Some shape and paint..

To continue our Valentines crafts, yesterday we made some Salt Dough, I googled it some time ago, remembering when I made it as a child, I think I typed in  "dough you can cook" ahhh derrrr!!

Anyway, then I saw it on another blog and my sister also did some dough crafting with her kiddies HERE, and my brain went into overdrive. Hmm what to do , what to make!!

The recipe that I used for the Salt Dough is

2 cups of Plain Flour

1 Cup of Salt

1 cup of lukewarm water

I used my Kenwood Mix master with my dough hook to stir it but a simple wooden spoon would do the try just as good, just with more effort!! haha

Then we set about rolling, cutting shaping. You name it!! We made a bunch of love hearts and pierced a hole with the end of a pen , for a project coming soon!! Stella also rolled a bunch of little balls and made holes in them to use as beads to make a necklace and we both made a little bowl for her Nannie, seeing as though it was her birthday yesterday!! What Nannie doesn't like some home made craft from her grand daughter?

Then you just pop the creations into the oven, and bake for about 20-30 mins. My recipe said and hour, so luckily I walked past and check it after 25 mins, to find very well done little balls and hearts!

I did learn through doing this activity that you need to peirce the items to stop them from rising or bubbling!

Luckily it was sleep time, to allow time for cooling , otherwise I would have had one very impatient little girl on my hands!
We then set upon painting out little goodies! I often get comments as to how I find the time to paint with a 2 year old and twins. Well notice the little legs of our spectators. A few vegemite cruskits took care of the entertainment for them, and we were set.
I have discovered, the hard way of course, to make sure you have everything on hand you need and prepare you area well for these sessions. I have a plastic table cloth on the table (notice it is different? As much as I loved our gorgeous Marble square one, it was sooo big and obtrusive in our living area, so we picked this one up second hand and cheap, and I have BIG plans to paint it all white!!) anyway, plastic table cloth (you can buy from Spotlight) , newspaper sheets layed out, old Icecream lids to use as paint palettes and a big box of wipes and a wet cloth for spillages!!

I buy the big bottles of paint and we just have the primary colours, so I can mix them to what ever we need to use!

All our paint equipment is kept in this white box, available from Ikea, and it is stored in our Expedit cube unit in our toy room. Of course on the top shelf, with the other craft stuff! I like to be able to start a project, grab the relavant box and start without fuss!

The contents of our Paints box. Sponges, shapes, stencils, brushes all the relevant stuff. I hope to do a post on our toy room soon, if you guys are interested!!

The master at work!! It has to be Stella's all time favourite activity. And it surprises me how many parents don't do it with their kids, for fear of mess!! But I have to say, the worst we have had is paint on her hands, actually her whole body, but a bath can fix that and on the floor and that is cleanable too!!

But don't forget an art smock, nothing fancy, even one of Dads old shirts, we picked up this super ugly Elmo one at Spotlight for $3 so it came home with me, no one sees it, so who cares!!

Stella's little bowl for her Nannie!! Like usual, all the paints mixed, she continued to paint paint paint and they are one big colour now, no biggy, its an original, and then I just sprinkled some glitter over the top (I am not letting my kids touch glitter for a while after the last episode HERE) and used a glaze paint from Kaiser Craft from Spotlight.

Nannie was chuffed and so was Stella to gift it!!

Try it yourself!