In winter, the streets are covered with a fluffy white carpet. What New Year would be complete without snowflakes and snowdrifts? This beauty can be made at home to please the kids. Let's find out what you can use to make snow that will decorate your apartment.
Basic methods of making artificial snow
To create artificial snowflakes it is not necessary to buy a special product from
spray can. You can use materials that are found in your home. Yes, from what your imagination points to. Any housewife has a variety of materials that are suitable for this simple job.
Very often they are made from diaper filling, polystyrene foam, paraffin, soap, packaging bags, paper, shaving foam, salt or sugar. Perhaps something else will come to your mind. Try to remember what is in your bins. Get out everything that might be useful.
Let's talk in more detail about how to make artificial snow at home. Despite the fact that there are a lot of options, let’s look at the main ones.
Foam snow
If you have some leftover pieces of foam, they will work great as fake snow.
By the way, this material is often used for packaging household appliances and equipment, so finding it will not be a problem.
Break the foam into small pieces so that they are easy to hold in your hand. Take a grater and grind the material. Remember that polystyrene foam can scatter throughout the apartment. Better put something on the floor. The resulting crumbs should be collected in some container. Actually, that's all. Here's how to make fake snow without spending any money.
You can decorate fir branches with polystyrene foam. To do this, they should be coated with glue, for example, PVA, and sprinkled with crumbs. It will look very beautiful. If you add glitter, the snow-covered twig will sparkle.
Snow made from soap and shaving foam
Shaving foam is not cheap, so you should first think about whether you are ready for such expenses. If yes, then feel free to pick up the can. You will also need a pack of baking soda and a large bowl. Pour the contents of the can into it and pour out the soda. Now you need to mix it all thoroughly. As a result, you should have a cool mass from which you can sculpt snowflakes.
To make snow from soap or paraffin, use a grater. Grind them and mix them with baby powder. The result is small flakes. To make the snow look like natural, take white soap or a candle.
Making snow from diapers
What else can you make snow from? From diapers. Only they must be new. They
consist of sodium polyacrylate, which is what we need. We take scissors and cut the diapers, removing the contents from them and putting them in a basin.
When you have gutted all the prepared diapers, pour some water into the basin. Stir the mass and wait until the liquid is absorbed into the polyacrylate. If you think there is not enough water, add more and stir again.
Over time, the mass will begin to resemble real snow. It can be placed in the refrigerator for a short time. Then she will also become cold. This is how you can make snow with your own hands using diapers.
What can you make snow from for decoration?
To decorate Christmas tree decorations or open ones, you can use polymer
clay. It should be thoroughly crumbled. You can do this with a hammer or coffee grinder. The resulting crumbs should be sprinkled on a glue-coated or other object. This snowball can be tinted by adding paint or mascara. Here's how to make snow quickly and cheaply.
Small branches can be decorated with frost. It is made from table salt and looks like the real thing. Boil about 1.5 liters of water in a saucepan (a little more is possible) and pour a kilogram of coarse salt into it. When it dissolves, dip a dry twig into the hot liquid and leave for a while. When the water has cooled, take it out and put it on a sheet of paper or oilcloth to let it cool. The frost is ready.
These snow making techniques are great for home decoration and gifts. But besides this, housewives also want to decorate their holiday dishes. We'll tell you how to make artificial snow at home that you can eat.
Making edible snow
Making snow for decorating holiday dishes is very simple and quick. The easiest
the way is to take sugar. They can be used to decorate glasses. To do this, dip them in syrup and then in sugar. The result will be a snow spray effect.
To decorate fruit and cake, beat until it turns into a homogeneous white foam. Apply the mixture with a brush and sprinkle powdered sugar on top. Then put the fruit in the oven over low heat. After 2 hours they can be taken out and placed on the stove. In this way you can decorate any pastry.
You can make a similar glaze for or birds. Just use salt instead of sugar. Cover the dish with such a snowdrift and bake. The sauce will remain on the meat, giving the appearance of a coating of snow.
