SMMARTideas

SMMART ART: SPARKLING ICE ORNAMENTS

Glittering ice ornaments can adorn your bare bushes outside. This is a twist on the SMMART ice art activity.

Help your child collect small waterproof items of interest around the house and outside. You can be holiday festive and collect red berries and twigs of evergreen. You can even include bird seed for a natural and usable ornament.

Some things that will work well are glitter, small toys, colored yarn, twigs, leaves and small pebbles. Your child can help you cut up the string or ribbon into small pieces. Help your child fill up a bundt cake pan, plastic bowl, ice cube tray, or any other type of mold with water. If you have little holiday plastic ice or chocolate molds, those would work GREAT!

Sprinkle the waterproof trinkets all over the water. Let your child stir up the treasures in the water. Many items will sink to the bottom, but when the mold freezes, those items will show nicely on top of the ice.

Cut a long piece of yarn and fold it in half. Rest the ends of the string inside the mold, so they'll freeze and you'll have a hanger for your ice ornament. Tape down the string onto the side of the mold to ensure that they stay put.

Place the water molds on a cookie sheet and pop into the freezer until completely firm.

Unmold the ice ornaments and hang around your trees, on your deck or outside your window for festive holiday shimmer.