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Make a Salt Dough Snowman Family

7 January 2011 5,658 views 14 Comments

by heather

If you’ve never made salt dough you are missing out on lots of fun; that goes for kids and adults alike! The beauty of salt dough is that you don’t have to make a great big batch, simply follow the ratio of 1 part salt, 2 parts flour and 1 part water. If you want to make a big batch use 1 cup of salt, 2 cups of flour and 1 cup of water. You’ll have plenty of dough to make a slew of ornaments, pins, magnets or bowl fillers. If you just want to make a few items, use tablespoons instead of cups! There’s no measurement rule.

For this salt dough snowman family, I’ve given some suggested measurements, but again it’s really up to you!

Salt Dough Snowman Family
by Amanda Formaro of Crafts by Amanda

You will need

1/2 cup salt
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup water
acrylic paint in black, white, pink, green, orange, and red
paintbrush
two orange toothpicks
6 small twigs
felt scraps
2 mini pom poms
1 small gold glitter pom pom
pink and gold ribbon

What you do

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. Just be careful not to add too much flour, this will dry out the dough and will cause it to crack before you get a chance to bake it.

Salt dough is not edible, however it won't hurt you or your kids, it just won't taste very good!

Roll dough in your hands to form different sized balls. Make three snowmen from the balls, then line them up on the cookie sheet. Make sure they are touching each other so that they will be one piece after baking.

Break or cut orange toothpicks in half. Insert toothpick halves, point size out, into the each snowman head for the nose. Insert twigs for arms into each snowman. Be sure to both of these steps 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 snowmen with white paint. Use the wrong end of the paint brush to dot on colored buttons (I used green on one, red on another, and orange on the third).

Use a smaller paintbrush to repeat this method for adding eyes and mouths with black paint. Alternatively, you can use a black Sharpie marker if you prefer.

Embellish your snow family by fashioning scarves and hats out of scrap pieces of felt and adding a pom pom to the top of the hat. Add on ribbon and make ear muffs out of a small piece of gold ribbon and tiny pom poms. Use photo as a guide. Let dry completely and display.

14 Comments »

Amanda said:

Thank you for letting me guest post Heather, I am honored! :)

# 7 January 2011 at 8:07 am

Reta said:

This will be a great thing to do with my 4 year old daughter. She’s dying to make a snowman but there isn’t enough snow yet where we live.

# 7 January 2011 at 8:15 am

Paulina J! said:

This is such a cute idea and yes, I am one of those that has been missing out on all this fun. I had a couple of questions:

1) Will the snowmen be hard once done?
2) Do they spoil or last indefinitely?

Thanks for the wonderful idea!

# 7 January 2011 at 8:31 am

Local Fun for Kids Mom said:

Love These! You should add them to my ‘Fun for Kids Friday’ Blog Hop. http://www.localfunforkids.com/home/2011/1/6/fun-for-kids-friday-blog-hop.html

# 7 January 2011 at 9:13 am

Fatcat said:

These are absolutely adorable!!!

# 7 January 2011 at 9:28 am

heather (author) said:

@Amanda, thanks for guest-posting! Glad to have you!

# 7 January 2011 at 10:53 am

Weezy said:

@Paulina J!

Yep once cooked the snowmen will be rock solid!

And if you look after them a little they’ll last indefinitely, I’d recommend when finished decorating varnishing them with craft glue or a varnish. Once you don’t leave them in the rain but instead inside and dry they’ll keep for years and years! :)

# 7 January 2011 at 11:40 am

urban craft said:

Where you do find all this cool stuff??? Hmmm, what to make with salt dough. The possibilities are endless. Will come up with something soon.

# 7 January 2011 at 11:56 am

pam said:

Heather! These are beyond cute! I have already placed them at the very top of the list I have started for holiday projects next year to share with Antonio and Sophia! If I can wait that looooooooonng to play. These are adorable! ADORABLE!

# 7 January 2011 at 12:38 pm

Amanda said:

@Paulina – yes they will be hard when done and will last indefinitely – I have actually had this exact snow family for 4 years now :)

# 7 January 2011 at 1:23 pm

Rachel said:

Those are super cute! I came by to say congratulations on your mention in Sunset magazine! I came across it when I was reading last night- yay!

# 7 January 2011 at 4:41 pm

jenny said:

I used to do a lot of salt dough. To decrease your baking time, things like the balls-you can start with a ball of foil and simply cover it with a layer of dough. Makes it lighter too. And you can recycle relatively clean aluminum foil. Lots of things can be formed over a simple foil armature.

# 9 January 2011 at 10:55 am

Sophia said:

Thanks for another wonderful idea! I’ve been needing some neat craft ideas for our weekly art lesson (homeschooling), and this is just the thing for this week. :)

# 9 January 2011 at 10:38 pm