DIY puff pastry souvenirs. Flat dough shapes. Video: how to make a cat - a refrigerator magnet

Flour can be used not only to bake pies and cook dumplings. Try using this raw material for beautiful crafts made from salt dough. We invite you to master a new female hobby, the results of which will not be difficult to find practical application.

History does not know who first came up with the idea of ​​creating sculptures from flour, water and salt, but there is a version that beautiful crafts from salt dough were invented by confectioners. Creative chefs became bored with baking quickly stale buns and, having improved the recipe, invented a material that does not deteriorate over the years and does not lose its attractiveness. Today, testoplasty is a popular women's hobby that you should definitely try.

Testoplasty is a fun hobby with a serious approach

Salt dough is a plastic material from which you can make crafts no less interesting than polymer clay. Ready-made figurines can be easily painted and decorated, turning into real works of art that can easily find a place not only in the home and office, but also in a museum. The presence of salt in the dough preserves ready product and protects it from various pests that are partial to flour products.

The main advantage of testoplasty is the availability of materials. The cost of the finished craft is mere pennies, and products for modeling, as well as for crafts, are always available in any home.

Having mastered modeling from salt dough, you will be able to make small souvenirs for sale and turn into new ones. The figurines can be sold online, in in social networks or offer your masterpieces in public places: at train stations, in parks, on the beach.

Nowadays, many cities hold open fairs, where everyone has the opportunity to sell what they have lovingly made with their own hands. Charms, refrigerator magnets, and kitchen decor are in great demand.

Salt dough recipe for crafts

This versatile salted craft dough requires just three ingredients: flour, salt and water.
Flour should only be used premium, which does not contain bran or any improving additives. Never buy pancake, pancake or self-raising flour - during drying, the dough made from it will begin to rise, which will lead to cracks.

You should also take plain salt without iodine and other additives, but clean and white. “Extra” is ideal. If you cannot find finely ground salt, you can take pure coarse salt, dissolving it in water, taken in the volume according to the basic recipe.

Before mixing, the water must be passed through a filter and cooled. It is recommended to use ice water prepared in the freezer.

Ingredient proportions:

  • Flour – 300 grams;
  • Salt – 300 grams;
  • Water – 200 ml.

Video recipe from experienced craftsmen

Some craftsmen use additives to improve plasticity, such as starch, vegetable oil or glue. However, for the first masterpiece it is better to prepare salty dough for crafts according to the basic recipe. It is important to consider that flour and salt are taken in equal proportions by weight, but salt is heavier than flour, so it turns out to be half as much in volume! For example, a glass of flour will require half a glass of salt!

Secrets of sculpting and shaping figures

Working with dough does not require any special talent, but it is unlikely that you will be able to sculpt something special the first time. In air, the mixture of flour and salt quickly hardens, so it should be stored in a tightly closed jar, separating it as necessary. required quantity for sculpting a separate element. If the mass was painted in different colors, then portions of different shades should be stored in separate containers.

There are many techniques for working with dough. It can be rolled out into a layer, and then figures can be cut out and compositions can be formed from them, like flowers from sugar mastic and cold porcelain. At the joints, the parts are moistened and gently pressed against each other. The same dough, diluted to a more liquid consistency, is also used as glue.

For large volumetric figures, wire frames are used or placed inside jars and boxes, which reduces the volume of raw materials and speeds up the drying process. To fasten the elements, you can use toothpicks, using them to secure the parts to be joined.

Finished works are dried in the open air or baked in the oven, which significantly speeds up the process of acquiring the required strength. The oven is turned on to the highest setting during drying. low temperature, and the door is opened slightly. At high temperatures the craft may crack.

How to decorate dough products

To form reliefs and three-dimensional figures, you can use any available materials: stencils, coins, toothpicks, sushi sticks, combs, pocket knives, cream injector, cookie cutters, paring knives, etc.

Figures made from unpainted dough have a light beige tint, but the mass can be painted at the kneading stage, and the finished products can be coated with varnish, acrylic dyes, watercolors or gouache.

