Winter is coming, which means it's time to think about how we will decorate our favorite site for the New Year holidays. Multicolored ice balls, randomly distributed throughout the site, or, on the contrary, collected in one large incredibly beautiful pyramid, can become an excellent and rather original decor element. It is not at all difficult to make such balls, but they will bring an incredible amount of joy, especially if there are small children in the house who will be happy to help you with this activity.

Necessary materials

• balloons of different shapes;
• bright gouache, or ordinary food coloring;
• container for diluting the dye;
• water;

First, let's talk about the optimal size of balls for our future colorful ice balls. As practice has shown, it is almost impossible to freeze a large ball. Even at a temperature of -20 C in a 3-4 liter ball, only a 5-6 cm layer of water freezes overnight. The water inside the ice crust expands during freezing, most often breaking the ice shell. As a result, instead of a ball, you will most likely get two hollow hemispheres with uneven edges inside.

So don't aim to make huge ice balls. The optimal size for our future multi-colored ice rares will be ordinary inflatable rariks measuring 10x10 or 15x15 cm. Of course, it is not worth filling them with water all the way.

Now let's start diluting the dye for our multicolored ice balls. It is enough just to dilute a can of gouache in a 1.5 liter bottle of water. For those who have pets or children at home, it is better to use food coloring, in case loved ones in the household decide to taste the ice miracle.

After the dye is ready, carefully, using a funnel, pour it into the ball almost to the brim. Then we put it on the tap and "inflate".

A few words about "inflation". Everyone knows that water can only be poured into a ball under pressure. This is either a faucet or a water hose. Ideal when there is water supply outside. If there is none, you will have to "inflate" the balloons at home. It is best to do this above the bathtub, as it will be easier to clean up if the paint ball breaks. It is better to inflate the future ice ball together: one holds the ball, the other opens and closes the houses. Practice shows that it is quite difficult to do this alone.

It is best to tie the ball with an ordinary knot (ball tail loop). So it is safer and there is no hassle with threads.

Finally, the most delicate step is freezing. We take the balls out into the street and carefully lay them out on the snow, trying to avoid contact with each other and not deepen them into the snow. In no case do not sprinkle the balls with snow on top - the water simply will not freeze under a warm blanket. After a couple of hours, depending on the temperature outside, the balls will need to be turned over so that they freeze faster and better.

The next day, you can try to take off your "clothes" from one of the resulting ice balls. The rubber ball quickly peels off the ice ball after being lightly cut with a knife.

If everything is done correctly, in the end you will get such a beauty. And that means you can release the rest of the multi-colored ice balls.

By the way, you can use not only ordinary round balls. Try different shapes of balls. Or, for example, ordinary rubber gloves. Then you get multicolored ice hands that you can stick into a snowman.

There are such entertainments for children that some parents will find quite ridiculous or generally unacceptable. And I really feel sorry for the children who are not allowed to do such things, for completely dishonest reasons, such as - "This is nonsense, they don't make any sense", "Don't you dare, I just washed the floors", "Who then will all this be clean up "and so on. My son once found a great argument for my protests - "Mom, but after all, everything that I love !!!" And I gave up, because in my heart I am also a child and now we have fun together! Yesterday we make balls of colored ice and I will tell you 10 great ways to ... stain the whole apartment with them))) and not only ... But, more on that later, first I'll show you how we made them:

Buy tiny inflatable water bombs. They are really very small and almost impossible to inflate with air, they are so elastic.

We want not just ice, but colored ice, and for this you will need food coloring of different colors - drop a few drops into each ball. So, put the ball on the end of the tap, as in the photo, and carefully, in a thin stream, fill it with water. Now tie a knot at the end or, if it seems too complicated for you, use a thread.

When you are done with all the balls, place them in the freezer. In about a day (possibly even earlier) they will be completely ready!

