Advent Day 7

We accomplished the salt dough ornaments today. The activity started with Cooper screaming "I don't want to do that with you!!!" I powered through that and he became really engaged in the activity.

Here he is rolling out the dough:

 

It was super easy and fun too. Truth be told, I did almost lose it a couple times. I had hoped that Ellery would nap the whole time, but she didn't, and cried a fussed and wanted to be held. That made the whole experience a bit more complicated. But after a short mama break I got Ellery in the Beco and we had a great time making the ornaments. Tomorrow we will paint them and they will be a little gift for each of Cooper's preschool classmates.

Here is the recipe we used:

What you'll need:

• ½ cup salt
• 1 cup flour
• ½ cup water
• Rolling pin
• Cookie sheet
• Toothpick
• Miniature cookie cutters: star and Christmas tree
• Acrylic paints: green, yellow, and various colors of your choice for tree ornaments
• Glitter glue or glitter paint
• ribbon

How to make it:

1. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.
2. Mix together, salt, flour, and water until dough is formed.
3. Knead the dough on a floured surface until the mixture is elastic and smooth. If dough is too sticky, sprinkle with flour, continue to do so until stickiness is gone. Do not add too much flour, this will dry out the dough and will cause it to crack before you get a chance to bake it.
4. Roll out the dough to about ¼” thick with a rolling pin that has been dusted with flour.
5. Use cookie cutters to cut out as many trees and stars as you want.
6. Use a toothpick to make a hole toward the top of the shape. Poke the toothpick into the shape, then holding toothpick straight up and down, make a circular motion as if you were stirring something. Keep circling until the hole is the size you want.
7. Place all shapes onto an ungreased cookie sheet and place into the preheated oven.
8. Bake for 2 hours.
9. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
10. Paint the trees green and the stars yellow.
11. Use the handle end of the paint brush to dot on ornaments by dipping into paint then dotting onto ornament.
12. When paint is dry, use glitter glue (we used green) or glitter paint (we used gold) to put a sparkling cover coat on your ornaments.
13. When dry, thread ribbon through hole and tie in a knot in the back.
14. Tie onto package.