Can be used as dyes natural products, for example cocoa or beet juice. If dyes require dilution with water, the total volume of liquid indicated in the recipe should be reduced.

Video: delicious strawberries for beginners

Look at the selection of beautiful crafts, perhaps you will fall in love with this creativity and make it your hobby. Try to do it first a simple figurine- or colorful. If you have small children, make casts of their arms and legs, in 20 years this craft will become high value.

Beautiful crafts from dough: photos for inspiration

Master classes on creating figurines

If you are interested in this simple technique, try starting with simple crafts. We have prepared several master classes available for beginners.

The origins of dough modeling go back a long way. There is a legend that it was invented by Slavic cooks who were bored and had fun by creating interesting, edible figures from dough. In addition, this material is one of the cheapest and available to everyone. That’s why this type of creativity is popular in our time; everyone has flour, water and salt in their home. So, here are some interesting DIY salt dough crafts, with photos and step-by-step instructions.

Crafts made from salt dough

If you decide to touch this art, and testoplasty really is such, you need to learn in detail about the material from which you will sculpt. For beginners who like to make dough, it is worth noting that the recipe is very simple.

  • Flour - one glass
  • Salt - half a glass
  • Water – 125 ml

It is worth remembering that salt is heavier than flour, so you need to use half as much of it!

To sculpt thin relief figures, you need to add PVA glue, or starch, or wallpaper glue to the dough. Optionally, one tablespoon at a time, pre-mix wallpaper glue with water. To make the kneading process easier, use a mixer; it will make it better and make it easier to work with your hands.
For modeling from colored dough, food coloring is used; if there is none, you can use regular paint. If you need to get saturated color chocolate, add a small amount of cocoa. Remember that when the dough dries, it loses its color saturation. Therefore, it is better to transfer the dye than not to transfer it. Coating the finished dough craft with varnish will make it brighter and more practical.

Advantages

  1. It is one of the cheapest and environmentally friendly materials.
  2. Doesn't get your hands dirty (although this is a relative statement)
  3. It is easy to work with, very flexible and allows you to make parts of any complexity.

"Piglet"

Let's look at the easiest way to sculpt.

To work you need:

  • Salty dough
  • Brush
  • Stack
  • Paints
  • Toothpicks

How to do it

  1. Roll the dough into a ball and give it an oval shape, this will be the body of the pig.
  2. Make a second ball (head) and place it on the body using a toothpick.
  3. Make a small heel for a pig, a flattened ball with holes, you can make holes reverse side pencil.
  4. Making ears is also not difficult; moisten the triangles with water and carefully attach them to the head.
  5. Do the legs like this, roll two sausages, make a small cut at one end, and attach the legs to the body with the other end.
  6. Our piglet will sit in a basin, to do this, roll out a ball of dough and give it the appearance of a basin.
  7. Place the piglet in a basin and paint your craft.
  8. Let your masterpiece dry.

Master class on how to make a pig from dough step by step video instructions

Little secrets

Everyone has a garlic squeezer in their house. It can be used in work by passing the dough through it to create long curls. They can be used in the form of hair, wool for your crafts. Having a tea sieve at home will produce thinner vermicelli, for finer details of the craft.
A comb can also be used when sculpting; it will perfectly imprint a ribbed pattern on it.

"Candlestick"

Ingredients

  • puff pastry
  • eggs (for brushing)
  • prunes
  • chocolate

Cooking method

  1. Roll out the dough on the table. The thickness should not exceed 0.5 cm. Using a glass, cut out circles.
  2. Place in the middle of the prepared circles
    filling. It can be prunes, dried apricots, jam, the main thing is that the filling is not liquid.
  3. From each circle we form a star (gathering it up like a bag)
  4. Cut the edges with pastry scissors. And we bend each strip, turning them to the center.
  5. We form a flower and coat it with egg.
  6. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees.
  7. Decorating our flowers. You can put a little jam in the middle.
  8. We take a flat dish and, using melted chocolate, draw a stem and leaves for our delicious craft. We distribute the finished flowers in the right places on the plate and our unusual flower is ready.

