Salt Dough - Not Just for Christmas

The Desperate Craftwives - Starfish garland Tutorial

They say that by embracing the activities you enjoyed as a kid Adults can de-stress, and by 'they' I mean Travis from Cougar Town, woah been seriously overdoing the Cougar Town recently.

So I've been rolling up my sleeves and getting my hands dirty with some Salt Dough Xmas ornaments as you know, and it turns out that there are some pretty cool projects on the web and not all Holiday themed either.

Here's my pick of Salt Dough projects from around and about.

First pic - The Desperate Craftwives - Starfish garland Tutorial
Love the beachy feel of the starfish, would love these as curtain tiebacks in the bathroom.

Lady with the Red Rocker - Salt Dough Pendants

 

Floral may not be your style but using stamps or anything with texture the possibilities are endless and with one batch you could make trays and trays full of these, great for you craft market sellers and such an inexpensive medium you'd be Quids/Dollars in.

June, from Celtic Moon Craft if you're reading this, I would love to see you make these pendants in your beautiful Traditional Celtic style .

 

 

Oleander and Palm - Salt Dough Christmas Ornaments

Also a great idea for gift tags all year round, stamp names on for place settings, tie round napkins for handmade napkin holders, so many uses and who doesn't have a round cookie cutter and a few stamps kicking about.

 

Had to sneak some more Christmas projects in for those feeling me on the hurry up Winter front.

Salt Dough Christmas Tree Ornaments

 

Ok, ok you guys are sick of my Xmas obsession? well I made it so I'm sharing, family members look away please, these may or may not be winging their ways to you sometime snowier ;)

 

I had a lot of fun making these, I don't profess to know how to paint, so I'm going for 'rustic' looking, fun ornaments not works of art, if I can't get the look I want with a dot or a broad sweep of a paint pen/brush then it's not happening.

 

 

 

 

 

My personal faves, Gingerbread men and Ladies complete with painted nails and pearl jewelery ;)

 

My kitchen is literally like Santas Grotto at the moment so I'll be easing off the Xmas projects... for now.

Summer Crafts for Kids - Dinosaur Fossil Tutorial

After a recent trip to Drumheller, THE Dinosaur capital of Canada, my future paleontologist got his craft on with some Salt dough to make these DIY fossils.

What you'll need:

Plastic Dinosaurs

Salt Dough Recipe from The Imagination Tree (Ace kids craft site)  

Rolling pin

Chopping Board (easier to clean up)

Drinking Straw

Brown Chalk (optional)

String

1. Make the dough, tear into smallish balls, and press down  making a rough circle shape.

2. Press Dinosaur parts into the dough.

3. Poke a drinking straw into the top if you want to hang it up.

4. Bake as per recipe (3 hours as long as the dough piece isn't too thick)

5. Crush up some brown chalk and rub that over the baked 'fossil' to age it.

6. Thread a piece of string through the hole at the top and hang on kiddos wall.

Spooky faces appearing as if by magic

It's all fun and games til Dad takes over!

A Parasaurolophus so my 3 yr old informs me!

The baked article, I liked the look of the cracking and irregular shape.

After aging with Brown chalk.

And because Salt Dough isn't just for kids, a sneak peek at some Christmas in July projects I've been working on.