Friday, October 14, 2011

Halloween Magnets Made From Salt Dough

make your own magnets with salt dough

We love magnets. R has always had a love for magnets and his collection has grown quite a bit. Did we need to add to it? Probably not. But we had fun making these festive magnets anyway!

We started by making the salt dough, and I have to say that R really did this by himself. I told him how much we needed for the recipe, but he did all of the measuring and mixing, rolling and cutting. It really amazes me at how fast he's growing up and how capable he really is.

make your own halloween magnets from salt dough

The Recipe:

2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 cup warm water

Start by mixing the flour and salt. Then slowly mix in the water. We use our hands. It gets lumpy, and gloopey, and sticky before it turns into the dough. R loved that part. Then you turn it out onto a floured surface and roll it thin with a rolling pin. We also flour our rolling pin before hand, and several times during the process so that the dough doesn't stick to it. You don't want it too thin, but the thinner it is, the faster it dries. Ours typically range from 1/4 of an inch to a 1/2 inch.

Making the Magnets:


To set the mood, we listened to our "Wee Sing For Halloween" CD. It was perfect for this activity. We used our Halloween themed cookie cutters, and as R sang along to the songs he would hold up the cookie cutters that went along with it. His own musical puppet show!

A song about a spider came on and he insisted that we make one even though we didn't have a spider cookie cutter. So he decided how he wanted it to look and rolled out the dough for the legs and fangs. I just made sure they were attached to the body securely.

Then we put the cutouts onto cookie tins and popped them in the oven. We let them dry for four hours on 200 degrees F, before checking them. Most of them were done, but a few of the thicker ones were still a bit soft, so we put them back in for another hour.

make your own halloween magnets craft

We waited until the next day to paint the creations. I think he did a wonderful job. I adore his jack-o-lantern faces. After they dried, I covered them with a thin layer of Mod Podge. Next we applied the magnets and googly eyes with hot glue.

Give as Gifts!


We are keeping several of them, but plan to give a bunch away. The adults in our lives will receive a few of the painted ones, and his friends will receive a few of the unpainted. We thought that they might like to paint them instead. We will also include the googly eyes because they are fun!


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13 comments:

  1. We've never worked with salt dough, can you believe that!? I need to do this with my guys! I would love it if you would link up some of your great ideas on my new Monstrously Creative link party! I'm featuring some great ideas this week, and yours could be next! Come join the party!
    Mandi at BBM

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  2. I still haven't worked with salt dough - love that you even made magnets for friends!!

    would love to invite you to link up this idea & any others on my weekly child centered linky party - The Sunday Showcase (open thru Thurs.) - http://momto2poshlildivas.blogspot.com/search/label/Sunday%20Showcase

    Bern

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  3. These are fanTAStic! Love how they turned out. We've never used salt dough either, but we certainly will now! It looks so simple, and Little Crafter would love both steps; making the dough and shapes and painting them. Pinning it for another day! Thanks so much for sharing!

    amy@one artsy mama

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  4. these are super cute! The googly eyes are the perfect touch!

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  5. Thank you so much, Mandi, for inviting me. Your link party is already doing great! You should try it once, at least. :) You might become obsessed like I am currently. Haha

    Bern, thank you for inviting me as well. Already linked up. :)

    Amy, I hope you and your little crafter love it as much as we do. It really is a lot of fun and you can use salt dough for so many different things. Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment. I appreciate it. And thanks for pinning!

    And thank you, MarryAnne. I was wanting to go a little crazy with the googly eyes. The spider would have been covered had it been up to me. Googly eyes are perfect for just about anything, aren't they?

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  6. I love salt dough! and your halloween creations are fantastic!

    Thanks so much for linking to Fun Sparks.

    Emma @sciencesparks

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  7. Thank you, Emma, for the sweet compliment and for hosting a great linky!

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  8. I love love love that picture of your son painting the purple ghost. What a cute boy he is. I also love that he did most everything himself. We haven't don't salt dough in our home, but my mom had me do it a lot growing up. We made magnets too with them. I am excited to try this soon with my kids. Thanks for sharing on Monday Madness. Hope you come back again tomorrow!

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  9. Wow, so cool that you let him make it all by himself - what a great confidence booster! My girls love salt dough, and I love the nostalgia in it. Thanks for linking up!

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  10. Thank you so much for the kind words, Laura. I like him and think he's a cutie. Although, I do get a lot of fake and forced smiles in pictures. Haha. If you do it, please let me know how it goes!

    Brooke, it really is a confidence booster! He's getting very interested in making his own food and crafts and everything in general. When we go grocery shopping he looks at the ingredients list and "reads" his own recipes. I can't believe how fast he's growing up. It sounds cliche, but it's true. Thank you for coming by and reading about our days and commenting. I appreciate it!

    And thank you both for hosting such a great linky!

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  11. Love this idea thanks. Magnets are a favorite in our house but I haven't actually made any yet.

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  12. Thanks Liz. It really is easy and my son loved the process and the outcome. He carried a magnet around with him, making up stories about it, for days afterwards. He was proud that he made them almost entirely by himself.

    Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to comment. I appreciate it!

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  13. So cute! We will be trying these! Thanks for sharing!

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