"Delicious squirrel"

To prepare this craft you need to take:

  • 500 g flour
  • 40 g yeast
  • 100 g butter
  • 100 g granulated sugar
  • 250 ml water (milk)
  • 1 yolk
  • 60 pcs. nuts almonds peeled
  • cardboard template

Cooking method

  1. Dissolve the yeast in warm water and add sugar and mix everything.
  2. Knead the dough. Mix the flour with the butter, add the prepared yeast mixture to it. Place in a warm place.
  3. After 45 minutes, divide the dough into lumps and roll each one 1 cm thick.
  4. You need to put it on the dough ready-made templates with the image of a squirrel and using a sharp knife, cut out the figure along the contour.
  5. Beat the yolk and coat the squirrel with a brush.
  6. Decorate the figurine with almonds, placing them on the tail. We make the eyes using raisins.
  7. Place the baked goods on a baking sheet and bake at 190 degrees for about half an hour.

Having become a mass phenomenon relatively recently, store-bought salt dough quickly occupied a niche that previously could not be occupied by plasticine due to its too high density, namely modeling with the smallest children.

Today, such a product is considered almost an essential element of the development of any child, but although it is similar to ordinary plasticine, there are still a number of differences that should be taken into account.


What is this?

It should be noted that salt dough is often called a type of plasticine, but this is completely wrong. Although the purpose is approximately the same, both the composition and properties of the two mixtures are very different.

Let's start with the composition. In fact, when even plasticine was not yet a truly mass phenomenon, mothers sometimes replaced it with ordinary dough, which, in principle, is also suitable for modeling, but at the same time safe due to its natural origin. Store-bought salt dough - This is a product that lives up to its name, that is, there really are components characteristic of the raw materials of future baked goods.

Of course, the composition may differ from manufacturer to manufacturer - softeners, plasticizers, and dyes are added, but all this must be harmless so that a child can even try it without harm.

However, this is not what the mixture is made for, so manufacturers mercilessly salt it, which forces kids not to consider the mixture as food.



Since the materials used for the production of dough and plasticine are radically different, it would be strange to expect the same properties from them. First of all, it is worth noting that the dough is much softer: it never requires preliminary warming up, you can literally sculpt from it immediately and without special effort, which is an additional important advantage for children under 3-4 years of age.

This same quality is also very useful in a situation where a child, for some reason, still puts the mixture into his mouth, which kids are very prone to - plasticine, even environmental plastic, will form a lump in the throat, but the dough will be quite easy to swallow.



Although products made from most types of plasticine cannot be called durable, the dough is even less durable. Due to the fact that the mass does not harden like plasticine, it does not hold very well at all. complex shape. True, it is capable of drying out, but even then it is not an example of strength and hardness, since it begins to crumble little by little. By the way, unlike plasticine, it is impossible to restore completely dried dough, and with cheap dough samples restoration is not possible even when it has dried at least on top.

Because of this, the modeling dough has to be stored in an airtight container, but at the same time it is quite possible not to buy it, but to make it yourself in any quantity the child needs, and at very little cost.


What is it for?

Modeling from dough is somewhat reminiscent of modeling from plasticine, but is more simplified, a kind of preparatory stage To her. Toddlers perceive the mixture as just another device for playing, but working with such material helps to achieve important goals and objectives - it is very useful for the development of fine motor skills of the hands, since in the future it will allow the child to master any complex and precise manipulations much faster.

Modeling also helps develop arm muscles - it turns out that a child who has been modeling dough from the age of one to one and a half years has much more developed hands than a child who started straight away with plasticine at 3-4 years old.



If at a very early age the baby rather abstractly kneads the dough, then as he grows he begins to put a certain creative component into the process. Firstly, he learns to give the mass the desired shape, which in the future will help him in the manufacture of any things with my own hands. Secondly, such exercises greatly contribute to the development of imagination - as the task becomes more complex, the child begins to think through different possible ways her decisions.

Making a figurine from several pieces, he begins to better understand the concepts of the particular and the composite whole. Reflections of this kind from a very early age can develop intelligence so much that in the future a grown-up child will be able to solve similar problems at a completely different level - for example, design complex engineering structures and mechanisms.


