The snow has finally arrived and the kids have loved it. They have been enjoying snowball fights, snow forts, and snow angels but it’s also great for letting out your creative side. You have probably heard of painting snow but have you tried using snow as paint?
My two oldest kids were quite content to work on creating a snowball arsenal but my youngest was looking for something else to do. She loves colouring so we tried our hand at creating art outside. Taking mittfuls of snow in our hand, we drew a heart on the bark of our large oak tree. We created the rough outline of a heart and proceeded to fill it with snow.
Some snow stuck and other snow fell away but I loved the rough heart look, with dark bark exposed between bright white snow clumps. Our creative endeavor intrigued my other two kids and the fence surrounding our backyard offered the perfect canvas.
Each child was given a panel to work within and a pile of snow to use. My oldest daughter and I created a snow garden, patting bits of snow in a rough drawing of the flowers we had in mind. Compared to the tree bark, the smooth fence surface required sticky snow, the type you use for making snowballs and snowmen. This clumped and stuck to the fence as we placed it (not dragged it like a crayon).
We just used our mittens, no special tools required, though my son loved creating snowballs and tossing them at the fence for a splatter effect. The images didn’t have to be actual shapes, like the snow garden or heart. Creating freeform shapes like zigzags and swirls looked great too.
We were fortunate enough to have painted our fence this past summer a bright blue, it made the snow art really stand out, but any fence colour (except maybe a nice white picket fence) would work just as well. The great thing about snow paint is that no colour is required. I love the natural look of the white and we don’t have to worry about any transfer colour to mittens or the fence.
Our hope is to fill all the fence panels in the backyard with different pictures and patterns and when the snow melts off, we can just add new images.
If you’re kids are looking for something new to do outside in the snow, try getting creative. Make some outside art snow paintings on trees, fences, even the side of the house.