The craft project this week comes from what I like to refer to as a craft twist. The twist refers to deviating from the directions of a project or idea so that it better suits your needs. So, in my case, I found a recipe to make cornstarch Christmas ornaments. Well, Christmas has come and gone but I still wanted to do this project so I thought up a few different things I could do with the dough and off I went!!
Supplies you'll need;
Cornstarch
Baking soda
Water
Measuring cup
Sauce pan
Cookie sheet
Mixing spoon
Parchment paper
Paper towels
Gallon Ziploc bag
Rolling pin
Toothpick
Cookie cutters, stamps, silicone molds, etc.
I had all of the ingredients on hand and so didn't have to purchase anything, but if you need to purchase things, I would estimate that this project will come in at under $10 total.
**Edited to add; Several people have asked me where I got the cookie cutters and silicone molds shown in the pictures. I got them at Thinkgeek.com The molds are actually silicone ice cube trays that I cut off a few parts to re-purpose for crafts. The spatula/spoon thing I used is also from that site. I LOVE their stuff, can you tell? ;)
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| Step 1 Gather your ingredients. Combine 2 cups of baking soda, 1 cup of cornstarch, and 1 1/2 cups of water into your sauce pan. |
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| Step 2 Stir the mixture over medium-high heat (I have an electric stove and had my heat 3/4 of the way up). You'll want to continuously stir the mixture (which at first will feel like you're trying to stir hard clay) to prevent it from sticking to the sides and bottom. I started off using a whisk and quickly switched to a spoon/spatula/thing I have. |
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| Step 2.4 As the mixture starts to heat up you may see some bubbling, that's perfectly normal, just keep stirring. It will slowly start to thicken up. Don't hesitate to adjust the heat if needed. At this point I turned mine down to medium. |
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| Step 2.8 After about 10 minutes of stirring your mixture should start to resemble mashed potatoes. When it's at this point, it's done. You can kind of see in this photo where I quit stirring for a little too long and it stuck to the bottom. If that happens no worries, just remove the moist dough and throw out the caked on stuff on the bottom. It comes off super easy! |
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| Step 3 Spread a little bit of cornstarch , either onto your counter top or on to a cutting board (like I did), then place your mixture from your saucepan on to it. Use your spoon to mold it into a shape that will fir easily under your paper towels. |
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| Step 4 Take 3-4 paper towels and get them wet, not dripping wet, but the wetter side of damp. You can also use a clean, lint free kitchen towel for this. But, the dough will pick up every thread, lint piece, or hair that you may or may not have seen. Let it cool down to room temperature. If you do not want to use the dough right away you can wrap it loosely in the paper towels and place it into a gallon size Ziploc bag and put it in the refrigerator. According to the internet, it should stay good for at least a week, maybe longer. |
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| Step 5 Now is the time to start having FUN! Collect your parchment paper, rolling pin, cookie cutters/molds/stamps/etc., and your dough and take them to a place where you'll be comfortable to work (for me it's my coffee table). Take 1 sheet of parchment paper and lay it out on to your table then sprinkle it with some cornstarch. Take some of your dough and roll it in to a ball then put on the powdered paper and flatten it out a bit with your hand. Put a little bit of cornstarch on top of the flattened ball then cover with a second sheet of parchment paper. Use your rolling pin to roll the dough out to about a 1/4" thick. You don't want it too thin or your decorations will be fragile and you don't want it too thick because they will not only take a long time to dry, but they will likely crack badly while drying. |
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| Step 6 Once your dough is rolled out you can use your cookie cutters to cut out fun shapes. If you've opted to have some stamps as well, then once you cut the shape out you can use the stamp to press an image into it. This particular cookie cutter has a stamp portion built in to it. Be careful not to press to hard with the stamps because it will thin out the area where the impression is. See Step 8 for what will happen. Use a toothpick to make holes if you want to hang your decorations. |
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| Step 6.5 Here you can see the two silicone molds that I decided to play around with. I've never used these with clay or dough before and so I'm unsure of the drying time or how it will turn out. Unfortunately, they are still drying as of this posting (6 hours so far), so I will have to update you all later once they're done!! :) |
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| Note: Keep the portion of the dough you are not currently using wrapped in the damp paper towel so that it doesn't start to dry out prematurely. I used a spray bottle to re-moisten the towel and the dough when needed. |
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| Step 7 Put a sheet of parchment paper on to your cookie sheet and place your cutouts on top as you finish them. You'll see in this photo that a few of mine are stacked or layered. Please note that this lengthens the drying time. You can opt to keep the layers separate and then glue them together later. |
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| Step 8 You have two options for drying your decorations. You can dry them in the oven or you can air dry them. If you want to do it in the oven, preheat it to 175 degrees F. Place the cookie sheet in to the oven bake for 30 minutes. Carefully flip the decorations over and then bake for an additional 30 minutes. I took out my single layer pieces at this point and put my double layer ones in for an additional 45 minutes. Here you can see what happens if you press to hard with your stamps. My starship broke in half. Ooops! |
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| Step 9 After they have cooled you can either leave them white or paint them,. Acrylic seems to work best though water colors have a really cool effect. I also plan to glue some magnets on to the backs of a few of these and I'm turning the butterflies and flower into a mobile for my niece. |
I apologize for not getting all portions done and photographed before putting up the blog for the week, but I simply ran out of time. I'm leaving town on Monday for two weeks and have SO much to get done before I leave. I promise to get the photos added when I get back. That said... There will not be any blog updates for the next two weeks while I'm in North Dakota and Utah visiting family. When I return home I will do some make-up posts. I plan to do lots of craft projects while I'm gone because it is way too cold to go outside. They have feet of snow in North Dakota... FEET! Brrrrrr!!!
As you can see from this week's project, you don't always have to do exactly what the project instructions specify. And, things don't always work out 100%. It's okay. We learn from our mistakes and we discover new favorites by pushing ourselves. Let me know what you decided to make with your cornstarch dough.
Enjoy & happy crafting!
Claire
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