Simple projects that look like they took hours to make are my favorite kind! This Paper Lace Mobile looks very complicated but the reality is you can make it in about 30 minutes….shhhhh don’t tell anyone….

If you’ve been following my recent posts you’ll know I’m going through a mobile obsession right now….last week I shared our Recycled Bird Feeder Mobile here. The idea for the Paper Lace Mobile originated when I made paper lace following instructions from The Best of Making Things: A Hand Book of Creative Discovery. I loved the look of the paper lace but couldn’t figure out a good way to show it off. Then my mobile obsession began and I realized paper lace would make a fabulous hanging mobile. I can see these as party decor or a quick little project to brighten up a baby or child’s room. They have a little Tord Boontje garland feel to them as well; okay I might be reaching a little on that one but his lacy garland pendant lights are one of my favorite designs ever…

Paper Lace Mobile

Materials

• 6 sheets of double sided Origami Paper or colored paper cut into 6″ x 6″ squares
• 8″ Diameter Embroidery Hoop
• Tape
• Scissors
• String or Ribbon for hanging the mobile
• Colored Tape to decorate the embroidery hoop
• Cutting Template for reference, shown above

Instructions

• Step One To make the paper lace, begin by folding one of your sheets of paper diagonally to create a triangle. Fold it again diagonally to make a smaller triangle.
• Step Two Using the cutting template above for reference, cut slits across the triangle, alternating the side you are cutting, kind of like a maze. Stop cutting about 1/4″ from the edge of the paper. I left about 1/2″ in between slits. No need to be precise with this; I eyeballed the cut lines.
• Step Three Carefully unfold your paper. The cut edges will want to stick together so don’t unfold it too quickly or you will rip the paper.
• Step Four  Repeat this with the other sheets of paper until you have a total of 6 paper lace pieces. You can fold and cut two sheets at a time to make the process faster.

• Step Five Pinch the center two triangles together and pull up on the paper to unfurl the lace. You will also need to gently tug on the bottom of the lace.

• Step Six  Open your embroidery hoop. Make six equidistant marks around the circle.
• Step Seven Tape the pinched center of one of your paper lace pieces to the outside edge of the inner embroidery hoop ring.
• Step Eight Repeat taping step with your other paper lace pieces.
• Step Nine Cut three lengths of ribbon from which to hang your mobile. I cut mine about 18″ long.
• Step Ten Tape one end of each ribbon piece to the inner embroidery hoop ring at three equidistant spaces around the circle.
• Step Eleven Fit the outer ring of the embroidery hoop around the inner ring. Tighten.

• Step Twelve Gather the three ribbon pieces at the top and tie into a knot with a loop OR tie a knot around a book ring to hang the mobile from.
• Step Thirteen (optional) If you are a design snob like myself you can add tape to the outer (and inner) rings of the embroidery hoop to dress it up a little. I used bright yellow electrical tape on mine. Be careful when applying the tape, though, you don’t want it to stick to your paper lace!
• Step Fourteen It’s time to hang your mobile! Gently tug on the ends of the paper lace to unfurl them again. At first the paper may not want to hang well so you may want to temporarily add a couple of paper clips or book rings to the bottoms of each paper lace section to weigh them down. If you use paper clips leave them overnight on the paper. If you use the book rings, about 30 minutes should be enough, if you leave them too long they will pull the paper lace too much and it will look droopy.

Here is our finished mobile, complete with a behind the scenes shot of my son in our “photo studio” AKA breakfast nook with white foam core backdrop!

Then we moved the mobile into the bedroom for the baby’s viewing pleasure!

Enjoy!

Do you really need yet another homemade paint recipe for kids in your life…the answer is yes! I wasn’t sold on chalk paint at first, drawing with chalk is already a favorite, what could painting with it add?  I decided to try it out anyway and can tell you I’m absolutely thrilled with this new art material! Here’s why you should add chalk paint to your repertoire:

• It is much thicker and more vibrant than drawing with chalk.
• It can be painted on any surface you typically draw on with chalk.
• It wipes/washes clean easily, just like chalk.
• It’s easy make it yourself quickly, especially if you have chalk powder on hand.

