Salt dough decorations

[PolkaDotParty]

Really want to start doing some Christmas crafts with the dcs - was thinking they'd enjoy making decorations for the tree as we're going to put it up this weekend. Any tips/recipes/ideas?

Also, can you make dough in advance and keep it in cling film?

Yes. It's easy.

Two cups (or mugs) of plain flour, one cup of salt. Enough water to make a dough. Some recipes say add a teaspoon of oil, but I've never bothered.

Fab, thanks.

How about drying it? I tried it last year with DD but the decoration we kept was all soggy when we got the trimmings out on Sunday! I couldn't get it to dry fully despite hours and hours in a low oven. I have no idea what recipe I used but perhaps too much water?

Salt dough decs went down brilliantly with my 3yr old but I can see us doing it every year for ages.

We did the making of dough and cutting one day. Then they take ages to cook and cool so we did the painting and sticking/glitter etc another day.

I did paint a few beforehand though so that they were dry so my little one could do painting and glueing in the same afternoon.

Also, definitely use acrylic paint. Colours were brilliant when compared with normal kids paint. And it didn't stain hands/clothes etc like I thought it would.

Also, it took longer to dry out than I thought. I'd dry them out initially in a low oven then leave them resting on the radiators for a few days next time. I couldn't quite bring myself to leave the oven on for hours and hours!

Have fun!

P.s I loved it so much I was actually tempted to make some more just for me! I resisted when I remembered I barely have time to make the packed lunches most evenings!!