Salt Dough is a favorite craft here at Craftea as it's so easy, cheap and adaptable to any time of the year or season.
We decided to make some spooky inspired Halloween salt dough decorations this week. This is a great craft for kids of all ages, even the big kids like ourselves!!
What you need:
2 cups of Plain Flour
1 cup of warm water
1 cup of salt
Bowl
Wooden spoon
Baking Tray
Rolling pin
Greaseproof paper
Cookie cutters (not essential but if you have any you might aswell use them)
Paint
Paintbrush
Glitter spray (gives a great finish if you have any but not totally grand without it too)
Instructions
1) Mix together your plain flour, water and salt in a bowl with a wooden spoon.
2)Add more water or flour to your liking. Continue until you get a nice soft dough.
3) Remove from the bowl and place onto the surface, sprinkle a bit of flour and kneed for about 5-10 minutes.
4) Leave the dough to rest for a few minutes and prepare your baking tray by covering it in greaseproof paper
5) Roll out your dough using a rolling pin and use cookie cutters to cut out shapes or make your own 3d pumpkins, headstones, ghost shapes etc.. like I did.
6) When you are happy with your designs place
them on your tray and place in the over @180 degrees for approx 30-40 minutes, the time will vary depending on the thickness of each shape.
7) Remove from the open when you think they are cooked and leave to cool on a wire tray if you have one.
8) Once cold paint in your colours of choice and once dry give them a spray of glitter to seal like a varnish if you have any but if not don't worry they are fine with just paint.
For the older kids here is something a little more scarey!!!!!!
These salt dough figures are made with a couple of easy variations to the above.
- for the fingers... Apply an sliced almond or chunk of dried banana to the fingers and slice some lines into the knuckle area of the finger.
- Dust the creations before baking with some cinnamon or ground coffee
- Bake the moulded dough for slightly longer so they go extra dry & brown and/or giving them a couple of minutes under the grill (or broiler in the USA). Make sure to keep an eye on them if using direct heat as they could easily burn.
Aren't they ideally creepy & sinister for a pirate party craft or Halloween ornament!