Salt Dough vs Baking Soda Clay

   It's amazing what you can do with minimal money, effort, and resources! This week, I compared two different recipes to make hand made gift tags. These recipes are usually used for preserving little people's hand and foot prints. Both recipes will work well for that, but I definitely have my preference. I used cookie cutters, clay imprint stamps, paint and sharpies, but this would be a great craft for stamps!

The first is your traditional Salt Dough:

Recipe:

1 cup flour    (1 bag of flour $2.39)

1 cup salt      (1 canister salt $.99)

1/2 cup of water       
(well, in California, this is probably the most expensive ingredient, but you get the idea)

Directions:

stir

knead

roll out

bake @ 200, 3 hours, flip once.

Mix it all up in a bowl and knead it, adding more flour if it sticks to your hands.

Roll out to 1/4 in on a floured surface and either make your hand/foot prints or use your cookie cutters and stamps.

Bake at 200F for 3 hours, flipping once half way through.

We used water colors to paint them after they cooled, but I think painting them before the bake is the way to go. I plan on using pretty sharpies to write the "to and froms" on the front. My precious angel baby refused to take part in any decorating, coloring, painting, or other personalization of the shapes we cut out, but YOUR young artist may appreciate the chance to put his or her own special touch on the gifts they give. 

The second was a new one for me. The website I got the idea from  actually calls it "Better than Salt Dough Clay" because IT IS!
http://www.tipsfromatypicalmomblog.com/2012/12/better-than-salt-dough-homemade-clay.html 

Baking Soda Clay Recipe

1/2 cup Cornstarch       ($1.99)

1 cup baking soda         ($.78)

3/4 cup water

Directions:

cook in pot

cool

knead

roll out 

bake @ 175, 2 hours, flip once

In a pot over medium heat, stir constantly till all ingredients are incorporated and the mixture is smooth like mashed potatoes. I kept stirring it for as long as I could to get as much moisture out as possible.

Transfer to a bowl and cover with saran wrap to let it cool. Once the temperature is comfortable to touch, begin kneading, adding cornstarch as you go if it is too wet.

If it's sticking to your fingers, it's too wet. 

Roll it out to 1/4 inch on a corn starched surface and cut out your shapes. 

I painted them first, don't forget to poke your holes for the ribbon, and then baked for 2 hours at 175, flipping once halfway through. I'm pretty sure mine cracked because I forgot the holes and poked them at the halfway point when I flipped them. 

The final product is a beautiful bright white with smooth surfaces and clean edges. So pretty!

Giant Bubbles

We made giant bubbles with our friends the other day and it worked out so much better than I thought it would! The recipe is a sinch, but the execution takes practice. The end result is a bubble that can grow to be yards long! Big payoff for minimal effort. My kind of craft! I got the recipe from http://www.designdazzle.com/2011/07/summer-camp-giant-bubbles-kit-tutorial-with-free-printables/ 

The Recipe:

• 6 Cups Water (I used it straight from the tap)
• 1/2 cup blue Dawn dish soap
• supposedly non ultra original works best, but I only had Ultra and it worked anyway
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1tbsp baking powder
• 1tbsp glycerin ("personal lubricant" is a cheap readily available source of glycerin if you can't get to the craft store for the real deal)

Giant Bubble Frame:

• straws ( Giant smoothie straws work best)
• yarn (4x the length of the straw)

Directions:

1. Dissolve the cornstarch in water, stirring really well
2. Gently stir in remaining ingredients
3. Allow mixture to sit for at least an hour before playing with it. 
4. Thread the yarn through the straws and then pull the knot into one of the straws to keep it from interfering with the bubble.
5. Holding the straws as handles, dip the string in the solution and then gently lift it up to catch the breeze. Gently blowing sometimes helps to get it started. 

Most of my cornstarch separated out of the mixture no matter how much I mixed it, but the bubbles seemed to get bigger and bigger the longer we used it. I poured the liquid into a large, wide, shallow bowl and off we went!

Greek Kid Crafts, Keepin it Green

I'm so lucky to be a part of an amazing team of women who make up the company Green Kid Crafts. It's an organization we all truly believe in. I'm constantly impressed by the people I get to work with and how each of us has taken so much ownership of the company down to the last bag of glitter and craft stick.

This company is an important part of our community. It employs local moms who care deeply about the products and the message. Each craft kit is lovingly assembled in kitchens and garages all over our neighborhood.

As we sat in our monthly team meeting last week, we started discussed how we reuse and recycle all the packaging which comes with the individual items which make up the Green Kid's Craft kits.

Another special facet of our local neighborhood is our "Buy Nothing" page on Facebook. Anyone who lives in the area can offer or ask for anything for free. If you don't have one, you should start one! It's a wonderful way to get to know your neighbors and save money. Whenever a team member is finished assembling her kits, we usually offer the containers the individual items came in on the Buy Nothing page and have developed quite a second hand market for the cardboard boxes, bins, and bags after they've been emptied of the fun craft items we've packed into each kit.

Just last month, I packed a kit which came with feathers. The feathers came in zip-lock bags and I offered them on the Buy Nothing page. Another mom in the neighborhood came and picked them up from me to use for her crafting club to hold her own crafting supplies.

 Our community is centered around the local elementary school which has benefited many times from our post-consumer products. Many of the items which might normally be considered as trash become the key to organizing school supplies in the classrooms.

From hiding scented objects for dogs in training to find to moving boxes, to organizing the Legos and displaying karate belts, we are always discovering new ways to keep our process as sustainable as possible. If nothing else, whatever is left gets recycled.

Green Kid Crafts has made a commitment to it's customers and to the environment to offer the best quality products which "promote growth of the whole child" helping to raise the next generation of creative leaders as well as maintaining natural, sustainable, and responsible products and business practices.

We, the faithful minions of GKC, aim to honor that commitment in every way possible by ensuring that every piece of packaging and trash we generate is either thoughtfully disposed of or reused as much as possible.

In addition to being  a Green America Certified Business and a part of 1% For the Planet, the products we help to bring to our customers have received so many awards recognizing the quality and commitment to promoting positive change in the world. That change has been started right here in our community, the home of Green Kid Crafts.
 

These are the amazing achievements of Green Kid Crafts!