In recent years, the benefits of using salt dough for the comprehensive development of a child have been officially recognized even by leading experts involved in raising children. Today this material is widely used in children's institutions, and in bookstores you can even find specialized manuals for working with dough. One of these books was published I. A. Lychagina. The publication was published in 2017 under the title "Salt dough modeling with children 3-4 years old."

The author is trying to show ways to really interest a child by teaching him to really do beautiful figures with his own hands, and recommends his work both for group classes and for home use.



Types and composition

Although dough seems like a very simple material with little variety of ingredients, it is made from quite a variety of materials these days. Besides classic options made from flour (usually rye) and salt; a variety with a large addition of starch is also popular.

Usage different ingredients V different proportions allows you to vary the thickness of the mixture and the ease of working with it, creating something that does not hold its shape, but is very soft types dough for very tiny children and more elastic, but with greater creative potential - for those who are a little older. Some manufacturers also call their clay products modeling dough, but this is fundamentally incorrect, since the consumer is already accustomed to the fact that such a mixture can be eaten, while clay is unlikely to benefit the baby.



Play dough is also sold in completely different concepts. There are multi-colored sets, the idea of ​​which is close to that used in plasticine sets. For young children it is much more common to release colored dough, which is not sold in sets, but individually - parents simply choose the desired color. This product is not designed for complex crafts, but rather to simply interest the child in the process.

Finally, sometimes there are colorless (conditionally white) types of dough - it is designed for the parents or the little creator to mix in the dye, although the possibility of subsequent coloring of an already dried product is also allowed. Modeling dough can be decorated not only with dyes, but also with other ingredients, for example, sequins, sparkles, and so on, but such material should not be given to children under three years of age, since such decorations are not edible.



Additionally, play dough varies in quality and concept. For example, in our country mixtures under the Plastishka brand are very popular, but although they are not bad, they mainly attract consumers with their low price.

At the other pole there are sets Play Doh, known all over the world - they are expensive, but they are 100% safe for the baby, good quality, as well as a complete set of additional tools for modeling and playing, detailed instructions for creating figures and so on.



Actually, you can delve into the topic in more detail by studying the Youtube channel known as Miss Katy.

The channel has already collected more than five million subscribers - in the videos it shoots, the little girl Katya, together with her dad, tries to sculpt various figures from salt dough. Of course, masterpieces (truly masterful ones) are created mainly by dad with very little help from his daughter, but the presenters very clearly show the features of sculpting from huge amount sets from different manufacturers.


You can watch one of the videos from the Miss Katy channel below.

How to use?

There are no specific rules for modeling salt dough; only a general technology has been developed on how to teach a child to create something similar to his idea. Training should be done in stages. At the very early stages, it is enough to let the child knead the dough - even such an exercise will develop hand motor skills. Next, you need to show your child simple techniques for working with mass - teach him to roll balls and sausages.


Here it is very important to actively work with the child, since without the help of parents he will most likely stop at balls and sausages. At first, the main work is done by the parents; their task is to show that masterpieces can be created from dough.

At the same time, you cannot remove the little one from the process - on the contrary, he needs to be involved by asking him to do some simple small details.

If you have purchased a complete set of dough and tools for working with it, inside there may be templates for complex parts - then even the child himself can make them.



It should be noted that some manufacturers make the dough unsalted, emphasizing that the material for modeling and food are not always different things. In the end, a dough figurine cannot replace a full-fledged toy, since it is short-lived and too soft - so why not eat it? If the mass is made with just such a calculation, the packaging should describe the technology for bringing the made figurine to a state of readiness for consumption without losing its appearance.


What can you mold?

Although in general, salt dough holds its shape much worse than plasticine, products made from some of its denser types are quite capable of holding their shape without requiring too complex and delicate details. If plasticine is made from dough at home, then to achieve the desired result the mixture should be drier - contain less water and more flour, salt and starch.

However, many parents are at a loss when faced with the question of what kind of figures can be made from this material, so let’s look at the most common creative ideas, of which there are quite a few.