And now, as promised, here are 10 fun ways to use them:

1. Decorate with colored ice balls, lay out beautiful shapes, patterns or designs. Before the onset of a thaw or heavy snowfall, passers-by will be able to admire your art in the snow.
2. Hang the balls on a tree, for example, you can decorate the Christmas tree in the yard in such an original way. To do this, initially a thread or rope should be inserted into each ball.
3. If you blind the Snow Woman, then 2 colored balls will serve as her eyes. And, if you blind a hedgehog, then instead of prickly needles, you can lay out his back with balls.
4. If you add grain or special bird food to the ball along with water, you get excellent bird feeders. They will peck seeds from there, and you can watch the birds properly.
5. I do not advise throwing such balls at each other, they are still heavy. But they can play bowling, smashing keagley sticks, or just throw someone next.

1. Just like in winter, you can bring balls into the yard and lay out a drawing with them. It is a pity, only, it will not be so durable, but you will observe how picturesquely it melts.
2. You can draw with colored balls directly on the pavement.
3. If you place the balls in a kiddie pool or a large basin, you will see them melt and color the water in different colors. You can study how two different colors, when mixed, give a third, for example, blue + red = purple, and yellow + blue = green.
4. You can arrange a snow party in the summer at the dacha using artificial snow or foam, and then the ice balls will be very useful to you.
5. If you made soft drinks for guests for a holiday, instead of boring transparent ice, use colored balls (made from drinking water, of course). This will appeal not only to children, but also to adults.

Western countries have long been practicing decorating for the New Year not only the interior of houses, but also streets, paying special attention to the decor of the backyard area. For example, ice Christmas decorations for the street are very popular with them, but such decor is quite suitable for our latitudes. Moreover, making street decorations made of ice is very easy, as well as fun, entertaining and completely inexpensive. In fact, making ice street decorations will require water, a couple of decorative elements (more on this below), a suitable shape, as well as a spacious freezer or severe frost outside.

How to make outdoor decorations out of ice.

How to make an ice wreath.

Festive wreaths can be used to decorate the branches of trees or bushes.

Method number 1. We take a ready-made pudding mold with a vertical insert in the center. We spread bright berries and green twigs (spruce, fir or thuja) along the bottom of the form, fill the form with water. We send the form with water to the freezer until the water solidifies completely. After the water turns into ice, pour hot water into a basin and immerse the mold with ice in it, with a sharp change in temperature, the ice inside the mold will melt along the edges, and you can easily pull out the wreath. Backwardness is only to hang the wreath on a satin ribbon.

Method number 2. We take ready-made small forms for puddings, lay out the composition from the berries and branches of thuja on the bottom, fill each mold with cold water and put it in the freezer. After the water turns into ice, the mold can be immersed in hot water for literally one minute, the miniature wreaths can be pulled out and hung from the trees with ribbons.

Method number 3. In the center of a deep round shape, set a glass or jar, spread twigs, berries, leaves, citrus peels around, and pour in water. To prevent the jar in the center from floating into it, you can pour water or pour stones. It remains to expose the form to frost, wait until the ice hardens, pull out the wreath and hang it on the ribbon.

Method number 4. Put acrylic snowflakes and Christmas balls in a baking dish with a vertical insert in the center, pour in a little water, and put the product in the freezer. When the first layer of water freezes, put a few more balls in a circle, pour in the water again and put it in the freezer, after freezing, add more balls and put the mold in the freezer for the last time, take out the wreath, tie a ribbon and hang the product on a street tree.

Photo of ice wreaths.

How to make balls out of ice.

Method number 1. We prepare the required number of balloons, pour water into them and pour in food coloring, mix the water inside by shaking the balloons. We tie the balls and put them in the freezer or outside in the frost. When the water inside the balls hardens, cut the shell with a knife and take out the colored ice balls.

Method number 2. You will need a special form for making ice balls (for drinks), on the bottom of this form you can put berries or spruce twigs, as well as attach pendant ropes, pour in water and put in the freezer until it solidifies.

How to make an ice candlestick.

Method number 1. We place a glass with stones in the center of the food container (for weight). Pour in water and put spruce or thuja twigs on top, and also add viburnum, lingonberry or dogwood berries. We put the mold in the freezer, after the water has solidified, take out the candlestick and place a lighted candle in the center.

Method number 2. We take two different-sized bottles of 1.5 liters and 0.5 liters, cut each bottle in half, put a smaller bottle in a large one, fix them with tape, put berries, leaves and tree twigs between the walls, pour in water, and send the product into the freezer. After turning the water into ice, we take out the future candlestick from the mold, and put a lighted candle inside.