Now you know what you can use to make snow yourself. Use these tips and you will see how happy your household will be with the splendor of the decoration of your apartment. In addition, you will have fun and bring joy to the children.
We have already done it ourselves. But for the first time it was intended to decorate our New Year's vase. The first experience ended quite comically, so this time I decided to go a different route. There are many different recipes for artificial snow on the Internet, but they would not have suited us, since we needed not just artificial snow, but one that “melts.” Or rather, with which my child could conduct an experiment.
This lesson was held within the framework of , where every day the child receives a letter from Santa Claus with various tasks and a small souvenir. We have 7 days left until the New Year!
Hello grandson, what kind of food have I eaten at your place? Thank you, I respected the old man.
And I have prepared a new task for you. Make me some snowmen. I know, I know, there is no snow in the Dominican Republic! But you and your mom can make artificial snow with your own hands. And don’t worry if the snowmen melt, because miracles happen on New Year’s Eve. The steam will carry them to me.
Did you like my gifts?
Making artificial snow with your own hands
We needed:
- Soda (454 g pack was enough for 4.5 snowmen)
- Glitter (any small ones to give a festive look)
- Water (we used about 30 ml)
At home, you can prepare artificial snow using different recipes. Since our snow was intended for an experiment, we chose a recipe suitable specifically for it.
They poured the baking soda into a bowl, touched it, and decided that it felt like sand. Dry soda definitely doesn’t look like snow.
I poured silver glitter into the baking soda and it began to shimmer beautifully. My glitter is small, so unfortunately it’s almost invisible in the photo. Now it was necessary to turn the “sand” into “snow”. To do this, I literally started adding water a few drops at a time.
All photos enlarge when clicked As soon as the mass began to take shape, our artificial snow, which we made with our own hands, is ready.
For crafts made from artificial snow we needed:
- Artificial snow (which we made with our own hands);
- Beads (we use them to make eyes, we had blue ones);
- Foil (or any other material that does not get wet, for the nose);
- Confetti (small to give a festive look);
- Small disposable cups (it is important that the bottom is flat).
When the child had enough of playing with artificial snow, we took small fifty-milligram cups and began to decide what we should use to make the eyes and nose of the snowmen. Alexander suggested eyes made of beads, we only had blue ones, and a nose made of orange buttons.
But having put this combination into a glass, the child himself saw that the resulting face looked more like a pig. I looked through all my materials to find one that wouldn't get wet in water. My gaze fell on candy wrappers; they are made of foil on one side painted dark yellow.
I personally had the idea to cut out triangles and put them on the bottom of the cup. But my son said:
– Mom, I know how to make noses for snowmen easier and faster.
He took a candy wrapper and rolled it into a sausage with one end thinner than the other. All I had to do was cut a piece of the required length. I was very pleased with my boy's ingenuity and initiative
As I already wrote, my calculation with the amount of soda turned out to be incorrect. To fill all the prepared cups, I would need about 3 packs of soda, 454 grams each. But you can't run to the store in the middle of the process. Therefore, we filled as much as was enough.
While filling, you need to try to keep the nose and eyes in place. Although Alexander is currently 5 years and 2 months old, he would hardly have succeeded. Therefore, I took on this mission. But she didn’t leave the child idle either. Putting some artificial snow on the bottom of the cup, I tried to compact it as they usually do when building castles on the beach. Then the child sprinkled some small waterproof confetti. I again added artificial snow and a pinch of confetti fell again. The idea here is that when our craft melts, the mass will look beautiful on New Year's Eve
While playing with artificial snow and forming snowballs from it, Alexander said the following phrase:
– Just like real snow, only not cold.
- What can be done to make it cold? – I supported the conversation.
– You can add ice to it.
“But then the ice will melt and our snow will turn into a puddle.”
“Then we can put it in the freezer!”
I thought it was a great idea and asked the child to put our cups in the freezer, where they spent 6 hours.
Logically, I understood that the water added to the soda would freeze, and our snowmen would become denser. But only after we started the experiment, I fully understood what this freezing did. Now I will tell you everything in order.