Probably the most favorite theme for children when creating products from dough and plasticine is animals. The most popular are the ubiquitous human friends - dogs and cats, but other options are also possible - in particular, in rural areas Children love to make chicken or calf figures. Among other representatives of the animal world, butterflies, fish, and dolphins are in demand.


The flora, of course, also has the right to be represented in children's creativity, although girls turn to him more often - they really like to sculpt flowers, as well as fruits and vegetables, with their own hands. Here we smoothly move on to the topic of food, since modeling pies and buns is also interesting for girls - for such purposes, by the way, it is very practical to use dough that does not contain salt.

Toys are another source of inspiration for children - they may want to sculpt their favorite car or teddy bear.


With the right approach, a child can create an entire composition with his own hands, for example, depict how cats play with a ball of thread. An excellent, very warm craft would be a molded basket with the same fruits and vegetables. However, a complex composite craft made from many parts is not necessarily created in three dimensions - little talents can create paintings from dough on a flat surface. You can, for example, depict autumn, when the sun illuminates trees with yellow and orange crowns.



With further development of their own skills, children are able to create more complex things - for example, a candlestick. Who said that an origami bird should only be made from paper? You can also make it from dough! Well, key rings made from such a mass cannot be used for their intended purpose, but the child will understand general principle, and then will be able to repeat his masterpiece from a more durable material.


Master class for beginners

To interest a child, you cannot set him tasks that he will definitely not be able to complete; at the same time, it is very important that he immediately sees that what he produces is not abstract sausages, but something more interesting. You need to teach your child how to sculpt step by step, and if parents decide to try to do this on their own, but do not have enough information about how to solve the problem, a pedkopilka will help them - a collection of ideas for finished products from the same dough, for each of which a description of manufacturing methods and techniques is given.



Of course, teaching a girl is much easier, because the mother is usually involved in teaching and the girl is in many ways interested in what she does in life. Everyday life an ordinary woman.

To begin with, you can interest her in joint creation significant dish, during which the baby will be assigned an exclusively creative role, albeit under the control of the mother. For example, we ask a girl to roll out regular test sausages and decorate the loaf with them, or even let the little one do it under supervision.

The child will definitely be proud of what was done with his participation real food, which everyone eats, and may become interested in both modeling and cooking, although at such an early age it is worth limiting yourself to modeling alone for now. However, a girl’s “kitchen” inclinations can also be used to develop creative abilities - for example, Modeling toy pies and buns develops the same motor skills. In the future, you can use any new interesting ideas.














If, for certain reasons, a child is completely uninterested in kitchen topics or has already passed this stage, it is worth taking on a more complex project - creating a toy in the shape of a person. Modeling a doll from colored dough in practice it turns out to be much simpler than it might seem at first glance, but the child still needs adult help, at least at first.

In fact, the doll is made from circles and ovals different color– it is necessary to make the limbs, torso, head, the eyes and nose will also be separate parts. The planning of the future sculpture and its assembly for the first time is carried out exclusively by adults, and the child himself, by order of the “leader,” makes the parts themselves and at the same time observes how to assemble them into a single whole.



To learn how to make a ballerina with your own hands from salt dough, see the following video.

Methodological development

You can approach the task of teaching children how to sculpt, even at home, with all seriousness. For this purpose, an educational program developed by professional teachers for use in kindergarten or other child care institutions and carried out in accordance with Federal State Educational Standards. These are freely available for parents who want to additionally engage with their children on their own; they can be printed, and an open lesson, which is regularly held in most kindergartens, will help you see the basic principles of educational interaction with your child.

Moreover, in some cases, parents can create such programs themselves for their own use.

It is worth taking any ready-made program as a basis - it will be a kind of instruction, a plan-outline for parents, allowing you to make the final result logical and purposeful, but small details can be changed at your discretion.



In the process of independently thinking through the program, you must first decide for what age of the baby it is being created. This is the only way to formulate adequate tasks that can be completed by the child. To better understand what tasks children are able to perform in at different ages, you can use the same ready-made programs, but in general there is nothing complicated there.

The younger group (1-2 years old) mainly kneads dough abstractly and rolls sausages with balls, the middle one (3-4 years old) can sculpt composite figures with the help of older ones, and the older one (5-6 years old) is able to perform quite complex tasks - create paintings and compositions.



