h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Salt dough christmas decorations - A87725497
Author: minichessemouse Ace, Mod, Guru. - U8131912

Hi this is rather unfinished, but i have my second batch of the day in the oven cooking to perfection.

mini

hi mini

Yes, I agree, this is a bit unfinished! Can you see the beginning of your sentences well enough to capitalise the first letters?

Your title needs to have capital letters on all the words, as well.

Christmas needs to be capitalised.

making many things including christmas decorations

Can you suggest a few sorts of things? as in what else might salt dough be shaped into? Also, what will you do with the Christmas decorations made out of salt dough? are they for hanging on the tree, or used for table decorations for instance.

I'll let other people have a read, and no doubt there will be other suggestions for you.


Good luck!

Capital letters added (i'm good at forgetting those when I'm typing in a hurry)

A few other salt dough ideas added to the beginning too.

mini

You might want to mention one or more of these points:

Salt dough won't work too well if the piece is too thick. For large pieces, wad up some aluminum foil and form the piece around it. (Caution: don't use that pesky aluminium foil, because the extra i causes no end of trouble during baking. )

If you plan to decorate a tree with your salt dough creations, you'll want to figure out how you want to suspend them before you let the dough dry. You can form a hole in the piece through which some ribbon or twine can be threaded. Or, you can embed a wire in the dough. (I made some salt dough Christmas decorations with bent paperclips embedded in them, back when Mister Nerd and I were first married. The decorations are holding up quite well.)

There is a Play Dough entry already in the Guide A1134073, and you might want to link to it as an alternate recipe. Personally, I agree with you - flour, salt and water are quite enough in the way of ingredients. I usually bake items at 275F for as long as an hour, or until the pieces starts to turn golden brown.

I've never been entirely satisfied with dying salt dough creations, and usually paint them instead.

There's also an entry on the history of Christmas decorations - A665949 you might want to link to.

Capitalize the o in "once you have your dough to your preferred colour and consistency you can begin to make your decorations. Cookie cutters, butter knives, and toothpicks or cocktail sticks are useful at this stage."


Replace it's with its in "Due to it's doughy nature shapes are easy to make using butter knives and fingers."

I can't recommend the air drying in a moist climate. Baking is the way to go.

I'll have a go at these with my toddler and see if there's anything to give you feedback on there! Today, even, if I can emember where I hid the salt.

In the meantime, if anyone else is thinking of having a go, or will/ has already made tree decorations, then please consider the Tree Ornaments Challenge in Create. We need your photos to dress the h2g2 tree.

A87725622

Happy Nerd, I'm looking at you!

Great entry, and very seasonal. Seems like an easy method to follow, but no doubt Solnushka will give you some valuable feedback.

Right, now let's look at some suggested tweaks:

"or just plain old models. One thing" - I've split up that long opening sentence, because it runs on a bit.

"Combine the ingredients" - change there to the.

"together in a bowl. The consistency" - Again, I'd split this sentence here. But I'm into short sentences. Nowadays anyway. I used to write comma-peppered paragraphs.

"At this stage you can colour" - Shuffled the word order at the start of this paragraph.

"To do this make a small well within the dough and adding a few drops of your required colour then mixing the dough together, this will produce a marbled effect. to produce a more consistent colour the food colouring should be added to the water before mixing with the flour and salt. " - Take another look at this paragraph for me, would you? It doesn't quite read right, and could be a bit clearer. Let me know if you'd like advice.

"Once your dough is your preferred colour and consistency, you can begin to make your decorations." - Just tweaked this sentence for you, and added a capital letter.

"cutters, and designs drawn onto them" - Added an and, changed these to them.

"Due to its doughy nature" - Rogue apostrophe eliminated.

"Oven baking takes around 40" - Added baking.

"Once the paint is dry" - Capital O.

Great entry Mini, and I can't wait to see what Solnushka comes up with. Any chance at a photo to add to the entry?

What do you mean did it for me Mr603?

Yes yes will take pictures of mine once they are finished , might even ask the cub-scouts if I can take pictures of theirs.

mini

In all my recommendations (except the big paragraph), I've provided you with amended text, so you can drop it in if you agree with it!

Ooh, I remember this stuff. Fun for little hands.

Could I suggest a snappy first sentence?

Like, maybe, 'The holiday season brings out our creative side.'

Or, 'Want to take a more hands-on approach to decorating this season?'

Maybe somebody else can come up with a better hook.

We are about half way through the process - it is certainly providing us with lots of crafting, which is fab so thanks for this, because it is just the right amount of difficulty and with interestingly different stages for my 3 year old. I'm enjoying myself too and have my own project.

Tomorrow, glitter!

We mostly did cut out shapes with cookie cutters although if you just do a circle and then let the toddler at them with a knife and fork, you get some good bauble type things.


So, feedback. Putting the food colouring in with the water does indeed work a treat. Good tip about making the ribbon/ string hole before you dry them. They take bog standard poster paint very well, which is an important thing to know.

Is that amount of salt necessary? My hands still haven't recovered, and I'm not usually prone to dry skin.

In the post it mentions sticking shapes together before the baking stage. Ummm, how?

Other than that, and I'm sue you have this under control, Mini, but what I'd like is a picture/ pictures showing a good range of the different shapes/objects you can make as inspriration.

What is 'bog standard poster paint'?

poster paint is a cheap version of gouache, mostly aimed at children, it tends to be non-toxic and also washable from clothes, although this is guaranteed.

He he. I think we ae being divided by a single language here.

'bog standard' means 'absolutely unremarkable in every way'. O do not know why.

'Poster paint' is the sort of paint you let kids use.

smlpost!

Thanks, both.

I, er, did know what poster paint was...I just wondered why it was being produced in a bog, and whether it involved peat...

Does 'bog' in US English also mean 'toilet' like it does for us?

No. It's just a geographical feature mostly associated with the Ould Sod.

off topic for salt dough, but a good article about 'bog standard'

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/bog-standard.html


Contains Steven Fry, so I believe every bit.

No idea it was that recent. How odd. I'm sure I use it a lot.

We used to say 'dime-store'. As in 'dime-store decorations'.