Winter Craft: Snow Day Picture Frames

Last week, I watched as my friends in Georgia and South Carolina braced for snow.  I watched their Facebook status updates as they bought their milk and bread, left work early, and prepared their homes for what would end up being a couple inches of snow.  And then, after about 24 hours of all that madness, it happened – snow day pictures started to hit their feeds.  Pictures of cute little kids in big clothing.  Videos of kids that had never seen snow before sledding.  Snow ball fights.  Ice sculptures.

Color me jealous…because there’s snow on the ground in 49 states right now, but Florida isn’t one of them.  Not even in the Panhandle (which in fairness, is our only real chance at snow).

But all of that glittering, glistening snow inspired me to get a little crafty.  A while back, I saw a blogger make snowflake Christmas ornaments using glue and glitter, so I decided to apply that same technique to make some glittery decorations for some picture frames.  The result was a fabulously easy winter craft, made to preserve and display those precious snow day memories with a total cost of just over a dollar, if that.  I even dug up some old pictures of Greenleigh when she had her very first – and only – snow day back in 2011.   I might even make some of these frames for my Georgia and South Carolina friends so that they can preserve their snow day memories…you know, once I get over being jealous of their snow day.

You will need:
Wooden frames (normally $1 at Michael’s, AC Moore, or any other craft store)
Tacky glue
White & blue* Glitter
Wax paper
Blue paint & paint brushes
Snowflake pattern (you can freehand your flakes or use one from my assortment of snowflakes here)

Step 1 – Using your glue, draw snowflakes on top of the wax paper.  If using my template, print the template, place it under the wax paper, and then trace the shape of the flakes using the glue.  Once you finish one snow flake, move the template over and start another snowflake.  I would advise doing all your snowflakes at once, so if you’re going to make a few frames and want a couple of snowflakes on each frame, draw several snowflakes with your glue at once.  Once you have completed your snowflake, drop a ton of glitter on top and allow to dry overnight.  “Overnight” (at least 8 hours) is key here.

Step 2 – Once completely dry, shake off the excess glitter and begin to peel the snowflake off of the wax paper by moving from the outer edges inward until all the way removed.

Step 3 – Paint frames and allow to dry completely.

Step 4 – Glue your snowflakes on to the frame using tacky glue.  If flakes have curled, glue the snowflakes to frame, and place something on top of the snowflake and frame to apply pressure and flatten the flake back out…just don’t use anything too heavy for fear it will break the snowflake.  Allow glue to dry completely.

Step 5 – Put your photos in the frame and enjoy your snow day memories!*I used blue glitter so I listed it in the “You will need” section of this post, but as you can see from the photo above, the light blue snowflakes didn’t turn out as well as the white snowflakes (the white ones are totally opaque and much more sparkly).  For that reason, I would suggest you stick with only white glitter.  If you really want to use blue, go with a darker blue, not a baby blue like I used.