At the same time, the task should not be formulated as “make such and such a figure”; the program compiler should start only from those useful skills which may appear in a child during the process:

  • For the little ones, such tasks include the development of motor skills and hand muscles.
  • Middle-aged children should be given tasks aimed at deepening their interest in sculpting (achieved both by the bright color of the material and the attractive end result), becoming more familiar with the properties, developing the concept of creativity and the nature of surrounding objects, as well as developing basic sculpting skills – giving a piece of mass the required shape.
  • At an older age, the emphasis is on creativity and imagination - the child is already able to do something on his own, and all that remains is to push him to ensure that his creations become more and more complex.

decorate fashionable interiors of apartments and shops, jewelry self made complements costume collections of fashion designers, gifts, hand-made toys are very popular among adults and youth

I want to tell about

salt dough products,

which today occupy their niche among handmade products

Modeling from salt dough gives a lot of freedom to imagination, and products made from it sometimes amaze with their beauty and grace.

This type of creativity brings pleasure and joy, like any other.

Many people think: well, just think, some kind of salt dough - all these are crafts (implying the childishness of the product).

But only those who don’t know that think so

Since ancient times, people have sculpted from salt dough; not only in Russia, but also in all European countries, it was customary to give wreaths, doll figurines or other amulets from salt dough.

Why from dough?

It’s very simple - salt dough is an amazingly energy-intensive material.

Everyone who has at least once sculpted figures from salt dough or received them as a gift has felt this positive impact on themselves.

Salt dough, just like clay, has amazing energy, but if clay draws out all the negativity, salt dough, on the contrary, gives positive energy - goodness and warmth with this material is very pleasant to work with.


If you liked the idea of ​​interesting creativity that you can create together with your child, then be sure to remember and try the following recipe in practice:

Recipe salt dough

1 cup flour
1 glass of salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
The process of making salt dough is incredibly simple. Pour a glass of salt into a deep bowl (or any other convenient container) and pour half a glass of hot water.
Next, we mix the salt with water and add a glass of flour. Stir the salt dough until homogeneous mass. For convenience, you can use a mixer.

You need to add one or two tablespoons of vegetable oil, dry wallpaper glue or a spoonful of hand cream to the salt dough.

Mix everything in the bowl vigorously with your hands; if the dough is too sticky to your hands, add a little flour mixed with salt.

Place the resulting mass of salt dough in a plastic bag and place in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours. After this, you can sculpt from salt dough. If you still have dough left after modeling, store it in the refrigerator in a plastic bag.

The dough is ready, now you can make all kinds of figures from it. Place the finished crafts on a baking sheet and place them in cold oven, where we keep it on low heat (80%) for about an hour or a little more if the figures have not yet completely hardened. After drying, the figures can be painted and varnished.

Tips for working with salt dough:

1. Keep the container with salt dough closed, because left in open form, in the air, salt dough dries out very quickly.
2. To prevent the dough from sticking to your hands, you need to add a little flour to it.
3. To prevent the dough from crumbling, you need to pour a little water into it.
4. Unused dough should be stored in the refrigerator - it will keep there for one to two days.
5. To give the dough pleasant smell and colors, you can add spices to it, for example, cumin, pepper, curry, nutmeg, cinnamon, etc.
6. To check whether the figures have dried well, tap them with your finger. If the sound is ringing, the dough is dry, but if it is dull, then it is not yet.
7. After the oven, the dough figures can be painted with gouache and then varnished.
8.If cracks appear on the figurine after drying, dilute a little PVA glue, mix well and apply this mixture to the crack, rubbing it in.

Methods for coloring salt dough


You can tint salt dough food coloring, watercolor or gouache. You can color it when preparing the dough, introducing the dye during kneading, and the actual finished product - on the surface.

An excellent chocolate color is obtained by adding cocoa. You can experiment with others natural dyes- soot, beet juice, carrot juice, ocher, etc. You can brown the salt dough product in the oven for a natural color.

