Please wait...
Winter Figures and Decorations
This dough is very white so makes excellent snowmen. You can also make great penguins by mixing black food colour into part of the dough and wrapping a flat piece half way around a white ball and add a black head, eyes, beak and feet. Young children can use cutters to make festive shapes. To make a bauble get them to cut out and circle then poke a straw into the dough to take out holes. To add colour glue on a piece of tissue, or glitter.
Magic mix
-
2 cups salt
-
2/3 cup water
-
1 cup cornflour
-
1/2 cup water
Mix 2 cups of salt and 2/3 cup of water in a saucepan. Stir constantly over a medium heat until bubbles form - about 3-4 minutes.
Remove pan from heat and immediately mix in the cornflour and remaining 1/2 cup of water.
Stir to a stiff consistency.
If the mixture does not thicken, stir over heat for about 1 minute.
Turn out onto a smooth surface to cool, then knead until pliable.
At this point you can separate it into balls and knead in a little food colour into each ball. Tip - wear rubber gloves.
Store dough in an airtight container.
This mixture is air drying and will normally harden within 36 hours. You can speed this up by placing it in a warm place.
{mosimage}
Saltdough and magic mix - A few ideas
Once your finished items have been baked and hardened, you can paint them. Saltdough may go soft after painting, but when left to dry will harden again.
Saltdough is good for making decorative items. To make a hole for hanging, push the end of a pencil through the dough. As saltdough will shrink a little on cooking make the hole fairly large. Or you can embed a metal paperclip with one end showing through before cooking.
Magic mix is good for making up long lasting items of play food. Some really effective Christmas decorations can be made by using salt dough and seasonal cutters (don't forget to make a hole for hanging). Do not keep then for next year they will disintegrate if they get damp. Once the shapes have been baked, make up some PVA glue mixed with paint and spread over the shapes, then sprinkle glitter or other small shiny bits on and leave to dry. Thread some festive ribbon through the holes.