Thinner than s alt dough and easier to handle than Fimo clay, this recipe can be used to make beautiful decorations with the children.
Essential Ingredients
First gather the ingredients and materials you will need. You will need:
- ½ cup cornstarch
- 1 cup baking soda
- ¾ cup of water
You will also need a rolling pin, cauldron, wooden spoon, cookie cutter, rolling surface, parchment paper, and cookie sheet.
Cook the dough
Combine your three ingredients in a small pot over medium heat. You will need to stir constantly until the batter thickens slightly. Then place the ball of dough obtained in a bowl and cover the bowl with a damp cloth until the dough has cooled, i.e. about five minutes.
Roll the dough
Once the dough has cooled down a bit. Roll it on a clean surface where it won't stick. To ensure that the pieces do not crack or bend during cooking, it is necessary to keep a thickness of at least two millimeters.
Cut out with cookie cutter
Once done, cut out shapes with cookie cutters. If you have hearts, great, otherwise you can use glasses or cans to get medallions on which you can paint hearts or engrave initials, like lovers do on a tree.
Add details
This step can precede or follow baking. If you want to stamp designs and drill holes to hang your ornaments from branches or plants, you must do this before the pieces harden. If you want to paint with gouache or spray paint, add polka dots, stickers or other details on the dough, that will be after baking.
Baking and Sanding
In an oven preheated to 250°F, bake your pieces for about 45 minutes. Ideally, you should check the oven often to replace the curling ends with a stick and to prevent the corners from browning from overcooking. Once baked, allow your pieces to cool and lightly sand the sides with fine sandpaper to remove any uneven edges.
Hang or glue
You can now hang your hearts in branches arranged in a beautiful vase, plant or other decorative object with pink, red, black ribbonor white. If you want, you can also glue them to a magnet or a barrette, or slip them into a string to make a Valentine's Day necklace.
A few things
You may encounter difficulties along the way, but nothing serious enough to ruin your project. Here are some tips to make your life easier.
- To have a larger clean surface for rolling hearts, use a plastic tablecloth. It will be easier to clean and very practical if you do this craft with several children.
- Don't put the cornstarch away too quickly! You will need to add a little more if your dough is too sticky to roll.
- The pearlescent powders found in DIY stores give beautiful results on finished pieces.
- To make dots on your hearts, you can dip the pencil eraser in the paint and use it as a stamp. You can create birthday, Easter, back to school and Halloween decorations with this recipe and use it in the Christmas tree to illustrate the year that has just passed.
