Clay

So despite the bout of 80+ degree weather with horrid humidity that just passed through, I am quite ready for fall. I bought some new jeans, busted my sweaters out of my steamer trunk, and actually had to wear slippers the other morning. Bring on the fall!

I can’t wait for apple picking, followed by lots of apple baking. Apple crisp anyone? Drool. . .Point being, I am ready for fall to be here; to see brightly colored leaves out my windows. So I decided to start some fall crafts with my little miss. I found this recipe for air dry clay via Nurture Store and decided to give it a go. It worked great! A nice white clay that dries by itself overnight – perfect!

All you need is:

1 part white glue to 2 parts cornstarch

I used 2 Cups of cornstarch and 1 Cup of glue, which made a TON. I would recommend using 1 Cup cornstarch and 1/2 Cup glue if you’re only doing this for one child.

So blob it all in and mix it up.

It will look like a sticky mess for a bit, but then it starts to form a nice dough.

I put some cornstarch on my hands (so it wouldn’t stick while I still worked it together) to work it into this nice ball.

I did end up kneading it a bit more cornstarch (I’d say no more than 1/8 of a cup) because I found it was still a little too sticky.

My mom gave me these excellent fall cookie cutters last year,

so we grabbed one of each size and started cutting out some shapes! My miss still needs a little help with pushing the cutter all the way down, but she did quite well.

Then we put all our shapes on a cookie sheet with wax paper to dry. I used a straw to add a hold in each one so we can use them as a little fall banner after she colors them.

The next day, they were all dry, so she got to color them! We just used plain Crayola crayons (albeit the washable kind, since that’s all we have) and they worked great. I wouldn’t recommend painting these, simply because I have every idea that they’d start to disintegrate with water given what they’re made of. . .but crayons, markers, even colored pencils would work great! We started out just using fall colors, but then she really wanted blue and how could I say no? So they became rainbow leaves, acorns, and pumpkins. I plan to hang them pennant banner-style underneath my chalkboard once I redo it for fall.

On the whole, this is a great, cheap, and simple craft with many applications. I think it would be great to try and make beads with older kids! As you can see from the pics, our session was very messy, but that can be avoided. I just don’t mind a mess (which cleaned up in all of five minutes – it comes right off with water!). Hope you find a use for this easy clay!

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