There are a number of recipes for sidewalk chalk paint online, typically they use a cornstarch and food coloring mixture OR require you to grate/smash pieces of chalk to make chalk powder. Both of these methods work. The cornstarch recipe, though, is goopy and needs to be continually mixed to keep the cornstarch and water from separating. And grating pieces of chalk is just not something I have time for….so when I was at the hardware store and saw chalk powder for construction chalk lines I knew I had hit pay dirt for an easy chalk paint recipe.

You can pick up a plastic bottle of chalk powder at the hardware store or Amazon for a couple dollars; I bought Irwin Powder Chalk for $2.50 a bottle. The only limitation is the color selection, our local store carried only blue, fluorescent orange, white, and terra cotta red. In construction the colors are used for different applications and degrees of permanence. Online I saw you can also pick up white, black, yellow, and green. I haven’t tried purchasing white and tinting it but who knows, maybe that will work too…..

Hardware Store Chalk Paint

Note: this tutorial is for art paint, not furniture chalk paint.

Materials:

• Chalk Powder
• Water

Instructions:

• Step One Pour some chalk powder into a jar.
• Step Two Add water to the jar; I used a 3:1 ratio of chalk to water.
• Step Three Put a lid on the jar and shake it around until mixed or stir the chalk and water together until the chalk is fully dissolved. Add more water if necessary to make the consistency you want.

You’re done! Told you it was easy….now go outside and paint! My daughter started painting the tiles on our back patio and then quickly moved to her hands and feet…looks like I need to investigate homemade face paint a little more…anyhoo I could see chalk paint being used for sidewalk art or hopscotch or writing big messages on the ground….

We also tried it out on our chalkboard wall inside the house. Yes, I held my breath a little on that one since we were inside and the temptation to splatter chalk paint is high…. Luckily all went well.

This is one instance where you don’t need to be alarmed at seeing paint all over your floor, when you are done, the chalk paint wipes clean with a damp cloth.

Enjoy!

I’ve been obsessing over all things mobile ever since receiving a hand made frog mobile as a baby shower gift. As a designer I was already predisposed to liking them, after all aren’t Alexander Calder’s mobiles every design snob’s dream art piece?  Of course I’d need a proper place to hang one as well, but I digress….

I can’t say that this mobile is even remotely close to a Calder but it’s a great way to combine science and design for kids in one sweet little project: a Recycled Bird Feeder Mobile. I toyed with a number of ideas for how to build this bird feeder before reminding myself that there is no perfect solution to any project, so go down one path and enjoy the exploration. This homemade bird feeder is perfect if you are looking for a kid’s craft focused on nature and recycling with a little physics thrown in for good measure!

Side note: FYI I suggest using a stick that has three branches minimum so that a bird can actually land on it and get to the birdseed. My first version was truly a balancing mobile and I saw a poor blue jay dive bombing it to knock the seed off since he couldn’t land on it!

Recycled Bird Feeder Mobile

Materials

• Small branch or sturdy twig
• Cardboard tubes, cut into strips
• Cheerios
• Light Corn Syrup
• Paintbrush
• String
• Bird Seed
• Wax Paper
• Hole Punch
• Scissors

Instructions

• Step One Punch a hole in the top and bottom of each of your cardboard tube strips.
• Step Two Pour the corn syrup, Cheerios, and birdseed into three separate bowls.
• Step Three Using a paint brush, paint the outside of a cardboard tube with corn syrup, the more the better! Alternatively you can roll the tube in the corn syrup to coat the outer surface, this is a quicker way to do it.
• Step Four Dip your sticky tube into the birdseed. If you use a Tupperware container you can put the lid on it and shake the birdseed and tube around to cover the tube. Once covered, place the tube on the wax paper to dry.
• Step Five Repeat corn syrup and birdseed steps with more tubes.
• Step Six Cut a length of string and thread a Cheerio on it. Pull string through the bottom hole of one birdseed covered tube. Thread on 5-10 Cheerios then thread the string through the upper hole. You can add more tubes onto this string or move on to another string. Repeat this until you have about 6 strings completed.