When tinting, you must take into account that after drying the color will become less saturated, but if you cover the craft with varnish, it will become brighter again. What varnish can I use? Acrylic and artistic are very good. It is also possible to use ordinary water-based construction materials for breathable surfaces, i.e. for parquet or wood.

Features and methods of preparing salt dough:

There are a few things you can't do with salt dough. So, for example, you cannot add pancake flour (or flour with any other additives) to salted dough, since the figures will rise like good dough for pies and will crack.

Also, you cannot add iodized salt; large inclusions do not dissolve, and subsequently the dough is not homogeneous - it turns into grains. Likewise, you cannot add rock salt without prior dissolution.

About the water. So, in the test it is best to use very cold water; be sure to add 50 ml in parts after each addition, knead (due to the fact that for different flours, may be needed different quantities water).

Salt is first mixed with flour, and only then in ready mass pour water.

Salt dough is stored in a plastic bag or tightly closed container. Salt dough from plastic bag It is better to take it out in small pieces, since lumps of dough quickly become covered with a crust and when rolling or molding, these dry crusts spoil the appearance.

And one more thing, if the figures are thick (more than 7 mm), then after the first stage, you need to take out the excess dough from the back side

The dough may be too soft. Then proceed as follows: mix a tablespoon of flour with a tablespoon of salt at the bottom of a bowl. Press the ball of dough into this mixture and then scrunch it up. Do this until the dough becomes more dense.

You can sculpt or cut out figures directly on a baking sheet. The baking sheet should first be moistened with water; in this case, bubbles will not form between the product and the surface of the baking sheet, therefore, the surface of the product will be smooth and stable.

Everything that falls off is simply wonderful and, most importantly, it is glued invisibly with PVA glue.

Swelling or cracking of salt dough crafts occurs in three cases:

  1. If the flour is chosen incorrectly. For greater strength, you can add it to the dough rye flour(the color will be warmer and there should be no cracking) (for example, a glass of regular + a glass of rye, 1 to 1), 50 gr. starch - also gives the dough elasticity and prevents it from cracking. You can also add PVA glue, since it also gives plasticity and prevents the dough from rising.
  2. If drying is not carried out correctly (see next section)
  3. If cracking occurs after painting, this means that the product has not completely dried (the product continues to dry and the air has to go somewhere), so the surface of the paint or varnish is cracking. Take your time to paint or varnish the product, so as not to regret it later and not to redo it.

Frequently asked question: how to dry salt dough?


It is best to air dry natural conditions, but this takes a long time (complete drying can take a week or more - especially if the humidity during drying is high - since salt draws out moisture), so you can dry it in the oven, following a few rules.

  1. The oven should be at minimum temperature
  2. It’s good if drying is done with the oven lid slightly open
  3. Products must not be placed in hot oven immediately, heating should occur gradually. Just like taking the product out of the oven, it is better if it cools gradually instead of with the oven
  4. It is ideal to dry in several stages: let it dry on one side for an hour, turn the craft over, and dry on the reverse side. I also take breaks between drying, it dries in the oven for an hour - it dries on its own for a day - then again for an hour and a half in the oven on the reverse side.

The drying time for a salt dough product depends on the thickness of the product itself. And also on the manufacturing recipe used. So, dough containing butter, cream, etc. dries much longer than dough without oil-containing additives.

To avoid cracking of the product, you can dry it in three to four stages, in the oven at the very minimum and always with the lid open for about an hour and a half, then a break of two to three hours, or overnight, the craft dries itself, and then again Turn the oven on low with the lid open.

During natural and oven drying, the craft must be rotated at each stage of drying, i.e. It dries with the front side for an hour, rests, at the next stage it is turned over and dries with the back side.

Thus, we have covered the basic recipes and methods for making salt dough.

Happy creativity!

Crafts made from salt dough are a fascinating creative process. The material for modeling is inexpensive, and you can show your imagination twice: when you sculpt something and when you then paint the finished product. My daughter loves both very much, and I myself, to be honest, often get very carried away by the process. We like to make small compositions, for example, from several animals, paint them and give them to grandparents and other relatives and friends. Making your own salt dough at home is as easy as shelling pears.

