This is another project I have wanted to do with my son. I have such nice memories of creating ornaments with my family. Since I am addicted to Pinterest, I looked there first. I found a wonderful recipe that also uses cornstarch. I copied it down to use the next day. I even tagged a friend of mine, so she could see the recipe and how their creations were decorated. My friend Martha asked me for the recipe, so I tried to tag her on Pinterest, I now, can't find the recipe. I can find the pictures, but the link is to something unrelated. So I am going to give the recipe, but I can not give the credit to whom deserves it. To the right, is the picture, but no link to the author. When I was a kid, my mom fixed us some salt dough. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I had so much fun making salt dough ornaments. In fact, the picture to the left are some of those ornaments. Notice the round ornament in the upper left, that was my contribution.
The next day I cooked up this recipe and it worked beautifully. The first batch of dough turned out kind of whitish, but the second batch yellowed. I don't know if this was because I used the same pot I used the first time, or if maybe I used too much salt? No matter, they baked up beautifully and we had a wonderful time making these ornaments. My friend, John, came over to help us make some very creative creations. He even made a pacman! My son wants to make some more, he really enjoyed himself.
Cornstarch Salt Clay:
2/3 cup salt
1/3 cup baking soda
1/2 cup corn starch
How to:
Mix salt and soda with 1/3 cup water and bring to boil
In a small bowl combine cornstarch and 1/4 cup water stir well (use a fork)
When the salt and soda reach boiling, remove from heat
Add the cornstarch mixture and stir vigorously for 1/2 minutes until a ball forms
Put ball of dough on wax paper to cool
Knead well once it's cool enough to handle. DO NOT STORE USE IMMEDIATELY
I didn't try it, but you could try adding food coloring to make colored creations.
I baked at 195 for 4 hours, 2 the night we made them, then left them in the heated oven overnight. The next morning, the tops were hard but the bottoms were not, so I turned them over and baked the for 2 more hours.
Buttons
Strings of beads
Bedazzler crystals
Screws
Pipe Cleaners
Any left over beads, buttons, Christmas lights, screws, nuts bolts and whatever your imagination comes up with.
We used the pipe cleaner as hangers for some of the ornaments. Press into dough before it dries
Some of our buttons came off, so I "gorilla" glued them back on.