• Step Seven Now it’s time to start putting the mobile together! Cut three long strings. Tie one string around one branch and repeat with the other two strings/branches. Gather the three strings together and knot at the top. Tie a loop with the excess string. If you don’t use a loop at the top your mobile will overturn if any weight is put on it.  Hang it up in an easy to reach spot.
• Step Eight Tie your birdseed covered tube strings to the branches. Make sure they are secured tightly.Try not to dangle them too far from the branch or it will be hard for the birds to get to the seed.
• Step Nine Trim all your excess string and hang the mobile in it’s final position.

Now enjoy watching the birds flutter around it and attempt to eat birdseed off a swinging mobile….if they can’t do it, they will knock the birdseed off the tubes and eat it from the ground. Hey, sometimes design is pretty not practical!

Apparently the birds in my neighborhood are talented enough to pull off the balancing feat, see my action shots below. I’m not sure if this is a physics lesson for kids or for the birds….

I’m always happy to find kids crafts that my children clamor to do rather than those that require me dragging them over to the table to make; these simple cosmic glue suncatchers are one of those enticing projects! I was fooling around making them when they caught my daughter’s eye and she asked to make one. Later that day her brother saw the suncatchers drying and immediately asked if he could make one….so I knew this kids project was a keeper. Best of all it takes two minutes to pull together and about 5 minutes to execute, excluding drying time, perfect for short attention spans and moms with newborns! Oh and did I say it uses recycled materials? An eco-friendly kids craft as well…score!

Cosmic Glue Suncatchers

Materials

• White Glue
• Food coloring
• Toothpicks
• Plastic lids (Lids from tubs of yogurt, hummus, sour cream etc. work best, although metal lids also work)
• Hole Punch
• String

Instructions

• Step One Pour a generous amount of glue into one of your plastic lids and swish it around to cover the entire inner surface.
• Step Two Have your child put one or two drops of each color of food coloring around the glue.
• Step Three Give your child a toothpick to swirl the colors around in the glue. Stop swirling before the colors get too combined or the final result will be muddy and brown. This is an exercise in restraint!
• Step Four Let dry. As the colors settle they will continue to expand and create a dyed psychedelic effect….I love the 60s… Depending on how much glue you used, the suncatcher will take one to three days to fully dry. You will know it’s ready when the edges start to peel off the lid.
• Step Five When fully dry, peel the suncatcher off the lid, punch a hole through the top, add a string, and hang in a sunny spot.

It’s cosmic madness!

Footnote: If there is one ingredient I would recommend you have on hand at any one time to make and do countless kid’s activities it’s food coloring. Hands down, the possibilities of using food coloring in children’s art and science projects are endless and this is just another example of food coloring’s greatness!

Shared on the Jenny Evolution’s Friday Flash Blog

If you’ve been around the blogoshpere for awhile you have definitely seen water beads, however, if you’re like me you may not have actually tried playing with them before. A friend of mine recently gave us some water beads and needless to say, I’m hooked. Water beads are a natural kid’s activity, their size, color, and texture are so appealing to children who will love feeling and squishing them. I loved photographing them, what color! If you google water bead activities for kids you’ll find a host of ideas; I personally like them for the science aspect. “Growing” dehydrated water beads is great science activity for kids.

Caution: One brand of the large sized beads, roughly the same size as bouncy ball when fully hydrated, were recalled because they are a choking hazard. If you have these make sure closely supervise the activity. In general be sure to let children know water beads should never be put into your mouth!

