Supplies:
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 cup of salt
- Natural Earth Paint Kit
- Individual Natural Earth Paint Packet in Black
- 1/2 cup of Water
- Rolling Pin
- Parchment paper
- Cookie sheet
- Heart shaped cookie cutter
- Straw
- Twine or Ribbon
We made the recipe twice so we could have one ball of blue salt dough and one ball of green salt dough.
Start with mixing flour, salt, and either the blue or the green pigments. You'll need about 1 tablespoon of pigment per batch.
Stir until well mixed, the color should be blended through out.
Add water and stir. The mixture may seem a little dry, if this is the case just add a little bit of water at a time, stir in between the addition of water.
Once the mixture is moist enough it will come together and form a ball. It should not be wet enough that it sticks to your hand when you touch it. If you find yours is sticking, just add a little more flour until it isn't sticking anymore.
Place your parchment paper down on your work station. We flipped over a bowl and traced around it with a marker to form a circle as a guide. Grab a handful of blue dough and start pulling chucks off and placing it within the circle. Then repeat with the green dough.
Once you've placed your dough in the circle it's time to squish it all together to form our Earth!
Dip your finger in water and rub along the cracks to blend the edges together. Place another piece of parchment paper on top of your Earth and gently roll along the top to allow more blending to occur. It will start to look like our beautiful planet from space!
Now place hand in the center of the Earth and press down firmly. Slowly pull hand up and off the dough. A perfect hand print will be left in it's place.
It's time to add our heart shape to the center of the hand print.
Another option if your hand is to big **cough** mom or dad **cough** you can skip the hand print and use a larger heart shape instead.
Remember to use the straw to create holes in the top of the Earth and in the hearts, this way we can hang them once they are dry.
If you live in a warm and dry area you could probably get away with setting these out in the sun for a day or two to dry naturally. We however, live in the Pacific Northwest and on the coast, so it is very wet here currently. We opted to bake ours. We baked them at 200 degrees Fahrenheit for 3 hours. To get a dome shape, bake on parchment paper on the bottom of a glass bowl. Once they are baked and cooled let the painting begin.
Add water to the black Natural Earth Paint to get a nice consistency for painting letters. Add "Happy Earth Day" or "Peace, Love, Harmony" or "We LOVE our planet". The options are endless. When the paint is dry flip it over and adhere your favorite picture to the back, so it can be seen through the heart. Then add your favorite ribbon or twine to hang. Here are our finished products. Hope you have as much as my kiddos and I had while we created our projects and talked about the importance of Earth Day!
Interested in more crafts featuring Natural Earth Paint products? Visit our Nature Crafts DIY page!
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