For the experiment we needed:
- A large plastic box (so that all the ingredients remain inside and not on the festive tablecloth);
- Glass bowl (where the experiment itself will take place);
- Magnifying glass (we have a children's one);
- Pipette (also from a children's set);
- Vinegar (we use 5%);
- Food coloring (to illustrate the process).
During children's astronomy classes, we conducted a lesson that my child really remembered. Then we simulated craters on the Moon. The soda simply hissed, its reaction to vinegar was interesting to Alexander, which is why almost 2 years later I decided to repeat the experiment.
So, after I took the snowmen out of the freezer, I simply turned the cups over by lightly tapping on the bottom, and the craft easily popped out. The time that our artificial snow was in the freezer is arbitrary; I admit that I don’t know how it would behave if it stayed there overnight, for example. But in any case, if the snowmen don’t come out very well, you can put the cups in hot water for 20-30 seconds and then they will definitely jump out.
I dropped a drop of blue food coloring into the flask with vinegar. You can take any color, but I associate snow with blue. First, we examined our hand-made artificial snow snowmen through a magnifying glass.
Now we put everything in the hands of the child. Alexander conducted his own experiment: he took vinegar into a pipette and slowly poured it onto the snowman. The child quickly realized that the slower he poured the vinegar, the longer it would take to monitor his reaction.
Then we watched together through a magnifying glass how our artificial snow was seething. This is very interesting for a preschooler; my son’s eyes sparkled!
What we noticed together was that frozen artificial snow is not so easy to melt. Even when soaked with vinegar from below, look carefully at the photo below, the snowmen did not collapse. The child carried out the experiment itself for about half an hour, which took 250 ml of vinegar. I didn’t expect this at all, thinking that a chain reaction would start and that one test tube of vinegar would be enough for us. But it was not there!
In the end, all the snowmen went to the kingdom of Santa Claus, and we began to discuss our findings. My friend and reader of my blog, Maria Eliseeva, helped us make them:
The reaction of soda and vinegar has the following equation
NaHCO3 + CH3COOH → CH3COONa + CO2 + H2O
Soda and vinegar are a chemical reaction - as a result of the interaction, sodium salt, gas and water are obtained.
The child spent a long time sorting through the sodium salt mush; just in case, I touched it myself and made sure that there was no reaction to my hands. And this paste is really pleasant to the touch, so children are provided with a lot of tactile sensations during the experiment. Alexander then informed me that our artificial snow was no longer cold and asked to add ice.
After this, a new wave of play began, but it was no longer considered an experiment. My boy collected “snow” into snowdrifts and ice into icebergs. We added water so that an ocean formed and the child was occupied for another good 30 minutes.
This is where our experiment with artificial snow ended, my child was completely delighted. In addition to developing fine motor skills, tactile sensations and simply interesting independent play, he discovered the characteristics of soda and drew conclusions. As you have seen, dear readers of my blog, artificial snow is quite easy to make with your own hands, maybe your imagination will tell you other crafts made from artificial snow. I will be very glad if you share your ideas with me.
We offer another fun way to spend time with your child - make artificial snow. This snow will be useful for home decoration, postcards, and winter crafts with children. All these 7 methods are very simple and inexpensive. You can find all the ingredients at home.
Shining Snow
It will turn out cold, soft and fluffy. Simply mix two boxes of cornstarch or cornmeal, shaving cream and glitter.
"Silk" snow
Ingredients:
- frozen white bars of soap;
- cheese grater;
- sparkles.
Leave the soap in the freezer overnight. In the morning, take it out and grate it. You will get fluffy snow, to which you can add glitter and mint extract. It molds perfectly, and you can make a snowman or any other figure.
Shaving foam snow
Ingredients:
- 1 can of shaving foam;
- 1.5 packs of soda;
- glitter (optional).
Squeeze the contents of the foam can into the container and gradually add soda. You will have a very nice mass of snow from which to sculpt figures.
Foamed polyethylene snow
Ingredients:
- foamed polyethylene (used as packaging material for equipment, glass, shoe inserts) or polystyrene foam;
- fine grater.