Water Bead Science

Materials

• Dehydrated Water Beads purchased online
• Bowl
• Water

Instructions

• Empty a few packs of the tiny beads into a large bowl.
• Add water to cover.
• Watch the beads grow! This will take some patience. After an hour you will see some growth. After about 8 hours they will reach their full size.
• Once they are fully hydrated, pour the water beads into bins or containers and let your child feel and squish to their hearts content! The beads also bounce but be careful, they will be everywhere!

Ideas for Additional Exploration

• Place the clear beads in a bowl of water. They will visually disappear….tell your child to feel for them. They will be amazed.
• Place the beads on a paper towel for a few days and watch them shrink back up to their original size
• My friend showed me a fantastic photo she shot through a large clear water bead. The image was flipped; this is an opportunity to discuss how our eyes work.
• Freeze them! Make a large ice chunk from water and hydrated beads. Then place the icy water bead mix in a bowl or kiddie pool filled with water. The full size water beads will unthaw, shrink, then grow in size again. By then end of that process they are mushy and fall apart. The whole unthawing process took about 10-15 minutes on a hot day here in SoCal!

Enjoy!

Shared on the Jenny Evolution’s Friday Flash Blog

I’m the first to admit that for me planning kid’s birthday parties is both exciting and dreadful. I love thinking of creative ideas and activities for the party but I worry about the dollars spent and whether or not it will go well- I can’t help myself, I’m a worrywart!  My son just turned 6 and requested a dinosaur birthday party. Actually he requested a “Jurassic Park Party “but since the movie came out what seems like eons ago, there really isn’t that much themed merchandise available. Plus I’m a little more aesthetically uninclined to pick up themed plates, banners etc…so of course I’ve spent countless hours coming up with dinosaur party ideas with one requirement in mind: EASY!

I’m happy to report that the party was success! Despite several panic attacks, we pulled it off and I wanted to share our quick and easy activities and decorations for those of you looking for some jurassic inspiration!

6 Year Old’s Dinosaur Birthday Party

Activities:

• Dinosaur Bone Dig We have a large planter around our orange tree that we filled with sand and use as a sandbox. Since kids love to dig I enlisted my children to hide dinosaur fossil skeletons in the sand. The day before the party I raked and wet the sand so it was a little crusty on the top. The day of, I threw out some kid’s sand shovels and trowels and let the kids dig to their hearts content. The “Dig Site” was decimated by the end of the party!
• Volcano We have another freestanding sandbox where we molded the sand into the shape of a volcano. I put our larger plastic dinosaurs around the volcano. Then we took empty water bottles and created eruptions using this Wizard’s Brew recipe (excluding glitter) and red food coloring. I gave each child who wanted a turn their own bottle to make the volcano erupt. I could only keep this up for about 20 minutes but the kids went nuts for it. They especially liked seeing the dinosaur figures get washed away in “lava.”
• Dino Themed Crafts I set up a small children’s table with two self-directed crafts: Color Scratch Dinosaurs and some dinosaur sticker books. I didn’t monitor it’s success but I saw quite a few girls walking around with the scratchers by the end of the party.
• Dinosaur Eggs I used this recipe and idea from Play Create Explore. This was the only activity with some planning required. I saved my used coffee grounds for about two weeks to make the eggs. My daughter, Clara, and I pulled these together in advance of the party, she had a lot of fun molding them into patties. I painted half of them white to make them a little more distinguishable from dirt but then ran out of time to finish painting! We hid these in a planter with a sign labeled “Hatchery.” My son brought his friends over at one point to the hatchery and within minutes the kids had found the eggs and cracked them open to reveal the mini dinosaur hidden inside. Another success!
• Piñata When the kids started going a little bonkers with all the free form activities we reeled them in for Piñata time. Piñata’s are perfect when you need to control the chaos!

