Salt Dough Footprint Keepsakes

 

These little footprints were very easy and very cheap.

They make perfect keepsake gifts for Christmas,fathers/mothers day, Etc.

We made ours for Christmas that can be tree ornaments or even hung on the wall.

First you will need :

1 cup of salt

1 cup of plain flour

Half a cup of warm water

Poor everything into a large bowl & knead it until smooth and  stretchy.

This is very important! Or the dough remains sticky and quite granular from the salt.

If it is still too sticky add a bit more flour, if too dry and crumbly then add a tiny touch more water.

                                                              Once dough is knead I divided it into equal parts on to plates the size of my son's feet.

I flatten the dough out and used a bowl to make them into perfect circles.

I also used a cookie cutter for the moon.

Then I had my son tread one foot into the middle of the dough plaques.

Then next with his hands.

 

I used a toothpick to carve M's, M-Q, and 2012 into the dough.

If you want to hang yours on the wall then you need to add a hole with a straw before it goes in the oven like I did in the pictures.

The plaques then went into the oven for 3 hours at  200 degrees F (around 100 degrees C).

 It needs to be on a very low heat for a length of time to thoroughly dry out and harden. If the oven is too hot they will rise and "cook". The thinner the dough and the lower the temperature, the better these will turn out! If they are still doughy in the centre after 3 hours then turn them over and put them back in for another 2 hours.

 

Tomorrow I will post how they came out.

I will also paint them using pearlised acrylic paints.