Ice, Ice Baby

Still winter.  Still crafting. 

I got this idea from MckMama here.  She had a great discussion on winter crafts in case you need some more.  I will inevitably continue crafting because what else am I supposed to do?  If you haven't checked out my 365 days of photos project, check it out  and see how ridiculously cold it was this morning.  I'll give you a hint.  It starts with the word "negative."

Anyway, inspired by MckMama, we decided to make our own suncatcher that will probably stay frozen until Em's birthday in April at the rate we're going.  It was very easy and only required an ice cube tray, a round cake pan, food coloring, and a shoe string.

First, you do something unusual.  Give your kid a bowl of water and encourage him to play with it.  Let him or her pick a color and watch as they diligently try to swirl it without spilling.

Then add the colored water into ice cube trays.

Still swirling.  Very diligent.

Then put the ice cubes somewhere to freeze.  The obvious place would be the freezer, but if you live somewhere arctic and your kid wants to watch the entire process from start to finish, just place them outside near a window.

Our deck was cold enough for sure!

Give the kids lunch, put them down for a nap, and the ice cubes will be ready for stage two after dinner.

Use a pie plate or a round cake pan, add water and more food coloring (the same or different color, doesn't matter.  Whatever your aesthetic tendency is for the day).

Add the colored ice cubes.

In retrospect, I would have used more ice cubes.  It would have been prettier.

Then, freeze it all overnight.  Don't forget to add a string or shoelace to hang it with!  Don't put too much string in there or it will take away from your suncatcher.  Also, be warned that the string will probably float to the top and may not hold your suncatcher that well.  I don't quite know how to avoid that; luckily, our shoestring worked out fine.  I ended up cutting the end off my shoelace, which is unfortunate since I was still planning on using those shoes this spring.  Oh well.  All in the name of crafts!

And the finished product:

It looks pretty cool and Jax thinks it's awesome.  He has showed it to everyone who comes to our house.  He's very proud of the process we went through to make it.  It was nice to show him that some things take time and require patience, not all instant gratification.  An added bonus to a pretty fun and simple winter craft!

Sorry California friends.  This one won't work for you.  I'll let you know when ours finally melts!