Crafting with Kids

When you and your kids are sick, it's pretty much like being stuck in a snow storm... you're not going anywhere! Ok, in Texas it's more like being stuck in an ice storm but whatever.  The point is we've been home a lot lately and this Mom can only play Bakugan, swords and football for so long before going a bit crazy. So I did what any sane woman would do, I raised the white surrender flag, packed up the kids and went to Gramma's house! Since Gramma has a great collection of old cookie cutters, we decided to make Salt Dough from our Green Crafts for Children book.

The ingredients were pretty simple and I thought that making the dough would be just as simple. Wrong! Maybe part of the problem is that I am no baker or cook for that matter. If at all possible, I prefer to stay out of the kitchen. The first part of the recipe calls for salt to be dissolved in luke warm water. Sounds easy right? But this recipe calls for a LOT of salt and says that for best results, the salt should be completely dissolved. There was no way that all of that salt would ever dissolve in luke warm water. We tried! We then turned to boiling hot water. Still no luck. Next up, water on the stove top at a rolling boil to dissolve the salt. Did I do something wrong here because this salt ain't budging?!  We finally gave up and decided that it would be better to have grainy salt dough versus none at all.  My son Jude was so excited to make this stuff I couldn't let him down. So, we followed the rest of the recipe as stated in the book and guess what? It turned out great!

We had so much salt dough that we ended up making gifts for my son's classmates and food for our play kitchen. Now before you go thinking, how does a kids craft have any relevance in my world? These could make great gift tags, valentines, place cards and super cute magnets for the fridge! The possibilities are endless. I am going to write some personalized messages on the ones I've painted above, hot glue a magnet to the back and give them a coat of clear Krylon for a nice satin finish. Happy Weekend! xo