Salt Dough Ornaments

A couple of weeks ago I read a blog post on Gypsy of Jaspers blog about how she made Salt Dough Ornaments. This gave me the idea of making some with my niece so I stuck to stars and circles. I would have loved to have taken more photos of my niece creating them but time was against us as her parents kept turning up even if we started early which left my niece in tears.

 

The only thing I did was roll the dough out as I wanted to keep them thick incase they were too thin and would break. This meant that they needed at least 6 hours to cook! I made the holes using a big straw as suggested by Gypsy of Jaspers which was great when it came to painting as it made it easir to clean the holes once the paint had dried.

 

I used acrylic paint and poster paint mixed with pva glue. I found the acrylic to be best because it dried quickly but also the paint stayed on whilst drying. Where as the Pva glue was great once dried but you couldn't touch or move it until then because the glue would peel off. The reason I added glue is that I got my niece to decorate each ornament as she painted them so that it dried together.

 

Whoever received one loved them so its definately a great and cheap gift to make with little ones (but also you can make them too).

 

I did however use a different ingrediant compared to Gypsy of Jasper as I felt hers would be too watery with having 1 of everything.

 

I used
2 cups of flour

1 cup of salt

1 cup of water

which came together so easily and was nice and doughy. I would suggest keeping it an hour before making it (even over night if you needed to) so that it binds together much better but I used it straight away which was no problem either.

Then cook them on your lowest heat, some people say you can turn the heat up but it will brown your ornaments which won't matter if you intend to paint them. I'm not sure how brown they will go though as I kept to the lowest heat.

Its still only Christmas Eve so if you have forgotten someone I suggest you make them a batch of these.

Map of my little world....

Meet my Atlas, I bought it in 2002 when I first got my car even though I'd been passed for 2 years already. I have thought many times over the years to pull it apart and use it to craft with but I couldn't bring myself to do it... I haven't used it for years as its been sat in my bedroom but last weekend I decided to finally take out the staples and chop it up. It was a little weird to look at places at realise they no longer exist, something new has ended up there or that the names of things have completely changed. It made me realise it was high time to do something with it even though it may have made some money one day... I don't have a sat nav though but the internet is always there.

I mentioned a while back about a mini letter, decorative envelope and postcard exchange. The person I'm doing it with listed maps as something they love. It made me think of something I think I saw on Pinterest where a person did the place they met, got engaged and got married in a heart shape...I loved that idea so created this (not quite along the lines of a 2 people relationship love)...

I decided to do the journey of my envelope instead. I wanted to do each square as a circle so it looked like a telescope looking in but when it came to finding the locations I wanted all 3 of them were the square next to the spine so I couldn't cut my circle completely of the map which meant they ended up staying as a squares.

The first square is my home, the second is the post office which is marked with a star. Its so weird to see how many of them have now been forced to close. The last one is roughly where the sorting office is. I couldn't find the exact location for some weird reason but I think it may just be it.

The background is meant to be like a letter with the writing, the postmarks and then the punched stamp shape along with the stars to match the Post Office. I don't know if its the white card or something else but this card just lacked something for me but I do still like it.

I then of course decorated an envelope. I would have loved to have made one but my sheets weren't big enough.

This I decorated with places that I love. On the front the city center. Despite my moaning about the lack of shops I just love wondering around the city when I do go and most of all I love the old stone buildings.

On the back is Lister Park which I just love going to and have blogged about a few times. My niece loves it there too and the last time we went we saw such a variety of animals it was lovely for an autumn day.

Even though the postcard was meant to be the letter part I had to create the little notepaper to explain the postcard as I just ran out of space... it definately is going to be a challenge doing these mini letters.

The place on the note paper is the area around the woodlands and the woodlands which I love and would love a house there.

 

I'm really going to enjoy this mini letter exchange....