Easy homemade play dough. Dinosaur tracks

I actually made playdough before, like half a year ago. Pipidinko wasn't interested much in it. I made some playdough pictures for him, and he admired those, but that was it. Then I bought a playdough set a few months later, and he enjoyed stuffing it in different tubes and kept asking me to open a new jar until all the playdough was dried out. I find commercial playdough very tough, not really suitable for a toddler.

Today I gave it another try. I made a new batch: 1 cup of flower, 1/3 cups of salt, 2 tsp cream of tartar, 1 tbs olive oil, 1 cup water, cinnamon. Mixed all in a saucer on the medium heat, divided into 3 parts and added different food coloring to every batch. Kneaded the dough for a few minutes, until very smooth.

I was inspired by this article here. I thought it would be an  awesome idea to explore different shapes and textures, and see how they make different imprints. Only either Santino is still too young to be interested, or he just wasn't in the mood today, but out of the items I placed in front of him, he only wanted to explore the fire truck, the dinosaur and the hippo.

 

I did manage to sneak in a Christmas tree ornament, a fork and a pencil, but that was it. Then back to the dinosaur.

 

He loved making dinosaur tracks, skin and tail imprints.

He also loved having hippo stuck in the playdough.

The hippo and the dinosaur had a few fights.

Between making prints, I encouraged Pipidinko to take the play dough and squish it in both of his hands. He actually liked it, but didn't want to do it for long, just a few squishes. I consider it still a good start. All and all, this was a fun time. We spent good 40 minutes playing with this playdough. I put it away in a zip lock container and in the fridge until next time.

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Making Christmas gifts with a toddler

We had a Christmas eve dinner at our house last night. Family members came to celebrate the occasion together. There was lots and lots food, Santino got cool trucks as gifts, and I managed to fill the house with the smoke from the fireplace. Yay, fun times!

Santino also had a few gifts prepared to give to his grandparents and aunts and uncle. Mommy (me) found these awesome ideas Puffy snowflakes and Salt Dough Ornaments online and decided to make some cool Christmas cards and gifts for the family. I mixed up the dough and made the cards and the ornaments, and Santino decorated them with glitter glue.

Puffy art Christmas cards

1/2 cup of all purpose flower, 1/3 cup of salt, 1 tsp of baking powder, water to make pancake type of consistency dough. Mixed it well and put in the plastic mixing bottle (we normally use it to shake oil and vinegar for salad dressing). I gave Santino a chance to try and draw whatever he wished with this dough, but all he did was make a large puddle, squishing everything in the same spot. That's fine. I made a few simple designs on colorful construction paper, then put the cards in the microwave oven for 30 second.

The designs dried out and were ready for more decoration. I gave Santino glitter glue, and he smudged different colors on top of the white lines. Now the cards became raised and glittery.

Salt dough ornaments.

I then mixed up some more salt dough, but more stiff: 1/2 cup salt, 1 cup flower and 1/2 cup water. Rolled out the dough and cut out ornaments with some cookie cutters: Christmas trees, snowmen, angel. I then put these ornaments in the 250 F oven and left them there for an hour. They came out pretty stiff. I also made little holes for ribbons.

Santino painted the ornaments with different colors, decorated them with glitter glue. I put silver ribbons through the holes and attached these ornaments to the cards with wire ties.

Pasta necklaces

I also colored some pasta and Santino made these necklaces for both of his grandmothers, and two aunts. I was left out, as Santino ran out of steam and wasn't interested in making the 5th necklace. I got this idea from his school. Last month kids at the Armitage village nursery school made these necklaces, and the teachers were impressed with Santino's fine motor skills, who is the youngest in his group, as he was able to make a necklace all by himself.

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Simple art project for a 2 year old. A present for nonna

Santino loves painting, holding a paint brush and mixing the colors. Well, for now he mixes all the colors together, until they turn brown, and then he paints careful stripes here and there, swooshes, calling them dinosaurs and fire trucks.

I wanted to channel his love for painting and help him make a present for nonna Lucy for her birthday.

I got a painters tape, using it to mask the picture. I taped a few strips in the middle of a water color paper sheet. I then drew a flower over the tape with a pencil. Then, using a sharp x-acto knife, i cut off the tape, leaving only the shape. It is possible to do, just need to be careful and don't rush.

Then I mixed up some water colors for Santino. To avoid him mixing up all colors into one brown, I gave him colors one by one, blue, then yellow, then red. The colors mixed beautifully on the paper.

Then I let the picture dry, and carefully removed the tape. It stuck a bit too much to the paper, but I removed it slowly. Next time I would have to use a real masking tape. After the tape was removed, the white flower shape was revealed. Looked very warm and tender.

I signed it "2012, From Santino, To Nonna Lucy" and put it inside a simple frame. Nonna liked her present.

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