Salt Dough Easter Tree Ornaments

I wanted to make some salt dough ornaments for our Easter Tree (recently our Shamrock Tree for St. Patrick’s Day), and searched on my beloved Pinterest to find a little recipe (from design mom, http://www.designmom.com/2013/03/diy-salt-dough-eggs/).

I am quite nostalgic about salt dough baking. I once made some salt dough people with my Nana, and she framed them and hung them in her kitchen. I think my mom has them now; I need to get a photo the next time I see them. The most memorable feature of my little people was the way the man’s coat kind of ballooned out and puffed up as it baked. I am now partial to the ornaments we made that got puffy too.

 

The kids were so excited to make them, mix the dough and cut out the shapes to bake.

We used:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

1/2 cup water

We used a straw to cut the hole at the top for the string and baked them at 250° for 2 hours. We made eggs, bunnies, and tulips. The recipe says to roll them out at about 1/4", but I think mine may have been closer to 1/2" and hence the puffiness.

 

But the real fun came when we got to paint! And, as an added bonus, our favorite neighbors came to paint and decorate with us –such a joyous day!

 

 

We used different colors of acrylic paint for the shapes. We also decided to paint some tongue depressors to use as garden marker stakes. We had paint, why not?

And Fin made a beautiful sky with a sun. We really love to paint at our house as I'm sure most kiddos do. However, Grey slept through the paint party, but got to play with the kiddos later.

A little side note: acrylic paint can be a little more difficult for clean-up, but it really wasn't a big deal. Just remember to have an adult around to supervise and remind kiddos not to put it in their mouths; we also washed up right away when we finished. I'm sure other washable paints would be fun too; we just haven't tried that yet.

 

The next day Fin was much more excited to decorate than Grey, and she went to town with the paint pens. And then of course, glitter. Again, why not? And it is so fun to see what she likes for designs.

 

The next morning we decorated the tree in our jammies. Woo hoo. I think this was their favorite part! Happy mommy and happy kids. I decided to put it on the kitchen table, and of course now I have to constantly remind them not to play with the ornaments during dinner. Ha. Oh well, small price for the joy of making something for our family together.

 

 

 

 

Fizzy Stars and Sprinkles

So, I am defnitely not a daily blogger.Yet. I do better writing in my smash journal on the kitchen counter. But in an effort to blog and record our daily lives, I will share some fun Pinterest activities the kids and I have done lately.

This week we made "snow" with baking soda and hair conditioner. It really had a great consistency and smell too! I got the idea from Momma's Fun World, http://mommasfunworld.blogspot.com/2013/01/fake-sensory-snow-that-feels-real.html.

 

 

 



Originally we were going to make her shamrocks to mix with vinegar and make fuzzy, bubbly fun for St. Patrick's day (http://pinterest.com/pin/244179611019000481/) or the original post (http://mommasfunworld.blogspot.com/2013/02/shamrock-science-for-kids.html), but since I didn't have a shamrock mold, we made stars instead. My only other silicone mold choices were snowmen and jack-o-lanterns. I just put the "snow" in the mold, and put it in the freezer overnight.



They loved it! First they made the little bubbles, then the colorful bubbles that filled the tray!

 

 



"This is the best, mommy!" Fin told me. Grey told me he loved it too, but I knew it was a hit when I heard of all his "fizzy" noise-making.



First they used the droppers (that I found at Tom Thumb in the pharmacy), and then they wanted me to pour straight from the bottle to make "volcanoes mommy!" I put down the plastic picnic table cover (with the soft, cottony side underneath), and used our all-purpose giant sheet pan to hold the mess.

We ended up using an entire bottle of vinegar. Not only that, we decided to add sprinkles and frosting (pre-made in tubes) to add a little flair to the stars. Those of you familiar with Finley will know that it is no surprise we added sprinkles. And of course, they had an audience; "Pony" the unicorn was watching the whole time.

We even made a few prints from our mess, I mean our art! It was great. I'd definitely do the whole process over again. It was fun to freeze the "snow", and I'll be on the lookout for silicone molds in different shapes on sale. Also, I didn't find the green kool-aid (to turn the snow green for shamrocks) when I went shopping, so I plan to shop around and keep some colors on hand for next time. However, sprinkles and frosting additions were a LOT of fun!



 

Hope you enjoyed our fun experiment.

Have a great day!

Stacey