Salt Dough

Making a salt dough craft was on my Fall "Bucket" Tree and we were able to take it off today!  I'm experimenting with crafts for Chiquita's upcoming birthday party so this was a two bird activity!

I got a salt dough recipe from a great book, "Feed Me I'm Yours" by Vicki Lansky (thanks Mom!) There were recipes that were for cooking in the oven and others that were for drying overnight.  I chose an overnight drying one.

2 cups salt
2/3 cup water
1 cup (or more) cornstarch
1/2 cup cold water

Mix the salt and water and bring to a boil.  Add cornstarch and remaining water and stir.

I had a really hard time mixing it.

I ended up dumping it out on a cutting board and kneading it like dough (really hot dough!)  I just put cold water on my hands to help cool it down.  Then I rolled it out and cut out butterflies (with a sandwich cutter) and pressed the two wings together.  I also used some fun little Flintstone playdough molds from my childhood to make Pebbles, Bam-bam, Fred and Wilma.

 I let them dry overnight and the next day we had fun painting!  We used homemade paints (another recipe from "Feed Me I'm Yours") and had lots of fun.

Half way through I decided to give Chiquita a new brush option and tried a flower brush (hard to see in the pictures, it's the black and green thing she's holding).  Very fun!