Colorful Salt Dough Handprints

This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and Sharpie Paint Marker, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #SharpiePaintCreate http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV

Not to sound to clique, but time really does fly when you are having babies.  

And not only that, but a year feels so much more significant now in these baby/toddler years than it seemed in my single days.  

I mean, I’m still wearing a lot of the same clothes I wore in high school.  

Meanwhile, these little ones are moving through sizes every couple of weeks, learning to walk and talk and think and reason right before my eyes.

Perhaps this is why I am obsessed with making year markers.

And never do I feel the need to mark time more than when I have a tiny baby.

They are a crazy bunch of kids, but life with them is pretty great.

Josie is only 4 weeks old and she has already gone through 2 sizes of clothing!  

I don’t love all of the things that go along with the baby days (night feedings, constant holding, near-constant feeding…) but my goodness, they grow fast!  

And I wanted to do something simple (that I could mostly manage with one arm while holding a baby!) to capture not only how little my baby is, but the size of each of the kids during this tiny moment in time.  

I also wanted the project to be super colorful!

The solution, Salt Dough Hand Prints colored with Sharpie Oil-Based Paint Markers (because when you are managing this crew, paint is a nightmare).

Have you played around with salt dough before?  

I love crafting with salt dough because it’s cheap, I usually have everything I need right in my pantry and it takes paint (or paint markers) really well.

To make the salt dough mix together:

• 1 cup salt
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup warm water

Mix the ingredients in a bowl until the salt is pretty much broken down and the dough is relatively smooth.  

Since I was making 4 circles, some of them large, I doubled this recipe.

Next, divide the dough up and flatten.  

I made my dough into circles slightly bigger than each child’s hand.  

I tried to make them nearly perfect circles, but when the kids got their hands on them, literally, that was altered.  

Each of my circles was roughly a centimeter thick.  

The thicker your salt dough, the longer it will take to bake.  

It is also important to make them all relatively the same thickness so they are done baking at the same time.

And now the fun part (or the tricky part, depending on the age of your kids).  

Have each child press their hand into a circle of dough.  Make sure they press hard enough to leave a clear imprint.

And, if you have a wild 2-year-old, like I do, best of luck to you!  

Dominic was determined to smash that dough every time he got near it!  

We did lots of re-rolling and trying again until we finally called it good enough!  

I also used a knife to add a hole at the top of each circle so that I could hang them.  

The kids really want them hung in their room.

Now it is time to bake.  

Place all of the handprints onto a cookie sheet and bake at 250 degrees until the circles are hard and dry.  

Mine took about 3 hours, but this will vary based on thickness.

Once the salt dough handprints are dry it’s time to break out the Sharpie Oil-Based Paint Markers.

Okay, pause.

Have you tried these markers before?  

The kids and I picked up two packs of Sharpie Paint Markers at Michaels (which are buying one get one 50% off June 5th through 11th and again June 19th through 25th while supplies last).

For busy, crafty moms like me, they are a GAMECHANGER.  

Seriously.  

I love adding color and painting my little projects but lately, it has been impossible.  

Painting involves hauling out the brushes, the paint, the scrap paper…

And then if I get interrupted 5 minutes in (which I ALWAYS do) I end up throwing away the paint and having to go through the whole mess again another time.

Enter paint markers.

They mark opaque and glossy on light and dark surfaces.  

It will cover just about ANY SURFACE and work great on Salt Dough, which is a bit of a tricky surface.

They resist water and don’t fade.  

It basically will work on anything and stay beautiful.  

Be sure to check your local newspaper and online for Michaels coupons while supplies last!

And check out the results.  

They cover as well, if not better than paint.  

I pop off the cap and get to work.  

And, when I get interrupted I can simply cap the marker and come back to it when I get a chance.  Love it.

I decided to color the handprint one color and the outside another, just to make them super bold.  

Also, I added each child’s name in the center of their hands with a black marker as well.  

I love how they turned out!

The kids are in love with these little salt dough creations as well.  

They love placing their hands on top of each handprint and trying to figure out which one is theirs.  

I think this will be even more fun as they have grown and are able to marvel at evidence that they actually are getting bigger.  

How fun, right?!?

I have a feeling we will be recreating this craft every once in a while.  

The one thing I know for sure is that the kids will keep growing and very soon I will be pining for these years when they were all small.

Sigh.

Thanks for being here!

Nancy