Here is a fun and easy afternoon kids craft idea - salt dough ornaments with a twist. Instead of waiting a day or two for them to set, or baking them, you can microwave these ones to set them!
Supplies:
4 cups of flour
1 cup of salt
1-1/2 cups of hot water
holiday shaped cookie cutters
decorations - glitter, paint, beads, etc.
Makes about 2 dozen ornaments
Mix the salt into the water until disolved, then add the flour and mix together well.
You can divide into smaller amounts and kneed in food colour to make coloured dough, or leave plain if you are going to paint them later.
Roll out to about 1/4" thick, and use Christmas cookie cutters to cut a variety of christmas themed ornaments. Use a toothpick to make a hole for hanging, being sure to make the hole a little larger than you will want as they tend to close when baking.
Using a microwave-safe plate (not paper or cardboard), microwave a plate of your ornaments for 1 to 4 minutes, increasing the time by 1 minute increments and keeping a close eye on the microwave as the ornaments bake. Microwave power levels differ greatly, so use high power in a less-powerful oven, but lower it if your oven tends to heat things very quickly. You don't want to risk a fire! Let the ornaments cool completely before decorating.
Paint and add glitter and other decorations as you like once you have finished baking them. Once the paint has dried, you will need to varnish them to protect the ornaments from moisture which will cause them to soften and fall apart with time.
