Kids Craft: Salt Dough Creatures

Salt dough is fun to work with, but, needs to be baked for several hours in a low-heat oven for it to harden. Then the fun starts all over again: to paint it. Some sort of sealant needs to be applied as a top coat so moisture doesn't wither it away.

There are lots of sites on the web dedicated to this simple craft activity. Our inspiration at home was the cute little book Salt Dough by Laura Torres, illustrated by Wendy Wallin Malinow. For some reason Oggie loves the bright colorful creations in this book and Ana seemed inspired by the simplicity of it, especially since the book is written with her (kids like her) in mind - it speaks directly to them, with simple instructions.

So we tried a few.

The book suggests using aluminum foil core around which to build/sculpt/shape the dough to cut down on cooking time, which I liked. Of course, if the object is thin/small, no Al core needed.

Items used: flour, salt, water, aluminum foil, acrylic paints, paint brush, white glue, googly-eyes.

1. Dissolve 1 cup salt in 1 cup water.
2. Add 2 cups flour to this solution and knead well till it forms a cohesive elastic dough. (Adjust flour as needed).
3. Roll it out to about ¼ inch thick.
4. Either cut shapes with cookie cutters, or wrap pieces of the rolled out dough around the Al foil core and shape the creature.

Should be baked for at least 4 hours at 200°F, we left it in for about 7 hours till we were sure it felt hard all the way through with no soft spots. Yes, it is a long time! No instant gratification with this project.



Since penguins are a rage at home still, we did a couple of them. And something that looks like a cross between a mouse and a Koala.

Anyway, once it has cooled enough, we painted it with acrylic paints. Allowed it to dry. Applied a second coat. Allowed it to dry. Applied diluted white glue as sealant. Added googly-eyes.

Conclusion: "It's like play dough, Mama, eksep, it has to cook for a long time and I don't like that part."

Thanks to Junie B. Jones, I get to hear a lot of I like it very much, except, I don't like it :)

But, we did make another batch where Ana enjoyed the whole process from start to finish. Except, I did not enjoy the incessant "is it done yet? how much longer? can we take it out of the oven now?"