More Ice Sculptures

Violet checking the ice.

Penelope bringing in the ice from outside so it could melt just a bit to make it easier to get out of the containers.

Violet carrying an ice balloon.

Ice Balloons

Ice Balloons

Pen with ice balloons.

Ice Birthday Cake

Ice Tower

Cups of colored ice.

Ice Artists at Work

Ice Close-up

Pink  ice penguins inside a partially frozen ice balloon.

A few days later, partially melted ice sculptures.

We had a couple friends over a few days ago to do more ice sculptures. This time we made way more ice in various containers and also in balloons. Our friends brought over various ice cube and Popsicle ice pieces, including some pink ice penguins. We has lots of fun with this.

So, how to do it! Well, you need to freeze water in some containers. We did lots of sizes because we were working outside, but you could go smaller with your containers and do it inside too. We used old milk and butter containers, water bottles, bowls, cups, etc. For smaller add-on shapes use ice cube trays, small cups, popsicle molds, tiny muffin tins, little balloons, whatever you have.

We put ours outside to freeze. We had super cold temps so things froze fast, but if it's not quite that cold put your containers in a shady place for a couple days. You can do it in the freezer too if you are doing tiny molds. We added food coloring to ours. For balloons it works best to add the food coloring first and then the water. When things are frozen bring them in the house to melt a bit so it's easier to get them out of their containers. The balloons don't need to melt first, just a little snip with scissors and you can peel the rest away easily.

To stick the ice together you need to make slush with snow and water, and you use the slush like glue to stick the ice together. It works, honestly. I put our slush in a plastic bowl and gave the kids plastic spoons to scoop up the snow with. Then you can just leave the sculptures outside and watch them change each day as the weather changes. Put candles in the hollow parts at night, add more colored ice pieces here and there, stick some bird seed into a hollow part, whatever you can think of. It's really so much fun.