We wear gloves. Grind the polyethylene or polystyrene foam and... voila! Fluffy cereal all over your house!!! If you add sparkles, the snow will also sparkle. You can powder anything with this snow if you first lubricate the surface with liquid (diluted with water) PVA glue.
Snow from a baby diaper
Cut open the diaper and remove the sodium polyacrylate from it, then tear it into small pieces. Place the resulting mass in a container and fill with water. Pour gradually, in small portions, until the pieces of polyacrylate begin to resemble snow. Just don't overdo it or it will end up too wet. To make the snow look more realistic, place the container in the refrigerator, but not in the freezer.
Frost from salt
Ingredients:
- salt (preferably coarsely ground);
- water.
Prepare a concentrated salt solution. To do this, fill the pan with a small amount of water and place it on low heat. Add salt until it stops dissolving. Dip the branches of spruce, pine or any other plant into the hot solution and leave for a while. The process of crystal formation goes much faster in warm water! Let the water drain and leave the plants to dry for 4-5 hours. Sparkling frost is guaranteed! If you add brilliant green, food coloring or ink to a salty solution, the frost will turn out colored!
Snow made from PVA and starch
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons starch;
- 2 tablespoons PVA;
- 2 tablespoons silver paint.
Mix (grind) the ingredients thoroughly. This kind of snow is suitable when you need to decorate the surface of a product with a voluminous white mass.
Based on materials from the site more-idey.ru
Winter is in full swing, and although last year's New Year's holidays have already passed and have even managed to be forgotten a little, winter-themed crafts are still relevant, especially if there are snowdrifts outside the window. Snow... It’s so good to make an original snowman that you often even want to take it home. However, the snow craft sparkling in the frosty sun will melt in the warmth in a matter of minutes, bringing grief and natural everyday problems. And if so, then let’s get down to business and learn how to make artificial snow, which will delight you and your loved ones, giving your masterpieces a truly fabulous winter flavor! In this article you will learn how to make artificial snow at home.
In fact, there is no one recipe for making artificial snow with your own hands: there are many known methods that differ from each other in the result - the resulting “snow” mass - sometimes quite strongly. However, each recipe has its adherents among craftsmen and can serve decorative purposes in its own style, for certain crafts. In this article we will look at several of the most successful, in our opinion, methods for making artificial snow and frost: we advise you to try each, choosing the best option (or options) for yourself.
For the sake of objectivity, it is worth mentioning that there are special aerosol cans with “artificial snow” on sale, the contents of which very realistically reproduce real snow, as well as corresponding powders and granules for dissolving in water. However, we will not follow this simple, but significantly more expensive path, but now we will begin to roll up our sleeves and get down to business. 
Any artificial snow recipe is multi-component in structure and consists of several ingredients, which, when mixed in certain proportions and under certain conditions, give the desired result. Almost all of the proposed options are easy to make in a regular kitchen or home workshop.
How to make artificial snow at home?
Method No. 1
You can get a great sparkling result by mixing cornstarch with shaving cream and glitter. You will have to experiment with proportions to achieve the result you want. If desired (and if available, of course), you can add mint extract when kneading. Instead of starch, corn flour is suitable, and glitter is often “replaced” with mica. In any case, the result of your efforts will definitely please you. 
Method No. 2
Shaving foam can also be mixed with regular baking soda (sodium bicarbonate, sodium bicarbonate or sodium bicarbonate - they are the same thing, do not be alarmed by the differences on packaging from different manufacturers). It is important to gradually add it to the foam squeezed out in advance into a suitable container; the resulting white mass, pleasant to the touch, can be “seasoned” with sparkles, achieving the charm of snow sparkling in the sun. Usually one and a half standard packs of soda are required per can of foam. 
Method No. 3
Pre-frozen toilet soap grated on a cheese grater looks incredibly believable as artificial snow. Any variety will do, as long as the color of the bar is as white as possible. Mint extract and glitter added to the resulting mass will also come in very handy for a greater decorative effect. 