You don't need much to make puff pastry animals!

To make the dough itself you need : salt, flour, water and a little vegetable oil.
To work with it you will need everything that we use when working with plasticine: a modeling board or backing, a rolling pin, stacks.

In addition, you will need foil, paints, brushes, water, clear varnish, toothpicks and any decorative items to decorate and complement the image (ribbons, buttons, beads, feathers, eyes, etc.).

Making play dough at home

My daughter eagerly participates not only in modeling and coloring, but also in kneading dough.
To prepare, take 2 cups of flour and 1 cup of salt. The salt should be finely ground, optimally Extra, not iodized.

Mixing the ingredients

Mix salt and flour and, adding water in small portions, knead a fairly tight dough, similar in consistency to dumplings. A little less than a glass is required. You can add 1 tbsp for better elasticity. l. vegetable oil.

Flour for dough

After kneading, put the dough in a bag and leave it in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.

Knead the dough

The finished dough does not stick to your hands, wrinkles easily, and holds its shape. It can be colored in bulk, that is, add paint directly to the dough and knead. It can successfully replace soft plasticine. We paint ready-made crafts.

Interesting ideas for modeling with your child

In addition to directly sculpting various figures, salt dough can be used to make paintings. For example, my daughter and I made a small picture on the theme “Fairy Tales of Pushkin.”

Step 1

We came up with a drawing and painted a small board with blue gouache.

Step 1. Color the board and draw a picture

Step 2

The details of the design were sculpted from salt dough and glued to the board with PVA glue.

Step 2. We make parts from the dough and glue them to the blue board

Step 2. Add details

Step 3

The finished picture was dried at room temperature 3 days.

Step 3. Dry the painting for 3 days

Step 4

Painted and coated with clear varnish.

Step 4. Decorate with paints

Step 4. Varnish

For little kids we can offer interesting option working with the test.

  • Roll out the dough into a layer , cut out figures with cookie cutters or plasticine, dry.
  • Recolor . My 2.5 year old son can do such crafts.

You can make a garden of rocks and other “valuables”: artistically place finds from your walk on a piece of salt dough—pebbles, leaves, twigs.

How my daughter and I made crafts from dough

One of our recent crafts is Antarctica. We often get ideas from books about modeling, but there are some differences in working with dough. For example, you don’t have to sculpt separately parts of different colors, because the dough is painted in whatever color you need.

Also, when sculpting three-dimensional figures, foil is used as a frame; it prevents the figure from “sinking” while it is drying, and the drying process itself is accelerated.

Let's make a penguin

You will need 5 blank balls:

  • 1 large - for the body;
  • 2 small - for wings;
  • 2 even less - for the paws.

Let's roll the balls

Roll out dough balls

Place a wad of foil in the center of a large ball and shape it into a pointed pear. We roll out the blanks of wings and legs into cone-shaped sausages and flatten them. We bend the body blank to create a head with a beak.

Forming the torso

We connect the wings and legs to the body, glue on eyes made of small balls.
We put the penguin on an ice floe: we rolled out a layer of dough and cut out a circle with a glass.

We collect the penguin and put it on the layer

Dry at room temperature for about a week.

Do not place the figures on the battery or speed up the process with a hairdryer, this can lead to cracking.

You can dry it in the oven at 50-150 degrees for several hours.

Let's make a seal

We also prepare 5 blanks: the body and paws. As a frame we use a strip of foil folded several times.

Forming balls of different sizes

We give the body the shape of an oblong cake and place foil in the middle. Roll the foil into the dough sausage.

Roll out a large ball into a flat cake and place foil on it

Roll the foil into the dough

Roll out the fin blanks into cone-shaped sausages and flatten them. Apply stripes in a stack.

Making seal feet

We bend the body, as shown in the photo, and connect it to the flippers.
We use small balls to make a nose and eyes.

Collecting seals

Can be dried.

As an additional decoration, we made a fish.

Making a fish

We paint the dried products with gouache and watercolors and cover them with transparent varnish (you can use acrylic artistic varnish, or you can use regular wood varnish).

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