Decorations:

• Masks  We had an assortment of Dinosaur masks for the kids to wear and take home. I loved the color on these and they were very inexpensive. The kids enjoyed wearing them.
• Inflatable Dinosaurs I had a few inflatable dinosaurs around the yard including this beast of a T-Rex. The only issue I had was quick deflation since every child wanted to pounce on it!
• Signs We cut some large dowels I had from another party and I threw together some simple signs using free dinosaur fonts I found online.
• Simple Flowers We have a large yard with many, many flowers and herbs. I never do flower arranging but thanks to Pinterest I felt the desire to throw some last minute bouquets around the party. I used old jars and picked a variety of flowers, plants, and herbs for the arrangements. I particularly liked this borage, rose, and sage arrangement. Trust me this will take you a few minutes to throw together.

Food & Favors

• Chow With a newborn I knew I couldn’t spend time on food so we ordered sandwich platters, had chips and dip, watermelon, and of course cake. Fancy cakes can get pricey so we ordered a cupcake cake (no slicing, plates, or utensils needed) from Ralphs, asked them to make water, a beach, and land from the icing, and had them put some small plastic trees on top. Then we added some plastic dinosaurs I picked up at the dollar store for the final effect. Definitely a money saver!
• Favors I purchased dinosaur lollipops at Oriental Trading Company for the party-leaving-bribe, ahem, I mean party favors…..I also let kids take home their masks, piñata treats, and any dinosaurs they had collected throughout the day.

After two hours of party time I was toast, but spent the next day recovering with a smile!

Lately I’m all about one thing when is comes to our kid’s craft activities: EASY. With a newborn and two older kids I just don’t have time to do anything that takes much prep work, so I’m always on the look-out for kid’s activities that I can quickly throw together…enter these three homemade paint recipes: Pudding Paint, Syrup Paint, and Cornstarch + Vinegar Paint. All are super simple DIY art materials for kids that can be whipped up in a short amount of time.

First up….

1. Pudding Paint

Why is pudding paint awesome? Ahhh, let me count the ways….

• Easy to make
• One box makes a large quantity of paint
• 3 ingredients
• Mixing the colors is half the fun
• Edible and non-toxic
• Easy to clean
• Great for finger painting

Convinced yet? There are many online recipes for pudding paint;  here’s the easy one I referenced: Pudding Paint.

Materials: 


• 1 Box Vanilla Instant Pudding Mix
• 2 Cups Ice Cold Water
• Food Coloring

Instructions:


• Pour pudding mix into a bowl
• Add water and whisk
• Refrigerate
• Separate the pudding into separate containers
• Add a couple drops of food coloring (you won’t need much) to each container
• Mix until the color is fully combined

Notes & Tips:

• The colder the water, the better, lukewarm water makes soupy paint…
• The paint will continue to thicken the longer you leave it in the fridge.
• Include your child in the task of color mixing, its a great lesson and part of the activity’s appeal.
• Pudding Paint will be semi-transparent so don’t expect vibrant paintings, think pastels.
• Pudding Paint has a great texture so expect your child to scoop it out and smear it, this is almost guaranteed!
• Keep a couple of boxes of instant pudding in your pantry for times when you need a quick art project.
• Pudding Paint will last a few days at room temperature, after that it will start to spoil.

Next up:

2. Syrup Paint

At first I scoffed at the idea of using corn syrup as a paint base; I thought is would attract ants or remain really sticky. But as I was using the corn syrup for a bird feeder mobile (project coming soon…) I added a bit of food coloring to try and entice my kids to join me in the project. My son painted green corn syrup on a cardboard tube to make a birdfeeder monster and after leaving it for a day I noticed it had dried into a really cool glazed surface. That’s when I mixed up a bit more of this paint to try again. It’s even easier to make than pudding paint and the results are unique!

