If you are like me and love the tiny hands and feet of your babies, this will be a great keepsake for you to look upon when the kids are all grown up,.
This week, I am sharing with you on the DIY print molds I did for my kids. Yeah, you know how they sell those ridiculously expensive plaster casting kits in the shops, I just found an easier and cheaper way to do it at home.
What you need:
1) 2 cups flour
2) 2 cups fine salt
3) 1 cup water
4) Ribbons
5) Acrylic paint
6) Embellishments of your choice
*I used my Philips Jamie Oliver food processor to knead the dough. Hands, you can take a rest!
Firstly, mix the salt and flour in a large bowl. Next, pour in half of the water. If you wish to, you could add some food colouring to the water before mixing it with the dry ingredients. My advice is to slowly add in the rest of the water until you achieve the right consistency and knead till you get a nice dough.
For me, this was a great chance to try out the kneading tool from my Philips JO Food Processor. Let's just say both Angel and I were deeply fascinated to see our mixture turn from batter to bits to ball in just minutes.
All we needed to do was pour in everything into the food processor, turn
the knob to 1, scrap the sides when needed and voila, we had the
perfect dough! I guess it's going to be so much easier making bread and mee hoon kuey from now on! Woohoo!
Take half the dough and roll it to an uniform thickness of around 1.5cm. If you do not have a rolling pin at home like me, one tip I learnt from a baking friend is to use a roll of cling wrap! It works just as nicely and all you have to do to clean it up is to tear off one round of cling wrap, how convenient!
Now for the fun part! Cut the dough into your desired shape and get your little ones to make their handprints or footprints! Remember to press firmly but not to exert too much strength or the dough will become too thin. The great thing about salt dough is that you can just roll it up and do it all over again. And again. And again.
For a personalised touch, use a toothpick to add in the name, date, age or any wording you like. If you intend to hang the molds, remember to add in a hole (I did this with a pencil) before you proceed.
Once you are happy with your mold creations, bake them at 125
ºC in the oven to dry. The length of time varies depending on the thickness and size of your mold and can take from 1 hour for thin pieces to over 4 hours for thicker ones. Keep an eye on them and remove them when they are completely dry.
Leave the molds for 24 hours and after that, you can feel free to paint and decorate them or if you prefer, leave them as they are.
We added a dash of colours on our molds just to spice things up a little. How do you like our creations?
Add in some ribbons and these molds will make great hanging decorations in the house! I must say they are not the best-looking molds out there and the prints could have been done better. Still, this was our first attempt and we were happy with the outcome.
Yay! Now I get to keep those adorable prints for life!
For more kids crafts and DIY tutorials, visit my gallery here.
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To fellow bloggers who have a fun craft session, DIY tip or creative
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include it in your post/sidebar and add your link
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limit when it comes to creativity!
Wow, such a great idea, and definitely cheaper than those kits sold in the shops. Maybe I'll try it with my baby when he's old enough to help out and decorate his own piece. :)
ReplyDeleteWow, what a great idea using your food processor. Who would have thought. Love all your personalised craft ideas!
ReplyDeleteLove this idea! What a great way to capture these precious little handprints and footprints! Hehe baby batman just in time for this linky party!
ReplyDeleteFt