Crafts for Kids: Salty Suncatchers

Salt dough cookies meet sun catcher beads.

December 6, 2014

Melanie Baron,

This week Amelia turned seven. I know, how did that happen? Anyway, we celebrated with a slumber party and needed a project that could make use of all those overnight hours. I've been perusing Pinterest for holiday ideas, and saw these stained glass cookies. Then I found some salt dough valentines that we made a few years ago—they really do last forever if you seal them well—and got to thinking about a mashup.

What if you used the stained glass cookie technique with salt dough and suncatcher beads?

Well…you'd have a pretty cool slumber party project. We started with a basic salt dough recipe:

2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 cup warm water

Mix them all together and knead into a dough.

We rolled the dough to about ½" thick, and used cookie cutters to cut out some shapes. And then, using a smaller cookie cutter or circle shape (we removed the bulb from a turkey baster to find the right sized circle), we cut a hole in the center of some of the shapes.

MOVE THE SHAPES TO A PARCHMENT-LINED BAKING SHEET before the next step!! Seriously, if you don't you'll be picking beads up off the floor for a very long time. Once they are safely moved to a baking sheet, we filled the center holes with translucent ponytail beads. Yup, the same ones we used for this long-ago suncatcher project.

If the shape will be hung, use a straw to make a small hanging hole.

Bake at a low temperature, about 250 degrees for a VERY long time. At least two or three hours. I got nervous because the beads didn't seem to be melting, so I turned the oven up to 350. The beads melted, but the thinner shapes turned brown. I think more patience and a lower temperature would have solved the problem. They're done when they are hard and dry and the beads are stuck together.

Remove from the oven and let them cool, and paint them if you want to. We used acrylic paints with glitter, and even some glitter glue. Spray the dried, painted ornaments with a few coats of clear gloss, and they're done!

Hang them in a window, from a tree, or wherever there's some sun to catch. Or send them home with some tired kids in the morning. ?