Easter salt dough

We made these little gift tags to add a personal touch to Easter presents this year. They were so simple to make. My daughter liked getting involved in making the dough and playing with it. She also helped with the painting, although there were times when I realised it was more an activity for me than her!

We mixed up the salt dough in a bowl, which is really fun and easy for children to do..
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup water

We used chick and bunny cookie cutters to make some shapes and arranged them on a baking tray. I used a drinking straw to make holes on the shapes so that we could thread them with ribbon once they were finished. (The numerals you can see in the picture were for some other activity I had in mind!)

I left them in a low oven for about 3 hours until they were really hard. If they were thicker they may have needed a bit longer in the oven.

My daughter and I then painted them using acrylic paints. You can use any paints but I like the way acrylic paints give a shiny finish and they are easy to wash off their hands too.

I threaded coloured ribbons through the holes in the shapes so they could be tied or hung up.

These would look pretty hanging on an Easter tree (some branches in a large vase or jug), or you could make a garland with them to decorate the house.

I painted the names of family members onto the shapes with a fine brush so that we could then use them as gift tags. You could varnish them to make them extra shiny or add a layer of PVA glue once they are dry.

I added them to little bags of chocolate eggs, but you could tie them round anything to make a nice little gift.

Happy Easter!