Salt dough sculptures

A little while ago, on a rainy day, I decided the kids and I would try a new salt dough recipe to make some creations with.

You see, we had made some ornaments last December, using Christmas cookie cutters, to give as presents for the special people in our lives and the recipe we had tried failed miserably. They just would not cook properly, even though I left them in the oven double the time, and then let them air dry for a few days. They would break and crumble. So those presents never happened. We have since tried another salt dough recipe that also did not work, so I had given up...

Until I stumbled upon this recipe over at Wee Folk Art. Michelle's project looked beautiful and it obviously worked for her, so I decided to give salt dough one more shot.

We made some creatures (see my snail in the middle?), some ammonites, a bowl, flower, worm and Arianne even made some chocolate chip cookies ;)

Then I baked them according to directions and to be safe, we waited until the next day to paint.

The kids had a great time, it kept them busy on a rainy day AND now I know we can make some ornaments to give away as presents this year that will actually hold together!

Just be careful though, my sun and flower did not survive (though I could just use a hot glue gun). But if it's mostly in 1 piece, it works like a charm!

Mission accomplished!