These seem to be all the rage this year, thanks to Pinterest. With my family especially, we are downscaling Christmas a bit this year…with the exception of Lincoln, of course. We are all flying to and from Florida to visit my Dad. Any extra money is really going towards flights right now.
I could not skip out entirely though. My brother and I are getting my Mom a Keurig because she totally deserves that luxury. She’s going through so much right now, being home and working, while her husband is 1500 miles away. She will probably yell at us for getting it for her, but we really don’t care. She deserves a little something special just for her. Something that will make her day a little brighter.
On the other hand. Having a toddler is ridiculously fun [like you didn’t already know that]. Lincoln is at the age where we can do some fun homemade gifts!!! I for one think a homemade gift is more sentimental than something store bought. And when it comes from a sweet little boy…well, that just makes it all the more special!
Lincoln & I whipped up some salt dough handprints last week. Here’s what I used:
2 cups of flour
1 cup of salt
1 cup of water
You have to knead the dough for awhile to get the right consistency, which is equivalent to play-doh. Next I rolled the dough into four [just about] equal circles. Now came the fun part. Lincoln pressed his hand onto the dough. He was awesome at this. The look of amazement when I pulled his hand up was priceless. I wish someone else was there to get a picture of his face. Pure astonishment!
We put them into the oven at 200 degrees for 2 hours. I think they could have baked maybe 30 minutes longer, so I’ll have to remember that for the future. Here’s what they looked like when they came out…
They were not entirely hardened, so I left them to hang out for 5 days. Last night we painted the dough around the handprint. I wanted to leave the actual handprint as is so you could really see the impression of his hand. I’m really happy with the results…
And on the back I signed Lincoln’s name and 12/2011.
Originally these were meant to be ornaments, but they’re pretty big, and REALLY heavy. I’m thinking we’ll display them with a small easel stand instead.
I am keeping one for ourselves, one is going to my Mom, one to my in laws, and the other we’re bring to Florida with us tomorrow to give to my Dad.
This project was way fun. In fact, I plan on doing it again next week when my niece and nephew come to visit from Tennessee. That way my in laws can receive one from all of their grandchildren. Although my in laws drive me nuts, I try my hardest to be a good decent daughter in law.
If you have little ones, you should definitely try this out! You’ll have just as much fun, if not MORE fun than them 🙂
Thanks for the post.
I love the look of the surrounding painted! I used your recipe and it turned out great. I was able to make the salt really fine first and the result (so far, it's still wet) looks very nice and smooth. The grandmas are going to be thrilled 🙂
I would consider also baking at 200 degrees for one hour. This works with other crafts with salt dough. Although I am not sure if that would ruin the hand print or not….it may spread? Worth a try, instead of waiting days for it to harden. 🙂
Love it! I think I might do mini ornaments as gift tags with just Owen's thumbprint
Great idea me and my kids are making tonight I'm very excited were also doing ornaments this year for Xmas!!!!?