Salt dough idea

Hello to you all.

I’d like to share with you something I made for Tammi and my Christmas challenge. This month was to use a Saturated Canary image with option to hide a gift inside.

I saw those cute little jars at Michaels in the $2 bin… checked out yesterday with 2 more and they are now down to $1 which means they are on clearance and usually that means in the dollar section it may take a while until they are back in. There are two styles available square and round, with a patch of chalk paint to write on. I went with the square style so its easier to adhere a focal point image and with some strong scor tape the design paper holds nicely over the edges with no issue.

the image is by Kirsta Smith, Saturated Canary called Spitz. I used some pretty Magnolia Design paper, Magnolia picket Fence die, seam binding ribbon, pearl stickers, gingham ribbon, white gel pen, Stickles, Copic marker, Alphabet stickers to decorate the jar.

Here is what I have made for the inside…. I have to admit I wanted to make something to add a gift card… a little boring this one was more work but it was fun to make with the kids. So if you have a rainy day, try it out. I used to make salt dough as a kid all the time. Its so easy essentially its 2 part flour and 1 parts of Salt with 1 part of water mixed, shaped and dried either at a sunny window or on lowest heat setting in the oven over several hours.

Now if you like to stamp on the ornaments, gift tags or what ever you decide to make you would roll your dough out, stamp first and than cut the shape out with a cookie cutter. I was able to stamp some Magnolia Tilda images onto my dough but haven't really figured a way out how to color them. I was about to play with my pencils but ran out of time. So here are for now just a few “plain” ones.

I used the following Magnolia stamps to stamp on my tags/Ornaments:
A Merry Christmas, 25 North pole, Frosty the snowman, Merry Christmas seal,

Here is a detailed recipe how to make the dough

 

What you'll need

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1/2 cup water
• Rolling pin
• Cookie sheet
• Toothpick
• Miniature cookie cutters
• Acrylic paints
• Glitter glue or glitter paint
• Ribbon

Helpful Tip:

If your toppers are large enough, you can make two holes in each so that you can thread ribbon through like a button, only showing a small amount of ribbon on the front.

Notes:

Uncooked salt dough doesn’t keep well, so only make enough dough for the ornaments you are going to make. If you are only making a few toppers, halve the ingredients above. The listed amounts will make enough ornaments for a classroom of 20.

Variations:

These make adorable pins to wear to school. Just don’t make a hole. Glue a pin back to the back of the completed ornament instead.

How to make it

1. Preheat the oven to 250° F.

2. Mix together salt, flour, and water until dough is formed.

3. Knead the dough on a floured surface until the mixture is elastic and smooth. If dough is too sticky, sprinkle with flour, continue to do so until stickiness is gone. Do not add too much flour, as this will dry out the dough and will cause it to crack before you get a chance to bake it.

4. Roll out the dough to about 1/4” thick with a rolling pin that has been dusted with flour.

5. Use cookie cutters to cut out as many ornaments as you want.

6. Use a toothpick to make a hole toward the top of the shape. Poke the toothpick into the shape, then holding toothpick straight up and down, make a circular motion as if you were stirring something. Keep circling until the hole is the size you want. You can also use a straw or a stir stick to poke the hole.

7. Place all shapes onto an ungreased cookie sheet and place into the preheated oven.

8. Bake for 2 hours.

9. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

10. Paint the ornaments.

11. When paint is dry, use glitter glue or glitter paint to put a sparkling cover coat on your ornaments.

12. When the glitter is dry, thread ribbon through hole and tie in a knot in the back.

13. Hang on your tree or tie onto a package.