Bloggin Bout Babies by @blog_baby: Salt Dough

We have made these at groups we have been to, dead simple and easy to do, the recipe is simple and ingredients are cheap, we made one for Rubys Grandad for fathers day and plan on making a few for christmas pressies and other special presents before then, I wish I had done some for last christmas.

Recipe

1/2 cup of salt

1 cup of plain flour

1/2 a cup of warm water

If like me you see the measurment 'cup' in a recipe, and think arg what is a cup and how big, don't worry about it just use a mug but use the same mug for all the ingredients, it can be a big mug if you want lots of a normal one for standard amount.

Once you have everything measured into a bowl mix it together, and knead it till its a smooth dough, the smoother you get it the better, but its at easy to do don't worry first time about getting it perfect. Then split into just smaller than tennis ball size and roll out onto a board, aim to get it between 1-2cm thick you can go thicker it will just take longer to dry. Some recipes oven dry the prints, but we have always just left it somewhere dry like the airing cupboard or a window sill for a week, depends if you are in a rush. I think the oven settings are 100c for 3 hours but becareful of oven drying thick prints as sometimes they will rise and this will ruin the print, I recommend being patient and air drying, for older kids you can check daily with them for a bit of fun :-)

Then when it's rolled out into a nice shape, I guess you could use a baking cutter to shape the dough when doing small prints, I ve always rounded the side with my hands, some people use a plate or saucer and cut round, depends on how neat you want it really. Then press feet or hands into the dough quite firmly, the first time we did this Rubes just grabbed up the dough and we had to re-roll it, its amazing how good their little feet are at scrunching up the dough too, so be patient, of course you might do it first time :-)

Then dry.

When dry some people paint them, I prefer to leave them natural and varnish, but bigger kiddies will love painting them themselves, choosing the colours and patterns. An idea I am going to try for Christmas is varnish with glitter in, but I haven't yet so it may be a disaster.

Oh another tip if you want to put ribbon through it to hang it up by, whilst it isn't set pop a straw through this will give you a nice sized round hole :-)