin cards, much like the penguin cards done in previous years.

So we pulled out our favorite Usborne book 365 Things to Make and Do from the book shelf and looked through for inspiration.

The thumbprint snowmen and penguins project idea immediately caught the kid's fancy.

It's an easy enough project by itself, but, he wanted to add fancy backgrounds and action scenes inspired by Carol and Mark Buehner's Snowmen at Night -- an all-time favorite with both kids that comes out of the book shelf every winter to be read to bits.

But, acknowledging our combined limited abilities, the kiddo settled for something playful and silly but colorful.

Chalk pastels being his favorite, we settled on cool winter colors for background, with white oil pastel making the snowbank in the foreground.

All in all, it was a fun Saturday afternoon making these cute penguin and snowman cards.

Kids Art: Just-for-Fun Snowmen Card

"Snowmen at Night" by Caralyn and Mark Buehner is a huge favorite in our house. It was a top favorite with Ana for a while, and was an absolute obsession with Og as well.

Just recently, in my usual rotation, I brought this book out from the top shelf and put it at eye level on the bookshelf for kids wondering if they'll still be interested in it... I needn't have wondered.

Oggie started reciting this poem - the first 24 lines at least - and proceeded to write a book, inspired by this one. We'll see if he completes this book - he says it will have 14 pages, mostly full-page pictures with minimal text. This time, rather than the lilt of the poetry, he says he is going for the absolutely delightful snowmen images, imagining what else the snowmen might be doing at night.

Anyway, while the kids were deeply into this snowman fever, we did a simple snowman card project as seen in the picture above.

Items Used:
white acrylic paint
glittery white tissue paper
light blue tissue paper
card stock paper
potato stamp snowman bodies
black, orange, green gel pen to add the features

Then, Ana made a card for her friend with two adorable snow men women. Now that the stores are flooded with gift wrap and greeting cards, there are snowmen images everywhere, so, it wasn't hard to get inspired. Just color pencils and chalk pastels.


She also did an old favorite - Penguins!

We are still working on more snowmen cards... maybe a few penguins, some snowflakes, holly, wreaths, pine trees... all the holiday inspirations!

Kids Craft: Recycled Xmas Wrapping Paper Cards

Such a shame that beautiful wrapping paper gets ripped and thrown in trash a lot around this time of the year. At home, we've tried to use as little as possible and reclaim/reuse/recycle the wrapping and tissue papers.

Especially fun is to reuse the Xmas wrapping papers to make greeting cards that are easy for pre-schoolers to make.

There is something very satisfying about making something with your own hands - even if it is just assembling a few things, or drawing a few simple lines - for kids. And it is more meaningful to them to share it with their friends and teacher when they have made it themselves.

From last year's wrapping paper I had cut out and saved some Snowmen, Snowflakes, and a few others. To make it sturdy, I glued the wrapping paper onto card stock and let it dry before saving these cuttings. Some days ago, I brought them out to let Oggie make a set of greeting cards for his teachers/friends.

It takes just a bit of preparation, as usual, to make it a smooth process for the 3.5 year old. Simpy arrange the pre-cut wrapping paper pieces, card stock and glue stick in a tray and let the child glue as they like. A half dozen unique and charming greeting cards are ready in no time at all.

And, Ana did a few of the Holly & Berries Wreath Card as well at the same time.