Winter Wonders : : Making an Ice Wreath

Sometimes you just need a little something to brighten up the winter. Pops of color in what is, otherwise, a stark landscape.

This wreath, is just the thing. Something made possible by the cold winter weather, but something that brightens it up just a tad, as well.

What You’ll Need

Bundt pan
A smaller mold – an ice cube tray or muffin tray, for example
Water
Food coloring
Ice water
Twine or other rope

What To Do

Choose a mold for inside the wreath. You can use most anything, we used a heart-shaped muffin tray – Valentine’s Day was on the brain. A plain old ice cube tray or a regular muffin tray will work just as well.

Add food coloring. Just a drop or two to each mold.

Add water. Just an inch or so to your muffin tray and your bundt pan.

Freeze that water. With winter in full effect, these froze lickety-split right on our porch.

Wait. Give them time to freeze solid.

Remove the smaller shapes. Working quickly, run the smaller colored shapes from their molds. We did this by running the backside of the muffin tray under warm water over a colander. As soon as the shape released into the colander we moved it to the frozen bundt pan. Do that for all the shapes.

Get back outside. Before it all melts, just saying.

Add more water. Add more water – it should be icy cold – to the bundt pan. Just enough to cover the shapes from the smaller molds.

Wait. It’s got to freeze, again.

Remove the wreath. Again, working quickly under warm water, remove the wreath from the pan.

Hang it up. Take that wreath back outside and use your rope or twine to hang it up. Enjoy, until it melts.

Side note : : you know that part about being patient? Well, we totally weren’t. The outside of our wreath was fully frozen but the recently added water – dyed by the food coloring on the hearts – wasn’t. It slowly dripped out of our wreath as time passed. Pretty awesome, and totally unintended. Happy accidents, right?

Explore More

What else might you want to add to an ice wreath? Little animals? Pieces of evergreen? Cranberries?

Watch your wreath. How long will it stay around? What do you notice about the difference between the weather when you made your wreath and when your wreath melted?

Make Connections

How long does it take your wreath to freeze? Try it on another day, did it freeze faster or slower the second day? Why?

Where will you hang your wreath? Who will see it when it is there? How do you think they will feel when they see it?

Connect With Us

How did your wreath turn out? Please share your stories or pictures in the comments section below, on our Facebook page, or email us and we will feature you on our site – we look forward to connecting with you there.…

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