How to make Playdough Christmas Ornaments

On the day before Thanksgiving, when I had so much to get done for our massive FEAST  and my children desperately wanted to play with me too, we brought out the beloved playdough recipe. Together, we made such lovely colored playdough and then they played with it for hours and hours, making all sorts of fun little goodies. You can see our recipe and the cute little guys we made in this post here.

Yesterday, we used a little of this playdough (which we store for ages in the fridge) to make some pretty little Christmas Ornaments.

We rolled each color out flat with a rolling pin.

Then we cut out Christmassy shapes using my Christmas cookie cutters.

Poked a hole in the top of each using a skewer and sprinkled them with glitter.

We used my special vintage glitter that I found at an Estate Sale a while ago... can you see the store price sticker that says that a bottle of glitter costs 19c! Those were the days.

Teddy made a Christmas Tree.

We popped them onto wax paper and then into the oven for an hour at a low temperature of 250 F.

When they came out of the over, we let them cool and then tied a little Christmassy ribbon to hang them with, They are waiting to decorate our Christmas tree :-)

We love their colors and that the glitter sparkles in the winter sun.

 Just a reminder that Fairyfolk is having a Black Friday / Cyber Monday Sale... 10% off everything. Enter the code BLACKFRIDAY11 in the coupon box at Etsy checkout and Etsy will compute your discount for you.

Happy Christmas crafting.
Blessings and magic,
Donni

Homemade Playdough

It's one of those Murphy's Law things (and totally true) that when we have the most to do, that's when our children want us the most. I find that if I spend a little while with them, setting them up in an activity, they'll forget all about needing me and play happily for ages on their own and let me get to all those important  things I so desperately need to do. The trick is in spending the time with them first, before trying to get to my other things. Patience, Mother, patience!

Homemade playdough is one of my fall back activities. We spend half an hour making the playdough and by the time it's ready, they are so invested in it that they play with it for at least an hour or two... good return, I'd say!

So, if you have stuffing to cook, yam to bake and and an apple pie to make, make some playdough with your kiddies first and you'll be able to get all of you Thanksgiving trimmings ready without their needy cries holding you back.

Tips: I put an old table cloth on the floor for us to work on. Playing with the flour is part of the cool part for our kids and it won't be nearly as fun for them (or us) if we are insanely worried that it will spill all over the kitchen. When we are done, I just bunch it up and shake it out outside - no mess at all :-)

This is our favorite (never fail) playdough recipe. I often double it up and keep half in the fridge.

* 3 cups of flour
* 1/2 cups of salt
* 2 tbs cream of Tartar
* 2 tbs vegetable oil
* 2 cups of boiling water

Add the flour, salt and cream of Tartar to a bowl and let your children play 'snow'... ooooo, they love this game. The flour feels so wonderfully soft falling through their hands.

Cream of Tartar can be found with all the other spices at your local grocery store.

Next, add the oil and boiling water. The kids watch as I do this part. I always keep a little of the boiling water aside and add it if I feel like a the dough needs it... when the children have played 'snow' a little of the flour ends up outside the bowl and the dough might not need as much as 2 full cups of boiling water. Stir dough with a wooden spoon until it is cool enough to knead. As the dough cools with kneading, let your children kneed too... working with the warm dough is wonderfully soothing and pleasurable for them.

When the dough is well kneaded, it's ready for playing with. If you would like to add some color to your playdough, now is the time to add a little food coloring.

We divided our dough into 4 and added 4 different colors.

We used a neon color set we found in our local grocery store... blue, yellow, pink and green.

Homemade playdough is such fun to play with, quite different from the store-bought kind. It smells wholesome and just feel so much more natural, really... you'll be amazed.

We often fill a bowl with assorted beans and dried pasta to play with too.

Teddy's little duck.

 Kitty's hedgehog that Teddy fell in love with.

Happy playing.
Blessings and magic,
Donni

Kitty's Tea Party.

Kitty loves to have tea parties with her fury friends. Lately, Mr T has joined in the fun and it is so sweet to see them working together, setting out a fantastic feast for their bears and other beloved Lovies. Recently, Kitty explained that her tea guests sometimes complain that they get tired of eating leaves and sticks and often long for real cakes and cookies. So, today's family craft was making 'real' treats for their tea parties.




We made our tea treats with playdough, baked it to make it hard and then painted it.

Here is our fantastic, hardly-ever-fail playdough recipe.


We filled our mini cupcake tin with playdough to get the cupcake form and then put the dough in mini cupcake liners.


With a candle, we made holes in our 'cupcakes' so that so that 'candles' would fit in them when they were baked (of course, don't bake them with the candles in still , lol).


We also made a few 'cookies' and a slice of cake. We put our playdough treats on a baking sheet and baked them for about an hour at 300F. Feel them to gauge when they are ready... they should be hard and no longer squishy.


We had such fun painting them all sorts of yummy colors. Hmmmmmm, chocolate!


Kitty collected a small stick from the garden to make rainbow sprinkles.

And, Voila!!! Our yummy cupcakes were ready for a tea party.


Mrs Bear was invited and wore her wonderful hat.


The table was set with a rainbow playsilk and all the yummy goodies set out on Kitty's finest china.


Candles were collected for the cupcakes.


Mr T had to try the chocolate cake and decided to leave it for the stuffed animals.


Kitty served them all acorn tea.


A magical tea party was had by all and the cakes and cookies have been stored away for the next grand occasion.

Blessings and magic,
Donni