Photo of various ice candlesticks.

Ice tree pendants.

Round flat pendants are made as follows, various berries, twigs or flowers are laid out on the bottom of a flat round plate, everything is poured with water, a pendant thread is placed on top, the composition is placed in the freezer, then pulled out, separated from the plate and suspended from trees.

Stars made of ice.

1. For making stars, you can use ice cube trays in the form of stars or baking tins, to create ordinary stars, fill the molds with water and freeze in the freezer.
2. To create colored stars, you must first add food coloring to the water.
3. For bright compositions, you can put berries, various twigs, leaves or add sparkles into the molds.

Ice cubes.

Put various flowers or slices of fruit in square-shaped ice molds, pour water here and freeze. Then we take out the ice cubes and decorate them with outdoor flowerpots, tree branches and other yard elements.

Ice shards.

We paint the water blue, pour it into a rectangular shape with a thin layer, send the shape to the freezer, after hardening, hit the ice surface with a kitchen hammer, select beautiful fragments and put them somewhere on the street.

Icy heart.

Method number 1. On the bottom of a round plate, lay out the pebbles in the form of a heart, fill with water and put in the freezer, then take out the product and place it with an edge on a flat surface.

Method number 2. Put berries and pine needles in a baking dish in the shape of a heart, send the form to the freezer, then take the product out of the mold and place it somewhere in a prominent place in the yard.

How to make garlands from ice.

In the ice mold, spread a thick woolen thread in a circle, pour in water, and put the mold in the freezer, after the water hardens, gently pull the end of the rope, all the ice should pop out of the mold after it. To obtain a colored garland, the water must first be tinted with food coloring.

You can use the base of the box of chocolates instead of the ice mold.

How to effectively decorate a house for the New Year:

Christmas decorations made of ice will help you quickly, easily and inexpensively decorate the site for the upcoming holiday. If you have not yet tried to create street decorations from ice, we recommend that you urgently correct the situation, we assure you that you will definitely like this pastime.

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Multicolored ice balls can be a great material for any art object. They can be simply scattered in the garden or in the yard, around the kindergarten, or you can build or decorate some structure, make snowmen (especially if you freeze water with rubber gloves), etc. We stopped at the construction of a multi-colored pyramid of 400 ice balls.

In the fall, with the volunteers of the city of Glazov (Udmurtia), we added bright colors to the gray city everyday life, decorating the stairs, now we took up winter street art.

We chose the city park as the location for our winter art object. Firstly, there are more children here, and secondly, next to the Sports House, where you can get water for the balls. We talked with the heads of organizations - they gladly agreed to help us.
Where did the idea come from? Surely, many have more than once stumbled upon the manual for making ice balls with the addition of food colors.

According to the "recipe" everything is easy and simple. In fact, it turned out to be much more difficult. But as always. Firstly, nowhere is it specified how long the ball freezes? How much water should be poured, the better to tint? It turned out, no matter how ridiculous and trite it sounded, but the ball is filled with water only under pressure - to go out into the street with a funnel and "poltorashka" will not work. All that remains is a tap or a hose with water. Well, and a number of subtleties that we encountered in the process.

For example, size - it is impossible to freeze a large-volume ball (3-4 liters). At t -20 during the night, only a layer of 5-6 centimeters freezes. Inside is water. It also begins to freeze, but later, and bursts open the ice "shell" - the ball cracks. It was also a mistake to bury the ball under the snow - in such a "house" it almost does not freeze.
Here is an example of a 3-liter ball that has been under the snow all night. In principle, we got very "working" hemispheres - you can use it as a vase for Christmas tree branches, or turn it upside down, and place a lamp under it - it will be beautiful.

Through trial and error, we decided to stick with balls measuring 10 * 10 - 15 * 15 centimeters. They froze overnight in the freezer.
So, let's share our way of making ice balls.
1. The first step was to prepare a gouache concentrate - 1 can of 1.5 liters.