Method No. 4
A not-so-cheap and not-at-all-free way (although it depends on who) is to gut an ordinary baby diaper: we only need its sodium polyacrylate filler, which then needs to be torn into small pieces. This is an absorbent material that crystallizes when exposed to moisture and retains it. Therefore, the material extracted from the diaper is placed in a container and gradually filled with clean water, just make sure that there is not more than enough of it to form “snow”. If you have doubts about the harmlessness of sodium polyacrylate, take into account the fact that you took it out of the thing that is most loyal to the baby’s sensitive body - a diaper. 
Method No. 5
In nature, snow, as you know, can look somewhat different, while remaining the same snow. This method also offers a slightly unique artificial snow - it is best used to create “snow massifs”, “snow-covered expanses”. You will need ordinary starch, PVA glue and silver paint: just take one equal part at a time (usually it is calculated in the volume of 2 tablespoons, but this is not important) and mix and grind thoroughly until you get the “snowy” mass you need. 
Method No. 6
This is not really snow, or rather, not snow at all, but “frost”, which may be required to create believable compositions. Sprigs of pine needles, ordinary twigs and grass are covered for this purpose with a very cool salt solution, which, when dried, crystallizes on their surface and shines, just like real frost! And achieving this effect is very simple: gradually pour coarse table salt into a container of hot water placed on the stove over low heat, and when the salt stops dissolving, turn off the heat and dip the previously prepared plants into the solution. The twigs with future “frost” are infused until the water cools, then taken out and dried under normal conditions for about 4-5 hours - you will see the result for yourself! 
Method No. 7
Often, to design a “winter” craft, you may need the so-called. "snow paint" To prepare it, let's take the shaving cream we already know (the brand doesn't matter - the main thing is that it is white), PVA glue, as well as the ubiquitous glitter - where would we be without them, and mint extract. Well-mixed ingredients form a characteristic mass, which is applied with a brush or sponge and can be used to either tint a craft or fully draw on a plane, for example, snowmen. 
If you like to decorate fir branches, windows, or various New Year's crafts with artificial snow or frost, these tips will definitely suit your taste. We will tell you about homemade and very budget alternatives to store-bought cylinders. The most important thing is that it will not be difficult to repeat any of the seven ideas with your own hands, and in some cases, spraying will be even more durable and durable than the store-bought version.
Stock up on pine branches, New Year's wreaths and other paraphernalia - let's start decorating!
Method one: regular cotton wool
If you don't want to mess around for too long, this method is just for you.
What do we need?
- cotton wool or cotton pads
- PVA glue
- tweezers
- glitter (optional)
How to do it?
The cotton wool needs to be torn into small pieces - the smaller the better. If you use cotton pads, then only the inner, soft part will be used.
Dip each piece in glue for a few seconds and immediately apply it to where we are creating the spray.
Before the glue has time to set, sprinkle the product with glitter - you get the effect of sparkling snow.
When everything dries, the accessory will look no worse than powdered with ready-made artificial snow.
Method two: foam
You'll have to rustle, of course. If you are annoyed by the creaking of polystyrene foam, this master class is not for you. And if you don’t care, and you want to get artificial snow quickly, inexpensively and, ultimately, beautifully, this is the place for you.
What do we need?
- Styrofoam
- grater
- PVA glue
How to do it?
You just need to grate the foam on a grater (medium and oblong). If it is not of the best quality and simply breaks, then crumble it into grains with your hands.
Now we grease the spruce branches (or any other accessory) with glue and simply sprinkle them with the prepared material.
The foam sticks well to the glue and looks really realistic. Especially if you manage to grate the “flakes”.
Method three: snow made of salt
If you don't mind tinkering a little, this tutorial is for you. Don't worry, everything is simpler than it might seem. And most importantly, the result will definitely please you.
What do we need?
- salt (take regular coarse stone salt) – 1 kg
- water – 1.5 liters
- blue paint, copper sulfate or ink (optional)
How to do it?
