Salt Dough Going Soft

[ginauk84]

So my plan was to make a salt dough decoration every year for the tree on Christmas Eve. However I have got last year's decoration out and it has gone soft and bits have broken off. It was solid last year and not at all soft. Have I perhaps wrapped it too well and the air hasn't got to it so it has gone soft? How do you store yours?

One year got the decorations out to find a lump of goo & glitter rather than the expected stars & snowmen.

Since then I've made sure they are really really dry before letting the kids paint them, and even stuck them back in the oven to make sure they are dried again after painting. I have also stopped storing them in the loft, and they now live in a carboard box under the bed.

I do wonder if it's the kids paint not sealing them, I have some I've done with artist's acrylic (cheep home bargains type) which have lasted years and years.

They absorb any moisture in the air because of the salt content. You need to dry them to within an inch of their lives and once very dry again after painting, varnish them with several coats of something like polyurethane varnish. Then store them somewhere very dry and maybe warm.

Just thought about the other post above - yes as acrylic paint is 'plasticky' and the kids paint probably isnt if it's a kind of poster paint.

Ah right, I think last year we did ours at a toddler group and it was just kids paint so perhaps some varnish then. I wonder whether I can rescue this one and put it back in the oven to try it back out and then varnish it. Thanks