2. Pour the concentrate into a ball "to the brim" through a funnel. You can use food coloring in case there is a good chance someone decides to taste the giant candy. We took the usual balls. You can freeze balls in the shape of Mickey Mouse, different animals, or rubber gloves (I personally froze a glove from a hair dye package - it turned out to be a funny hand that can be attached to a snowman on wet snow).

3. Then we put on the tap and "inflate". Two are more convenient: one squeezes the ball to the tap, the second turns on / off the water. They tied a ball without ropes and other things - with a loop from the neck itself (or whatever it is called there)

4. First, we wanted to fill the balls right on the street, connecting to the tap of the Sports House and bringing the hose outside - but the hose was frozen, we steamed it for an hour and a half, then we decided to fill it right in the toilet and take it to the place with a wheelbarrow. So it is more economical in terms of water consumption, well, and more comfortable in the warmth than in the cold at -25.

6. Therefore, they froze right in the park, spreading the balls in the snow. We tried not to deepen much and place so that the balls did not come into contact with each other.

7. Filled the balls for two hours. During this time, the first batch was covered with a crust. Left for another 2 hours. When they arrived, they found that the balls freeze perfectly from above, but from below, where they come into contact with the snow, there is water. Conclusion - in order for the balls to freeze faster and better, they must be turned over after a couple of hours, or even better, to minimize the area of ​​contact with the snow.
Having turned over all the balls, we decided to leave them for the night, covering them with snow from the kids.

However, this did not save - several young vandals remembered where they saw a multi-colored carpet during the day and, having dug up the balls, began to throw them. Fortunately, the park workers drove them away on time.

8. Most of the balls still survived. The next day, they began to dig them up and, after holding it for a little longer in the cold, took off their "clothes". The rubber is removed very easily - just tear it with a knife, keys or a stick. Some of the balls did not completely freeze - they just took off their "clothes" as water poured out of them.

9. With the resulting balls, you can do whatever you want. These are both excellent self-sufficient jewelry and an excellent building material. Our choice fell on the construction of the pyramid.
We fix the first level with snow - so that it does not leave.

We water each level with water - otherwise, the structure disperses due to the unevenness of the balls.

It is a pity that there was no normal camera at hand - they shot it on the phone. But not every camera, or rather a photographer, will convey the magical play of reflections of lanterns and garlands on the edges of ice balls. And in the afternoon what a beauty.

It was only later that the idea dawned on us that the frame of the pyramid could be made of snow, only by placing the balls outside. So the pyramid would have turned out 5 times larger. Well, this is already next year.

There is still a week before the New Year, followed by the Christmas holidays - we hope you will take into account our experience and our mistakes, adding your ideas!
Happy creativity!

To please your child or your significant other, you can make a glowing, ice ball. Its disadvantage is that it will melt at room temperature, but if you decorate the yard with such balls on New Year's Eve or Christmas, then you and your guests will experience the most real holiday atmosphere. The ball will glow until it melts or until the batteries in the LEDs burn out. Try to surprise your guests and neighbors with this amazing craft.

We suggest that you familiarize yourself with the process of making homemade products.

To create a glowing ball, we need:
- expander;
- pliers;
- any marker;
- balloon;
- several LEDs;
- Cup.

So let's get started. We pour ordinary water into a glass. 200 grams is enough for us. Do not take too much water, because then we will still add it from the tap. We need this amount so that the dye can dissolve and give the water the desired shade.

We take, break our marker and take out the cotton wool from it. We will use this cotton wool as a dye.

We throw the dye (in our case, cotton wool from a felt-tip pen) into a glass of water. To make the water better paint over the cotton wool, it is better to rip it up. You can use food coloring that remained after Easter, and if neither one nor the other, dilute a little gouache or watercolor in water.

Now we take our LEDs, turn them on and wrap them with electrical tape, leaving only the light bulbs on. Electrical tape is needed to wrap the wires and the junction of the batteries. Then they will throw themselves into the water and it is highly undesirable for the water to come into contact with the batteries.

The next step is to pour a little dye diluted in water into the balloon.

After you have poured a glass of water with dye into the ball, we lower the LEDs there. Throw them directly into the water.

Next, add ordinary tap water to the ball. In size, you should get a small melon. Do not make the ball too large, it will be very difficult to place it in the freezer and the effect of the diodes will not be the same.