Puzzle Piece Ornament: Kids Catching Snowflakes

I love crafting with puzzle pieces. Thanks to the horrible puzzle company that shall not be named, I have a lifetime supply. I used two to make this pair of ornaments.  

Puzzle Piece Ornaments: Kids Catching Snowflakes

Materials: 

• puzzle pieces (needs to have three or four outies) 
• fine-grit sandpaper 
• paint (skin tone of your choice)
• Sharpies (black and red)
• felt
• glitter pom poms
• metallic cord
• craft glue
• snowflake sequins
• yarn (hair color of your choice)
• Stickles

Steps: 

Prepare the puzzle pieces by gently sanding them to remove the glossy finish. (Skip this step if you are using puzzle pieces made specifically for crafting.) Paint each piece with your desired skin tone. 

When the paint is dry, use a red Sharpie to color in the tongue. 

With a black Sharpie, color the open mouth above the tongue. You can draw the rest of the face now (eyes and nose) or wait until later. Glue a snowflake to the end of the tongue.

Make the hats from felt. I used a contrasting color for the band. Glue the two parts together, then glue them to the puzzle pieces. Add a piece of metallic cord for the ornament hanger.  

Cut lengths of yarn to make the hair. Leave it as is, or untwist it to get wavy hair. Glue it in place. Obviously, you can change the hair color and length, style it differently (ponytails or braids would be cute), or leave it off entirely. 

Decorate with Stickles. I put silver dots on the girl's hat and green dots for her earrings. I left the boy undecorated. Finally, glue the glitter pom pom to the hat. 

Only 46 days until Christmas! 

Winter Mint Warm Milk

Last week, it was cold here (Bay Area cold, not Place-With-Actual-Winter cold). Now we're in the 70's, so it feels a little weird posting this now. But most of my readers have Actual Winter, so this for you. 

It's a toss-up as to whether hot chocolate or spiced cider is my favorite warm-me-up beverage, but I was in the mood for something different. This warm, sweet minty milk hit the spot. Affiliate links below. 

 

Winter Mint Warm Milk

Materials:

• sugar
• milk
• blue Candy Melts
• LorAnn wintergreen flavor
• snowflake mold

Steps:

Pour an inch of water into a bowl and an inch of sugar into a second bowl. Dip the rim of each glass into the water and then into the sugar. Set the glasses aside. 

Follow the directions to prepare the Candy Melts. Add several drops of wintergreen flavor, then spoon the candy into the molds. Do not fill the molds completely - you want thin snowflakes that will melt easily in warm milk. Allow the candy to set, then remove it from the mold. Repeat until you have 3-4 snowflakes per person. 

Gently heat the milk (use medium power in the microwave or a double-boiler on the stove), stirring frequently, just until it starts to steam. Pour the milk into the prepared glasses and serve with 3-4 snowflakes and a spoon. Each person can drop in their own snowflakes and stir to add the desired amount of mint flavor to the milk. 

Q-Tip Snowflake

Not all of my craft ideas are original. Most are, but occasionally I have to recreate someone else's project, without the benefit of actually knowing how they made it. Take, for example, this Q-Tip Snowflake I made:

Many years ago, we featured "Snow Swabs" at Fun Family Crafts:

The original source, Spoonful.com, is gone, leaving us with a dead link. As Editor, that leaves me with a choice: remove the feature entirely, or try to figure out how it was made and post my own tutorial? 

I hate removing crafts from the site, so this time I tried to make my own version. I knew from the title that each 'spoke' of the snowflakes were q-tips, but that's all I knew. What are those colorful blobs at each intersection? The photo is too small to enlarge. Now that I've made my own, I *think* those blobs are hot glue with glitter sprinkled into them, which is different than what I did. Here's my version. Affiliate links below.

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Q-Tip Snowflake

Materials:

• 18 Q-tips
• wax paper
• white glue
• Stickles
• silver sequins
• fishing line

Steps:

1. On a piece of wax paper, arrange the q-tips into a six-pointed star. 

2. Put glue at each intersection. Too little and the snowflake won't stick together. Too much and the glue will form unsightly pools. (Ask me how I know.) Let the glue dry overnight. 

3. Carefully peel the wax paper from the back of the snowflake. If necessary, add extra glue to reattach weak areas and/or use microtip scissors to trim away glue pools. Once it is secure, tie a piece of fishing line around the snowflake. Have a trusty assistant hold it up to make sure it is actually sturdy. 

4. Now it's time to decorate! I used Star Dust Stickles to add glitter to the snowflake, then glued a silver sequin at each intersection. 

Of course, both the glitter and the sequins are difficult to see in my photos, but they do add a nice sparkle in real life. Hang your snowflake in the window and enjoy!