I used to think I was pretty good at doing crafts with my kids. They were happy and we had fun things to hang on their walls. Of course that is all that matters. But since delving into the world of blogging and finding all these moms that do amazing crafts with beautiful photos, I’ve been re-thinking my craft prowess. Instead, I’ve decided to hand over the reigns to mom’s who really know what they are doing.

I’m really happy to have my first crafting guest post by a fellow mom and friend. She will be teaching us a simple, inexpensive and fun craft that you can do with the kids.

Sophia Hassanali is a wife, mom and Kindergarten teacher. Her son Kamran is 2 years old and they are expecting their second child in May 2014. Sophia has been teaching Kindergarten in Surrey for six years and she loves every minute of it!  Once her son was born, she switched from working full-time to part time so she could also enjoy time with him at home. Sophia is very excited to be writing her first blog post here on The Write Balance. As a mom and a teacher, she is always looking for easy and inexpensive art projects to do and she is happy to share this one with you all.

Ornaments, keepsakes, gift tags…what ever you want to use them for, Salt Dough cut-outs are fun, inexpensive and easy to do by parents and kids of all ages.

I made Salt Dough Christmas ornaments for the first time last year with my Kindergarten class and they were a hit. The dough was simple to make and the students loved cutting out shapes and painting them. Since it’s so easy to do at home, I thought I would share the recipe here and a few ideas on what to make with it. Salt Dough is not just for Christmas.

Ingredients:
1 cup salt
2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup warm water

Directions:
Place all the dry ingredients in a bowl and add the warm water ½ a cup at a time.

Roll out the dough and then cut into whatever shapes you like. My son really enjoyed rolling out the dough and trying out the different cutouts.

If you are making hanging ornaments or gift tags be sure to make a small hole in the salt dough so you can tie a ribbon.

Once you are done cutting out your shapes you can bake the salt dough at 300 degrees for 30 minutes or until the dough is dried out and hard. Last year, I did not bake them with my students, I simply let them dry out on a table over the weekend and this worked perfectly.

When the cut-outs are completely dry, you can decorate them and your kids can really have fun and be creative. Acrylic paint, glitter and felts all work well on salt dough.

Now wasn’t that easy?! I will definitely be trying it out with the kids! What’s your favourite holiday craft?