Take along Ice skaters

You know how when you are at a restaurant or at the doctors office and the kids start getting restless and bored?
Well, here is a fun little toy that you can take along with you anywhere to help entertain them.
It fits in a mint tin.

And it is pretty easy to make.

What you will need:

- A mint tin (as in an Altoids mint tin or something similar)

- Computer and printer

- Pliers

- Paper clip

- Glue stick

- Magnets (note:  I had to use some fairly strong magnets for it to work well)

- Scissors

What to Do:

- First I did a search on the internet for an ice skater image that I liked.

- I had to resize it to about 1 1/2 inches

- Then I made a copy of the image and flipped it.....so it looked like a mirror image (shown in the photo below)

- I lined them up so that the edge of each ice skater was touching.

- Next print the ice skaters

-  Now its time to pull out those handy dandy scissors and cut them out.

-  Next grab your pliers and paper clip.

-  Take your paper clip and straighten out one end of it with the pliers. (After I straightened it I bent the very tip of it over to help reduce the risk of my kids accidentally getting poked by it.)

- With the other end of the paper clip use the pliers to twist it until it looks similar to the photo below.

- After twisting the bottom to look like below, try to make sure that it is flat on the very bottom of the paper clip...this is the part that will help keep the ice skater standing up.

- Now, fold your cut outs in half at the points where they meet.

- Then coat the inside of the ice skater with glue and place the straight end of the paper clip inside of each skater.

And that is pretty much it.

- When your kids want to play with it they stick the magnet(s) on the underside of the tin bottom (or lid) and the ice skaters on the opposite side. So they can guide them around from the underside of the tin.

- And when they are not playing with it just put the skaters inside of the tin and close the lid and stick it in your purse or pocket.

-And if you wanted to I'm sure you could use some scrapbook paper and modge podge to decorate the outside of the tin too.  =)

My kids love playing with this.  And since there are 2 ice skaters and a top and bottom to the container I chose, 2 kids can play together.

And the ideas with this are endless....

you can do ballerinas, cars, animals, bugs, dinosaurs.....


Have fun with this and if you have any questions feel free to ask away!

How to Draw Snowflakes!

 Learn how to draw beautiful snowflakes of your own.

These snowflakes were created by the artist at 'Profusion Art.'

Check out the tutorial at profusionart.blogspot.com

An Icee Suncatcher

Here is a fun way to add a little color to the outdoors during winter time.

What You'll Need:

- Ice cube try

- Food coloring

- Water

- Round cake pan

- Freezer

- Ribbon

- Plastic cup

The How To:

- First fill your ice cube try with water.

- Then add a drop of food coloring in each slot. Don't choose more than 3 coordinating colors because they will bleed together a bit later on.

- Next put your ice cube trays in the freezer until all the way frozen.

- After they are frozen, get out your round cake pan.

- Fill it about 1/2 to 2/3 full of water.

- Put it in the freezer for an hour.

- After that, you will add a plastic cup (I used a child sized cup and plastic works better that paper....found that out the hard way) with water in it. This will be where you hang it by the ribbon.

- Then add the colored ice cubes to the water in the cake pan.

- After it is frozen remove the plastic cup from it. If you have difficult removing it try dripping some hot water around the edge of the cup to help loosen the ice around it.

-Then pop that big chunk of ice out of the cake pan.

- Add some matching ribbon and find a place to hang it outside.

Here is what the front side of it turned out to look like....

...And here is the backside.