Salt Dough Decorations

Following on from my recent blog for home-made play dough I decided to find my Mums' Salt Dough recipe and make some decorations for the Christmas tree. They make simple, effective baubles that you can keep year on year; just make sure you paint them well and store them in a dry place. This is a great activity to get the kids involved in and one they will remember for the rest of their lives.

You'll need a few simple things:

1 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Salt
1/2 Cup Water
Acrylic Paints
Glitter
Ribbon/Wire

Mixing Bowl
Cookie cutters
Baking tray
Knitting needle or skewer

Salt dough really couldn't be easier, you simply put the salt and flour in a mixing bowl and gradually add the water while mixing with your hand.

When all the water is added you knead the dough for 10 minutes to mix it well and to make the dough more elastic.

Once this is done you can set up your work station to roll out the dough and cut out shapes using the cookie cutters. If you're making these with kids try putting their dough on a tray and sit them at the kitchen table where they will be able to sit comfortably; your kitchen counters may be a little too high for them to work from.

You may need a palette knife or fish slice to lift the delicate shapes.
Don't forget to use a knitting needle to poke a hole to hang the decorations by before they get too dry.

Once you've cut your decorations out, lay them on a baking tray to dry. You can either leave them in a warm dry place to dry hard which will take a couple of days or you can put them in the oven at a very low temperature for a few hours. If you notice they are going a little brown you should cover them with tin foil until they are dried thoroughly.

Now they are ready to decorate in any way you can think of! So get creative with paints, glitter, sequins or anything else you can stick onto your shapes. Don't forget to lay down newspaper first, especially if the kiddies are helping and be sure that you're around to supervise them.

Once they are dry you can thread your ribbon or wire through the hole and have fun finding places to hang them.

Have a very happy Christmas everyone!

Ruthie

Emergency Play-Dough for visiting kids

I don't have children of my own so am fairly unprepared for entertaining the kids of visiting friends. One such visit proved that necessity is indeed the mother of invention or rather creation in my case. I remembered my own Mum making us salt dough to play with. We would then bake the dough shapes we'd made and paint or varnish them but I wanted something brighter and more immediate - so I looked for a Play-dough recipe. Here's what I made...

What you'll need:

1 Cup flour (I used plain)
1/2 Cup Table Salt
1 Cup Water (I used warm to speed things up)
1 Tablespoon Veg or Sunflower Oil
2 teaspoons Cream of Tartar
Food colouring, drop by drop

Plus a large non-stick pan
Measuring cups
Wooden Spoon
Plastic tray or wipeable surface to mix colouring
Empty plastic jars
Apron

Add all ingredients apart from the food colouring to the  non-stick pan and turn on the heat to a medium  temp.

Lumpy now but keep stirring...

The mix will look lumpy and goopy at first but it quickly comes together and the lumps get knocked out as you mix.

Now it's ready to add the colour

You'll know it's ready when the dough forms a ball and becomes impossible to mix any more.

Remember to use a tray

Now you can divide it into however many colours you want to make.

Make a well before adding colour

Make a dimple in the dough and add drops of food colouring and knead in until you have the colour you'd like.

Knead the colour in well

I like to use rubber gloves for this part because the food colouring can get under your nails. It doesn't stain hands once it's mixed in properly so it's safe to let your child loose with.

Ready to be played with

You'll eventually have a lovely soft ball of dough. Ready to be played with by little ones or big kids alike.
Just make sure they play on a table or tray because play-dough isn't great for carpets!

Keeps fresh for ages if kept sealed

Home made play-dough really is so much nicer than the  shop bought stuff. It's totally edible so safe to leave small children to play with, though I can guarantee they won't want to eat much because of the high salt content. You could add some essential oil if you want to make it smell nice too.
Remember to supply cookie cutters and a rolling pin and go have some fun!

It's also great for stress relief, so you'll find everyone reaching for the pot to have a go after a long day. Get the whole family involved and try making up games to play like 3D Pictionary - Fun to play when the grown ups get together for Mulled Wine and Mince pies.

Have a fun-tastic festive season!

Ruthie

Getting ahead of the game!

In a previous blog we talked about collecting and drying the autumn leaves to use for fab cards and gift tags.  That is possibly now past as the leaves are getting a bit soggy.

So next step for a natural Xmas is the branches and twigs you might want to use to create flower arrangements, hang decorations on or wrap lights around.  Before too much longer start to find those twigs and branches.  You might be doing some end of year gardening or out for a walk, so keep your eyes open.

Collect them now before they get mossy and slimy, giving them time to dry out so you can paint or spray them in good time for Xmas.  You will struggle to paint or spray onto damp wood, so it is important to get now and let dry fully. Just hang or place somewhere in a dry atmosphere.

Remember that your twiggy creations can last long after Christmas.  Use vases, fine twine or florists dry pack to hold your twigs and branches.  Lots if tiny little LED light sets on sale now, allowing you to make extra special decorations for a tiny cost and enjoy the extra bonus of having created something yourself.

Go off and have fun, stay safe and keep away from fire.

SEEK IT OUT: Changing the world a stitch at a time

Grown up bonfire or Halloween...

There are all the obvious duties around Halloween and Bonfire night, pumpkins to hollow out, bonfires to build but what can you do for a grown up party or to make something from the efforts you put in for the kids?

• Keep the pulp from the pumpkin, no time, freeze and use for soup base later.  Make a rich soup by adding to the pumpkin, chopped peeled potatoes, celery and chicken or veg stock, seasoning, dash of chilli paste, plus a couple of bay leaves.  Cook till soft, remove bay leaves, blend till smooth, adjust seasoning.  Re heat gently adding a little cream or crème fraîche, stir well and serve with crusty bread and hunks of farmhouse cheese.  Warming, spicy and delicious.

• Buy orange and black felt to make your own little pumpkin's, add some cloves to the stuffing to make some grown up decorations to hang up, which also smell so sweet.  Find an old slim branch, silver birch is a good, put this in a tall vase and hang your decorations on the branch or make into a mini string of pumpkin bunting.

• Terrified of losing a filling, skip the bonfire toffee and make/buy a rich sticky toffee pudding instead to serve up to the night time revellers. 

• Drivers amongst the party goers then non-alcoholic mulled wine is nice.  Replace the wine with cranberry juice, add a dash of orange juice, a sachet of mulled spices and heat gently.  Un-sweetened apple juice with shards of peeled root ginger, slices of fresh lemon and a slug of honey, heated also makes a fab winter drink.  Do not like ginger use a cinnamon stick instead.  Mulled wine spice sachets come in little boxes containing several, tea bag like, bags. Get them from the herb and spices display in larger supermarkets.

• In parts of the North of England a tradition on Bonfire Night is hot pork pie served with mushy peas.  Get the best pork pie(s) you can afford and heat in the oven till piping hot and the pastry top crisp, then serve with mushy peas. Not keen on mushy peas, then you could serve baked beans. Mushy peas can be found in the frozen section in supermarkets or from your local fish and chip shop.

Never eaten pork pie hot, well you're missing something lovely.  The better the pie the better the results, check out local farm shops, traditional butchers and farmers markets for those real gems.  Not ideal for those on a diet but as a once in a while treat it is fantastic. 

Now you have no excuse than to party hard - enjoy!


SEEK IT OUT: Changing the world a stitch at a time

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