Pinterest Find - Salt Dough Foot and Hand Print Keepsakes

I found several recipes for this awesome keepsake. It's so easy to mix and make. Unfortunately, neither of my two batches turned out well. I know it was just me. The first set (just my 12-month old's hand and foot prints) were fine pre-paint period. It baked all right. But the prints weren't deep enough so when I painted them with white acrylic paint, you could hardly see the prints.

That didn't stop me. I made another batch, this time I had enough for both kids. I got their prints done nicely and deep enough - thanks to my husband's help. He did the printing so much more efficiently with the second batch than I did with the first batch. I also tried a different recipe for the second batch. And the instruction said to either bake them or air dry them so I chose to air dry them - outside. Well the bottom remained a little doughy and soon enough, they started to crack. I couldn't be more disappointed.

But anyway, maybe you'll have a turn of luck unlike I did. Here are the pictures of the first batch and the second batch:

FIRST BATCH

I don't know why the picture turned out like this - like a negative side of the film. If you look to the left side of the saucer (top of the toes), the picture turns into how it looked like in real life (positive side of film kinda).

The recipe for this batch was:

1 cup plain flour

1 cup salt

1/2 cup warm water

Mix the flour and salt together and slowly add in water to get the right consistency - not too sticky and not to crumbly either. If it's too crumbly/dry, add some more water. If it's too sticky, add a little bit more flour. 

Use a shallow dish to use as a template for the dough. 

Bake at about 200ºF for 3 hours. Make sure the oven is not too hot or else the dough will rise and cook. If the bottom is still doughy, turn it over and bake it for another two hours. 

She said to use wax paper on the cookie sheet so the dough will not stick, but I think it's the culprit for my wet-bottom doughs that never dried (I used wax paper for both batches and both batches had wet bottoms that never dried). If you'd like to look at the main tutorial, here it is.

SECOND BATCH

J's hand and foot prints

C's hand and foot prints

 It's pretty obvious that C's feet was too deep. Anyway, my recipe for these was:

4 cups flour

1 cup water

1/2 cup warm water

I didn't use oil as the original recipe called for, and that's probably why these ones cracked. She also didn't mention about using wax paper underneath (since she used oil) and I did. 

Poke the doughs with straws prior to baking them or air drying them. 

She said you can put it in the oven at 150 degrees (didn't say if it was C or F) for an hour. Since I didn't know which temperature she used, I opted for the 24-hour air-drying - er... right. It became 72 hours actually since the bottoms were wet (up until now). Within the first 24 hours, I saw a crack in front of C's foot print. Three days after, all four prints had tons of cracks at the back. I almost cried. Maybe I should have used that oil and stopped using the wax paper! :(

Well, I'm going to try again next year on their birthdays and see if I get lucky with a decent recipe.