The weather here so far has been unseasonably mild. What about you? Even though winter is “technically” here in just 2 weeks, it feels hard to believe it when so far, I barely need a winter coat, and we’ve had just a dusting of snow so far. And Christmas! I think a white Christmas is just not in the cards this year. Still, other signs point to the impending winter season, including the bare trees, chill in the air, seasonal birds gone and other animals collecting their stores for the season.
We’re still warming up by the fire, drinking hot cocoa like it’s our job, and prepping for the holidays with crafts, decorating and dancing to Christmas music (much to Adam’s dismay haha). We went and picked out our tree at the tree farm this weekend, so this past weekend seemed like just as as good a time as any to create a fun winter nature play dough kit.
I am always inspired by the gorgeous play dough kits that Mama.Papa.Bubba creates, so we decided to make our own, this one with a nature and winter theme. We also used the Glis box from Ikea, made a few of our favourite play dough recipes from around the web, went on a lovely walk to gather some items from nature, and assembled it all in no time. This would also make a pretty sweet gift, either for the holidays or for a special little boy or girl celebrating a winter birthday.
Winter Nature Play Dough Kit
First, we made the play dough. There are so many awesome recipes out there, but we chose a few of our favourites. Gingerbread play dough from The Imagination Tree, Tinkerlab’s best play dough – we made a huge batch of this and I used the green for the kit – and glittery snow play dough from B-Inspired Mama. I added a few drops of cinnamon essential oil as well as some vanilla extract to the white play dough to make it smell extra delicious. Then we gathered up our supplies from the great outdoors – some twigs, pieces of fir tree and some pine needles, as well as a bunch of small pinecones. I added in decorative red berries, mini trees and cinnamon sticks.
We added in some of our favourite Schleich animals like this cute moose as well as some animals from our North American wildlife toob.
K immediately sat down and started playing with it, creating some fun imaginative scenes.
So far, this little winter nature play dough kit has been a real hit, and I know it will come in handy on those very chilly days we will soon have. Plus, it smells amazing. Play dough for the win!
This would be an awesome gift! I love the idea of adding nature materials to play dough!
Thanks Emma, so do we!:)