So let me count Syrup Paint’s amazing virtues…

• Can be made in 1 minute, truly
• 2 ingredients
• Edible and non-toxic
• Unique shiny “glazed” look

Materials: 


• Light Corn Syrup
• Food Coloring

Instructions:


• Pour corn syrup into a small dish
• Add a couple drops of food coloring (you won’t need much)
• Mix

Notes & Tips:

• Syrup Paint dries within a few hours, however it does remain semi-sticky even when fully dry so keep that in mind when deciding if it’s appropriate for a project, i.e. don’t use it on a bookmark!
• Syrup Paint would look great on wood projects but works well on paper too.
• Syrup Paint has some dimension to it.
• Keep it in an airtight to prevent it from hardening and it will last indefinitely.

Last up…

3. Cornstarch & Vinegar Paint

Another paint you can whip up in one minute. A limitation of this paint is that is needs to be swished around while using it so it may be better suited for older kids who can remember that step! Here are the things I like best about this paint:

• Quick and easy to make
• 3 ingredients
• Uses common household pantry ingredients
• Produces vibrant colors

Materials:

• 2 parts Cornstarch
• 3 parts Distilled White Vinegar
• Food Coloring

Instructions:

• Mix the cornstarch and vinegar together in a shallow bowl or tupperware container.
• Add food coloring to make the hue you desire.

Notes & Tips:

• Cornstarch naturally wants to separate from any liquid so you will have to keep swishing the paint around while using it to keep it properly mixed, otherwise you’ll end up with watery parts and flaky parts to your artwork.
• Expect some of the cornstarch to flake off when the paint is fully dry.
• Don’t add too much cornstarch or you’ll end up with Oobleck! Don’t worry if you do, though, just add more liquid and you’ll get back to the consistency you want.
• While the mixed paint can be kept indefinitely in airtight containers, it is best used soon after mixing. Once the vinegar and cornstarch have separated for some time you’ll have to really mix it up again to prevent lumpiness in the paint.
• After making this paint I wondered what the difference would be if I just used water instead of vinegar. The water + cornstarch mixture was definitely more flaky when it fully dried.

So there you have it, 3 easy homemade paints you can whip up for the kids in a matter of minutes using common household ingredients. Enjoy!

Shared on the Jenny Evolution’s Friday Flash Blog

We welcomed our beautiful third child, Leon, into this world on March 7th. Motherhood is an amazing gift. Looking into the eyes of a newborn just melts your heart…and caring for a houseful of kiddos melts your brain…. I haven’t had more than a few minutes to myself lately and very little time to do projects. But I did manage to carve out a few minutes over several days, often with a sleeping baby in the sling, to make these handmade birth announcement cards!

After creating Mini Instagram Books on Snapfish a few months ago, I started browsing their website for other unusual photo products and came across photo stickers. I had these in mind immediately for a DIY birth announcement as soon as I saw them. They would be easy to use, a little offbeat, and the perfect way to display all the great photos I’ve been taking of Leon, on Instagram, of course. As soon as I had collected a few great pics of our newest sweetheart I ordered these online and was ready to go!

Sticker Birth Announcements

Materials:

• Photo Stickers I created mine on Snapfish; they are 1 3/4″ square
• Blank Cards & Envelopes I used the 4-Bar size from Paper Source
• Stamp & Ink Pad (optional)

Assembly & Tips:

• Choose four stickers and place them in the upper section of the card front, leaving enough room for a stamped message below.
• Alternate various images for a mini snapshot of the first weeks of life. I mixed awake and alert shots with sleeping shots, a funny yawning image, and my older kids snuggling with their new brother.

• Stamp a message or the name of your child below. I originally planned only on using the stickers for the cover, but after making a few cards I felt like they needed some text to balance them out. I wasn’t about to order and wait around for a custom stamp with Leon’s name on it so I made my own impromptu stamp!  I used a recycled box, glued on some foam letters, backwards, and made a homemade stamp pad out of a sponge, paint, and glue; for full instructions on making your own stamps and ink, check out this tutorial: How to Make a Stamp
• Let the ink/paint dry.

