Big Ideas for Little People: Flour Clay Christmas Decorations
We all know we should do craft with our kids. It's in the rule book. But it seems that every time I try, Tully is interested for 30 seconds (after 20 minutes of preparation) or we have a tantrum because no, Mummy will hold the scissors and you can use the crayons, or we both just get frustrated because we thought it would be more fun or more at his level.
Well yesterday, we had a crafting breakthrough. We made flour clay Christmas decorations! And at every stage, Tully was able and interested. I can't promise it will be like this for you too, maybe it was just the weather, but I definitely recommend giving this one a go if you have toddlers!
You will need:
- 2 Cups Flour
- 1 Cup Salt
- 2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
- 3/4 - 1 Cup Water
Kneed and then roll your clay till it's about half a centimetre or a quarter of an inch thick. Any thicker and your clay may crack in the oven, but you could always experiment with 3D shapes if you wanted to.
Make your desired shapes and stick on grease-proof paper and put holes in the top with a straw.
and pop it into the oven at 100 degrees C or 250 deg F. (We learnt the hard way that my instructions were in imperial and my oven, metric. Burnt to a crisp!!)
Cook for at least an hour. We needed more.
Then you can decorate them! We took ours to playgroup today.
Then, thread a ribbon or string through the hole and you're done!
There's all kinds of personal touches you could make. Hand prints (in the clay or with paint), sparkles, little art works. I think they'd make great gifts for grandparents or kids who might like them plain so they can paint them themselves.
Have you got other ideas you could add, what would you make? Share them with us!