Whether its for a gift or your own baby or tot, they'll love this
colorful name plate which you can hand make in stages during nap time, or get
the little ones involved in creating these beautiful room decorations!
This is
a fantastic craft to do with young children as the dough is non toxic because
its just flour, salt & water. They love the feel of it and once you bake
the creations - they will permanently stay hard forever and are ready for
painting!
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1/3 cup water
extra flour for dusting surface
baking sheet
baking paper
Mix the salt and plain flour and add the water slowly and mix so it
makes a firm dough.
Mould your ornament on a lightly floured baking sheet.
Its best to keep the salt dough designs as flat as possible so it will dry out quicker when cooking.
To make this nameplate mould a thin rectangle template with the salt dough and sqush the edges to round them out and make the wave design. Separately make a long 'worm' to write the letters. Lightly brush the template with water and lay your letters down on the template. You can add any shapes or characters you like by moulding the dough - again, keeping it simple with basic shapes helps make the end result visually striking.
If your unsure about moulding this nameplate yourself.just print this picture onto an A4 sheet and you'll get the idea of all the different shapes used in this pirate nameplate - an island (flat circle), flat rectangular treasure chest, palm tree which is basically a 'T' shape, a pirate ship which is an elongated half circle with square sails, the skull & cross bones is an oval with four lines coming out of the oval and eyes and mount dotted into the oval, and the pirate face is a circle with smaller circle for one patch, dotted eye and half circle bandana with two small pieces coming out of it for the knotted ends of the bandana.
Don't forget to make a hole in the top if you plan to hang it up!
Mould your ornament on a lightly floured baking sheet.
Its best to keep the salt dough designs as flat as possible so it will dry out quicker when cooking.
To make this nameplate mould a thin rectangle template with the salt dough and sqush the edges to round them out and make the wave design. Separately make a long 'worm' to write the letters. Lightly brush the template with water and lay your letters down on the template. You can add any shapes or characters you like by moulding the dough - again, keeping it simple with basic shapes helps make the end result visually striking.
If your unsure about moulding this nameplate yourself.just print this picture onto an A4 sheet and you'll get the idea of all the different shapes used in this pirate nameplate - an island (flat circle), flat rectangular treasure chest, palm tree which is basically a 'T' shape, a pirate ship which is an elongated half circle with square sails, the skull & cross bones is an oval with four lines coming out of the oval and eyes and mount dotted into the oval, and the pirate face is a circle with smaller circle for one patch, dotted eye and half circle bandana with two small pieces coming out of it for the knotted ends of the bandana.
Don't forget to make a hole in the top if you plan to hang it up!
Cook
it in the oven at about 50-100 Celcius
so the ornaments dry out slowly until they are rock hard and when you tap it,
it sounds hollow. Depending on the
thickness of your design the cooking may take 4-6 hours.
Once cool, get painting with some non toxic paint then leave to dry and varnish if required.
Once cool, get painting with some non toxic paint then leave to dry and varnish if required.
You can use leftover paint sample pots/ acrylics yourself but its best
to use non toxic paint suitable for toddlers if they are going to get creative!
Once dried, you can varnish the creations with a mix of 1 part non toxic
glue to 1/2 part water, clear varnish or spray with a glitter spray from most
hardware or craft stores to add a protective shine.
