This is another fun idea for kids which was inspired by my sister. She actually made clay ornaments for Christmas, her son painted them, and they used them as gift toppers. I was so impressed with the way they turned out. But, since Christmas is over, I thought we would use the same recipe and make little heart trinkets for Valentine's day. But, you don't need a special occasion to make these. It is one of those great boredom busters that you can put together in minutes and keep your kids entertained for an hour or more.
You can make as much or as little as you want to.
Here is the recipe:
1 part Salt
2 parts Flour
1 part Water
Glitter & Paint (Optional)
Mix up the ingredients until they are the consistency of a bread or pizza dough. If it feels too dry, add a little bit of water. Or, if it seems too sticky, add a little more flour and salt (in equal parts).
If you leave it out, it will dry hard, so if you're saving it for another day, be sure to store it in a sealed container in the refrigerator. We purposely left ours out to dry in the air, but you can also bake it in the oven at 250 degrees until it hardens.
Then, once it's dry, you can paint it, and decorate it any way you want. Since we were letting ours air dry, we actually mixed red glitter into the clay which made it even more fun for the kids. (If you have small kids who put things in their mouths, you probably don't want glitter in your mixture.) But, if you had glitter to the clay itself, it is so pretty, you really don't need to paint your ornaments.
Another way to Play:
I left the salt on the table, and when I wasn't looking, my little guy poured a great big mound of salt onto his plate with his clay. It was actually kind of cool, because the more salt you mix in, it becomes sort of a sandy texture. He had so much fun with this dryer mixture, and taught me how to make homemade sand.