Hand Crafts

Now that the kids are back in school, the need for hanging things on the fridge has returned. Why not make your own magnets such as these salt dough leaf refrigerator magnets and hang precious artwork and those A+ papers with? A fun project for any age!

What you'll need:

• Leaf shaped cookie cutters
• Acrylic paint in red, yellow, green, orange and brown
• Paint brush
• Toothpick
• Acrylic spray sealer, matte
• ½” round magnets
• Hot glue gun

How to make it:

1. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.
2. Mix together, salt, flour, and water until a 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 different sized cookie cutters to create as many shapes and sizes of leaves that you want.
6. For smaller children, use a single shape to make it easier at painting time. For older children, you can double up and even triple some of the leaves for a 3D affect as we did (see photo).
7. If desired, use the toothpick to draw lines in the leaves.
8. Place all leaves onto an ungreased cookie sheet and place into the preheated oven.
9. Bake for two hours.
10. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
11. Paint with acrylic paints and spray finished leaves with acrylic sealer.
12. Hot glue a round magnet to the back of each leaf and hang on the fridge!

Tips:

• Parents should not allow small children to handle a glue gun as burns can occur. Older children should be closely supervised if allowed to handle themselves.
• Instead of a toothpick you can use the sharp edge and point of a small kitchen paring knife, but again, only parents should handle these types of utensils.
• Salt dough will not keep for a later project, it will get hard and crack. Depending on how many ornaments you plan to make, you can either halve the recipe or double it.

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