Friday, August 3, 2012

Crafty Mommy using Salt Dough

Today I decided to try out making salt dough stepping stones. Using a salt dough recipe I found online I created 3 stepping stones today.




And I just had to make this one...


The recipe that I followed was one that was floating around Facebook:


I thought to myself "hey lets try it"
Let me give you a few hints before you make the same mistakes I made.
First off you dont have to bake the stones at 200 degrees for 3 hours!!
This DOESNT WORK!!
My bad for not Googleing this before trying it.
So dont go and heat up your house in this hot weather for nothing.
Luckily for you, after I created mine I searched online.
I found out Morton Salt has a whole PDF book full of recipes and ideas.

For mine I did use the recipe on the picture and it came out alittle grainy.
To me it just didnt look right. Everywhere else online, including the Mortons Salt handbook uses this recipe:


2 cups (al/l purpose) flour
1 cup Morton

® Salt
1 cup water

You mix it all together and knead for 7-10 minutes.
After creating whatever you going to make you have 2 ways of drying your creations.

Baking your creations:
Bake at 350 for a halfhour per 1/4" thickness.

Air drying your creations:
easier and safer for kids you just let them sit out in the room uncovered for 48 hours.

You can pretty much make whatever you want out of salt dough.

I love the idea of creating the stepping stones every year with the kids footprints. For me its perfect for me to show off how with every step we take through our journey, we get stronger.

Here are some Halloween salt dough ideas:
http://voices.yahoo.com/halloween-crafts-salt-dough-decorations-yourself-2051387.html

Enjoy :)


****Tips: When you make these, you want to make sure to make them thicker so they don't break or crumble. Liam's turned out thin and was fragile. Mine lasted a year but that was only because my kids decided to play with them one day and broke then on accident. I also like to seal my creations with a varnish to protect them from the weather. You can get it in the paint section at the craft stores. Once they are dry, they do not become wet again when water gets on them, but still I like to varnish them. (Updated 9/22/16)****

6 comments:

  1. What happens if you leave them on display outside? Will they soften again?

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  2. I was wondering the same thing...

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  3. No once their hardened they don't get soft again. At least mine did not. Make sure u follow directions to a tee . :)

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  4. If you add beads to them such as dragons years or other beads and bake them would that be a problem?

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    1. The only thing is that beads have a tendency to melt. I've never added beads to mine so I'm not sure what the end result would be.

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  5. Once they're hardened they stay that way. They can break just like anything else though. Mine only lasted a year but that was because my kids played with them one day and broke them.

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