I love snowmen and am so excited that my 2 year old seems to share this love. Snowmen are great because they aren’t attached to one religious tradition or specific culture. This craft is a easy and relatively mess free way to add sparkles to your holiday decor.

1. Gather your materials. You will need a paper plate, some orange and black construction paper, 2 buttons, some sequins, sparkles, contact paper, scissors, double stick tape, a stapler, and some ribbon. I also used some paint because my son wanted to paint and I like how it looks but you can skip this step if you want.
2. Have your child paint the paper plate, and let dry. If you use a sponge paint brush the paint will go on lightly and dry fast.
3. While they do that cut out a nose from the orange paper, a hat and some coal for the mouth.
4. Cut a rectangle of contact paper and fold in half , make sure it’s big enough to cover the hole you will be cutting in the plate.
5. Peel back the contact paper backing and let your child shake the sparkles on it.
6. Add some sequins.
7. Fold the contact paper so it sandwiches the sparkles , seal it. You may have to use some tape to make sure it’s sealed and nothing falls out.
8. Cut out the middle of the plate.
9. Add glue to the cutout middle for the coal mouth, nose and hat. Obviously older kids can do this themselves but it gives toddlers a great guide to be independent.
10. Add the face pieces.
11. Add the button eyes.
12. While your child is adding the face pieces , attach the contact paper to the inside of the paper plate ring, I used double stick tape cause it holds contact paper well.
13. Staple the face to the belly, I use staples with coated paper plates because glue doesn’t always work very well.
14. Add the ribbon as a scarf to cover the staples.

Books !

” Birthday Snow” by Kim Messinger and Michael LaLumiere is such a sweet book about believing in something even when all the facts say maybe you should give up. Daniel doesn’t give up hope waiting for the snow to come on his birthday , but who really steals the show is his mom and her continued support of her little guy and his determination. A very cute book and a new addition to my must buy list!

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