Anyone used saltdough for baby/child hand imprints and did it work?

[reastie]

Want to give DM/MIL a hand or foot print of DD (9MO) for christmas. We've got a frame all ready to put them in. Bought a special plaster casting kit and tried it out today but let's just say there was no hope of it working with a wriggly dd. Am now wondering about doing a salt dough on and painting it to go in the frame but read somewhere it can crack over time.

Anyone done this? Did it work ok or am I best off buying another kit? Any particular type of paint I should/shouldn't use?

I've not done hand and foot prints but I have worked with salt dough a lot in the past. You'll get rough prints with it but nowhere near the detail of plaster. If you make sure it's very very dry and then varnish it all over a couple of times it shouldn't crack.

What about using some sort of self-drying modelling clay?

plenty I wondered about the self drying stuff. DH and I have done dds footprints with a funny material which feels really light and I just rolled it out and could reshape as much as I wanted. Not sure where to get it from tho as the one I got was the only one left in tkmaxx

I've mainly done foot prints in a few things as hands are just too wiggly. Went to a pottery painting party and did our first handprint on a mug for DH's xmas present.

Feet are easier as long as you are quick and firm, ink or paint is quite successful. I've done air drying clay with no problem as well.

The tip the lady who runs the pottery painting gave me for hands is that they are happy to grip around something but not go flat so easily. So put paper around a tube so they grip around it. I think air dry clay may be easier than plaster.

The air drying clay is pretty light and does quite good prints and if you muck up you can always roll it out again.

thanks kellestar . I've found crayola do air drying clay so may try that