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Salt Dough Suncatchers

November 10, 2013 by Meredith @ Homegrown Friends

Our Salt Dough Suncatchers are inspired by our Stained Glass Cookies and Salt Dough Ornaments. When I saw the creative sun catchers at The Artful Parent I was curious if we could use the technique of melting plastic beads to create Salt Dough Suncatchers. With a little experimentation I am so excited to say it worked! Our Salt Dough Suncatchers are perfect year round hanging in your window or would be a wonderful addition to a Christmas Tree!

Salt Dough Suncatchers

WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE SALT DOUGH SUNCATCHERS

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2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 cup water
transparent pony beads
parchment paper
cookie tray
string or wire
2 cookie cutter (1 large, 1 small)

HOW TO MAKE SALT DOUGH SUNCATCHERS

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Begin by mixing together the flour, salt and water to make the salt dough. Roll out dough and make shapes using large cookie cutter.

cut shapes from dough to create salt dough suncatchersUse the smaller cookie cutter on the center of the cut out shapes. Remove the dough from the middle. Using a toothpick or skewer make a small hole in the top of the star.

use smaller cookie cutter to create salt dough suncatchersUsing a spatula careful lift each star onto a cookie tray covered with parchment paper. Set up a table with transparent pony beads (like these) and the tray of salt dough stars.

Setting up a fun station of pony beads and salt dough shapes. Such a fun way to make salt dough suncatchers!

Now comes the fun part! Have your children fill the middle of the stars with the transparent pony beads. Try to make sure that there are no spaces left between the pony beads.
fill shapes with pony beads to create salt dough suncatchersLoosely cover with tinfoil and bake at 375 degrees F for approximately 1- 1.5 hours or until the beads are melted together. Remember oven temperatures can vary it may take a longer or shorter amount of time. The salt dough will turn a light to dark brown color. Let cool completely.  NOTE: If you are uncomfortable melting plastic in your home due to the fumes, readers have had success using an outdoor grill and it takes less time too!

beads melted after baking salt dough suncatchersAt this point you can either string them as is (I used fishing wire) or you can paint the salt dough. I am loving how these look hanging in our windows, but I think they are also going to be happy additions to our Christmas Tree!

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Salt Dough Suncatchers
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Filed Under: Art Activities, Holidays Tagged With: ornaments, suncatchers

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Comments

  1. Sarah says

    December 15, 2016 at 5:20 pm

    What did I do wrong, mine totally burned before the beads had completely melted?!?!

    • Meredith @ Homegrown Friends says

      December 30, 2016 at 2:22 am

      The dough will burn in order to get the suncatchers to melt (see the pic of mine). We painted ours.

Trackbacks

  1. Heart Salt Dough Suncatchers - Homegrown Friends says:
    January 13, 2015 at 3:52 pm

    […] idea.  Now that our mistletoe is away for  the season I thought it would be fun and add on to our salt dough suncatchers collection to create Heart Salt Dough Suncatchers and call them “Love Catchers”.  Thanks to the […]

  2. 50+ Window Art Projects for Kids (for Every Season!) - Buggy and Buddy says:
    June 24, 2015 at 4:10 am

    […] Salt Dough Suncatchers from Homegrown Friends […]

  3. Sun Catcher Craft Ideas | EUOA says:
    September 18, 2015 at 1:52 am

    […] You’ll want to get the instructions and recipe for salt dough at HOME GROWN FRIENDS. […]

  4. 30+ Salt Dough Crafts for Kids - Red Ted Art's Blog : Red Ted Art's Blog says:
    November 23, 2015 at 10:16 am

    […] Salt dough sun catchers […]

  5. Easy Dough Ornament Ideas says:
    December 11, 2015 at 10:58 pm

    […] You can also use dough to frame a shape like stained glass! […]

  6. 25 Cute Clay Art Tutorials for Kids - Hobby Lesson says:
    February 22, 2016 at 10:03 am

    […] 14. Salt Dough Suncatchers: Salt Dough Suncatchers is a project that will make you excited. It’s something that can be made by people of any age. […]

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