That’s it! I was so happy these DIY birth announcements were actually as easy to make as I had envisioned they would be; that doesn’t always happen with my projects…Enjoy!

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I am obsessed with office supplies. I love fancy paper stores like Paper Source but there is always a thrill in making magic out of ordinary office supplies, the kind you find at Staples. After Clara and I improvised a paper clip jewelry project awhile back, I wanted to continue making jewelry from office supplies. This DIY jewelry project was partly for kicks and partly serious, I’m still not sure which….so off I went to Staples where I had a blast buying paper clips, brads, rubber bands and more in hopes of creating some funky jewelry! I have a feeling school-age girls would love this project, my three year old Clara was still a little young to get into it, instead she made up her own project: using poster tack and erasers to make figures. I loved her idea, too….so look for future post on Office Supply Sculptures!

Office Supply Jewelry

Materials:

I didn’t use everything pictured here…yet…but boy the color and shapes are inspiring, don’t you think?

And here’s what we made….

Butterfly Clip Necklace: Alternate standard paper clips with butterfly clips for pretty little metallic necklace.

Brad and Paper Clip Necklace: I’m not gonna lie, this one is a little painful! Alternate large paper clips with standard sized paper clips, then fish the brads through the standard clips for decoration. I used brads on the entire necklace but if you just use them only on the front and wear a turtleneck I think this could be a really fun piece to wear! It reminds me of a coral necklace I inherited from my mother….

Giant Paper Clip Necklace: I couldn’t resist buying these enormous paper clips. They are three inches long and gold! You don’t need to do much more than string them together for this simple, artsy necklace.

Rubber Band and Book Ring Belt: I loved these giant colorful rubber bands the minute I laid eyes on them!  Just note that they do dry out and eventually break. Of course none of DIY jewelry pieces we are making here are permanent anyway. And I’ve just started with books rings….I see endless possibilities with these.

Braided Rubber Band Bracelets: Giant rubber bands are so fun to work with! I tried a bunch of bracelet iterations using these as the base; in the end I liked the braided look best. I used a colored paper clip to connect the ends together. Friendship bracelets anyone?

That’s the first installation of DIY Office Supply Jewelry…I hope to start using the erasers and tacks to make a studded piece…any ideas?

Enjoy!

This post was originally published on the first incarnation of this blog www.CreateALD.tumblr.com. Here it is again, revamped!

Hot days are already inching their way back here in California….I found this project in one of my favorite science book for kids: Science Arts: Discovering Science Through Art Experiences. It’s a great combination of science and art projects all wrapped up into one.

For this project I started out by buying two 25 pound blocks of ice from a local ice company, North Hollywood Ice.  No pun intended but that is a very cool place, I mean that’s what they sell all day, ice. Places like that don’t exist everywhere….

The idea behind this project is to make sculptures with the ice using a combination of warm salt water and plain old salt. Here’s how it goes:

Ice Sculptures

Materials:

• Spray bottles
• Warm water
• Colored Salt
• Food coloring
• Ice blocks (buy them or make your own by freezing water in old milk cartons)
• Salt shakers

Instructions:

• Place the blocks of ice in a water table or large tray outside.
• Fill the spray bottles with warm water then add a few heaping tablespoons of salt to the bottle, drop in some food coloring, cap it and shake to dissolve the salt and mix the color.
• Fill your salt shakers with colored salt.
• Hand your child a spray bottle and/or salt shaker and tell them to spray and shake to their heart’s content.
• The salt will begin to melt the ice and stipple the surface. If you spray the salt water at the same spot over and over again you can make holes in the ice.
• The salt will also crystallize to form a crust which you can peel off.
• At one point I ran out of salt and gave the kids the food coloring bottles. They dripped food coloring directly on the ice and it looked pretty cool. Very vivid colors that melted into streams.

Just make sure no one sprays each other with the salt water, it can sting the eyes!

Enjoy!