A Thousand Words Thursday 10-22-2009

Remember when I said I did a craft when I was sick. Loopy-dopey? Well here it is, Salt Dough Pumpkins. Aren’t they adorable? On that kindergarten scale? I really love crafts and I when I saw this on Craftbits.com I couldn’t resist.

Here is their original instructions with my thoughts added but please visit Craftbits.com as they have other great projects and run cool contests as well.

1 cup salt

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup water

orange acrylic paint (I had to mix a few to get the right color)
brown acrylic paint
green acrylic paint

paintbrush (medium and small)
acrylic sealer/finisher gloss spray

toothpicks, broken or cut in half

Preheat oven to 250 F. Mix together, salt, flour, and water until a dough is formed. Knead the dough on a floured surface until the mixture is elastic and smooth. If dough is too sticky, sprinkle with flour, continue to do so until stickiness is gone. BE CAREFUL. Do not add too much flour, this will dry out the dough and will cause it to crack before you get a chance to bake it.

Roll dough in your hands to form different sized balls. Line them up on a cookie sheet, touching each other so that they will be one piece after baking. Get creative. I made a few pumpkins lay on their side and mixed and matched the sizes. However work quickly. This dries rather fast. Use a toothpick to draw lines on the pumpkins.

Insert toothpick halves, point size down, into the top center of the pumpkin to create the stem. Be sure to do this step BEFORE baking.

Bake for approximately 2 - 2.5 hours. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely. For best results, allow to cool and dry overnight, or for at least 4 hours.

Paint pumpkins with two coats of orange paint (if needed) allowing to dry in between coats. Then use the brown paint to paint in the lines of the pumpkin to create shadow and depth. Lastly paint the stems green. When dry, spray with a few coats of sealer/finisher. The more coats the glossier. Let dry.

One batch made 10 groups of four pumpkins. I do not advise doing the molding on cough suppressant as everything is in slow motion. However, painting them along side a glass of sangria is advised.

My girls loved the pumpkins. It took me awhile to finish and every time they saw me working on them they would have to sit at the table with me. Kaitlyn would ask over and over “what dis?” as she has not mastered her th’s. I answer “pumpkins.” Immediately followed by her saying “num, num.”

For more A Thousand Words Thursday go to Cheaper Than Therapy.