Monday, May 31, 2010

salt dough creations


I gave Jumeirah a packet of twisties in the car yesterday. She was half way through when I hear her yelp and say " LOOK! Its a dog, Mum!" Child with a very active imagination, so I thought. But check it out! It really is a dog!!


I have no idea what happened to Friday.. I swear I wrote something. But strangely, I cant find it nor can I remember what I wrote... hmmm must have been one of those days :)

I got organised over the weekend, realising that when I am organised, crafty times and play times are so much more fun. I know what to get out, I am more excited about what we are doing and that becomes infectious and so my kids are excited too! I decided to make some playdough and put something different with it this morning.



The dough I ended up making was more of a salt dough which can be hardened and I gave them some gorgeous beads and things to stick into the dough. We also had some playdough cutters to make shapes for them to bead on.



Salt Dough

2 cups of plain flour

1 cup salt

1 cup of warm water

mix well

add colouring if you like or you can paint them when they dry out

I found this mixture needed more flour added but I think it was because the night air was damp and cold when I made it. It needs to be a non sticky consistency. Will keep in the fridge wrapped in Glad Wrap.


Amahli was straight in, shes not normally allowed free reign of my beads as I really like them and they are hard to find so I normally reserve them for Jumeirah to make bracelets. But I am learning to let go of my analness and let her try out new things with " my" stuff. :)

She cut out a teddy bear and a hand with her dough, using her hands to flatten it out nad push the cutter down. She was incredibly meticulous with each bead, totally not what I thought she would do ( maybe she knew I was letting her use special things and knew not to rock my boat) and pushed each bead into the dough.
I even let her use my tiny beads to decorate her little "A" and she was so careful to get each bead into the dough without ruining the shape. She was fascinating to watch :)



She wanted to keep making these little art works and made 4 of them before announcing she was getting Jared for a turn.

As I made this dough last night, Jared didnt watch me making a colossal mess, all he saw was this neat, blue dough so he too was keen to play.



He didnt want my help at all, and was also really particular in where beads where placed. He made patterns on the hands, faces on some of them, and all the points on the stars.
He was proud of his hard work too which I always love to see.



We cooked them in the oven for about 3 hours on a low setting to help them to harden.
All of the creations have holes in the top so we could hang them when they were done.
We havent hung them yet, will show you what they look like when we find the perfect place for them :)





2 comments:

  1. Looks like they had a great time. I hadn't thought of using beads to push in. I think I might do this and let the kids have at my container of odd buttons. We usually use them for sorting games (and just swirling our hands in for the neat feel). But I think buttons would work and I wouldn't have to buy anything.

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  2. Looks like a good time was had by all. I've had to sit back and let them use my stuff too, and it's so hard.

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