First you need to prepare a strong saline solution. To do this, pour salt into the water and put it on low heat, stirring constantly. As soon as the water has boiled and all the salt has dissolved, remove the pan from the stove.
At this stage, add dye if you want to get artificial snow blue.
We take coniferous branches (real, not artificial) and immediately lower them into the water: all at once or one after the other - it doesn’t matter. A few seconds will be enough for the salt to cling to the branches.
Now we need to take our future snowy branches out into the cold. If possible - on the balcony, but better - on the street. If both options are not for you, put them in the refrigerator in a bowl.
After 7-8 hours, we take out the branches and hang them somewhere. We need to let them dry thoroughly.
In a few hours, our “New Year’s” branches will be ready. They will turn out truly magical and incredibly beautiful. Even artificial snow from a balloon cannot be compared here!
Method four: sweet frost
If spraying needs to be done quickly, this option will be optimal. Just keep in mind that the finished branches should not be stored for too long, because the “snowball” will consist of a food ingredient.
What do we need?
- sugar
- liquid glue
How to do it?
Dilute a little liquid glue in a container with water. In principle, you don’t need to use glue at all, but it will still serve a good purpose for more reliable fixation.
Now dip the twigs in this solution, and then take them out and immediately sprinkle them generously with sugar.
When the water dries, the sugar will stick to the branches.
There is a little trick to make this beauty last even longer. When everything is completely dry, spray the branches with hairspray. However, there is also a minus: the varnish can extinguish the pleasant pine smell.
Method five: fluffy and soft snow made of yarn
If you want your artificial snow to be not only beautiful, but also pleasant to the touch, make it from yarn. This method is especially good for those who have children in their home. The little one is always drawn to snow-covered Christmas trees. To prevent the kids from injecting themselves and touching the chemicals, without which store-bought artificial snow in balloons is simply unimaginable, replace the decoration with something really pleasant.
What do we need?
- several twigs (not necessarily coniferous)
- scotch
- white yarn (it is best to take shaggy and soft “grass”)
How to do it?
First, the rods need to be cleared of bark. It will be more convenient to work with smooth branches.
We take a thread and glue it to the base of the twig using thin tape. Then we simply wrap the branch to the end. You don’t have to do it very tightly - let the twig show through, it’s even more interesting.
We also secure the end of the thread with tape.
In this way you need to wrap all the rods, and then simply make a composition out of them.
It would be optimal to make something like a bouquet: “snow-covered” branches + ordinary spruce or pine branches and cones. If you want something more interesting, you can twist the rods into a wreath (we already told you), adding a few pine branches and various New Year's paraphernalia.
This method is in no way inferior to the others. Yes, it looks less like real snow, but it still looks beautiful and very cozy.
Method six: cold snow from soda
If you want your homemade artificial snow to look and feel like the real thing, try this simple recipe.
What do we need?
- pack of soda
- can of shaving foam (take the simplest one)
How to do it?
No tricks: just pour the baking soda into a bowl and gradually squeeze the foam into the container, constantly mixing the mixture with your hands. There is no need for an exact proportion here - it depends on the quality of the foam. As a rule, a 500-gram pack of soda requires a whole can of foam. If you need less, rely on the touch: as soon as the consistency becomes similar to wet snow, from which you can make snowballs, our mass is ready.
If you really want to make something out of this “snow” (snowmen, for example), add a little more foam. If you need a crumbly snowball, you will need a little less.
Method seven: snow from diapers
Yes, yes, we will make snow from diapers. The fact is that they contain sodium polyacrylate - a component that cannot be found anywhere else. And that is exactly what we need.
For clarity, we suggest you watch the video master class - it will be clearer.
As you can see, there is nothing complicated, and the result is really impressive. This is perhaps one of the best ways to make artificial snow with your own hands.
All these methods will help you make artificial snow at home. From seven master classes, choose the one that meets your requirements for New Year's decor: soft, cold, durable - each has its own distinctive features. Whatever you choose, the result should please you, because the snow will help you feel the holiday approaching and create a New Year's mood!
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