Halloween Magnets Made From Salt Dough

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We love magnets. R has always had a love for magnets and his collection has grown quite a bit. Did we need to add to it? Probably not. But we had fun making these festive magnets anyway!

We started by making the salt dough, and I have to say that R really did this by himself. I told him how much we needed for the recipe, but he did all of the measuring and mixing, rolling and cutting. It really amazes me at how fast he's growing up and how capable he really is.

The Recipe:

2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 cup warm water

Start by mixing the flour and salt. Then slowly mix in the water. We use our hands. It gets lumpy, and gloopey, and sticky before it turns into the dough. R loved that part. Then you turn it out onto a floured surface and roll it thin with a rolling pin. We also flour our rolling pin before hand, and several times during the process so that the dough doesn't stick to it. You don't want it too thin, but the thinner it is, the faster it dries. Ours typically range from 1/4 of an inch to a 1/2 inch.

Making the Magnets:

To set the mood, we listened to our "Wee Sing For Halloween" CD. It was perfect for this activity. We used our Halloween themed cookie cutters, and as R sang along to the songs he would hold up the cookie cutters that went along with it. His own musical puppet show!

A song about a spider came on and he insisted that we make one even though we didn't have a spider cookie cutter. So he decided how he wanted it to look and rolled out the dough for the legs and fangs. I just made sure they were attached to the body securely.

Then we put the cutouts onto cookie tins and popped them in the oven. We let them dry for four hours on 200 degrees F, before checking them. Most of them were done, but a few of the thicker ones were still a bit soft, so we put them back in for another hour.

We waited until the next day to paint the creations. I think he did a wonderful job. I adore his jack-o-lantern faces. After they dried, I covered them with a thin layer of Mod Podge. Next we applied the magnets and googly eyes with hot glue.

Give as Gifts!

We are keeping several of them, but plan to give a bunch away. The adults in our lives will receive a few of the painted ones, and his friends will receive a few of the unpainted. We thought that they might like to paint them instead. We will also include the googly eyes because they are fun!

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