Week of May 22 - 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 7th Grade & 8th Grade

Create a hand-sculpted salt dough photo frame with household products!

To create this super cute frame, gather the following materials:

You will need:

• flour

• salt

• mixing bowl

• spatula

• plastic knife

• paint

• clear nail polish or some sort of sealer

• measuring cups

• hot water

• paintbrush

PLEASE READ: this project involves baking your project in an oven and use of hot water when mixing your ingredients together. You MUST ask for help from an adult for this project! Do NOT use the oven yourself!

Bring all of your materials to a nice large space covered with newspaper. Measure out the following amounts of salt, flour and water and mix to combine.

-1 cup salt

-1 1/2 cups of flour

-3/4 cups of hot water

You may need to tweak the amounts depending on the consistency of your dough.

Mix all ingredients well!

Now get ready to sculpt! I keep a little bowl of water near me for smoothing edges and spread some extra flour on the surface I’m working on so that the dough doesn’t stick to it. Use a rolling pin with a light layer of salt or something cylindrical to roll out the dough evenly. You want to roll out enough dough to make a 4”x4” or so frame. You can make a different sized frame but I think this size is small enough to not break easily. The larger your frame, the more likely it may break.

Use a ruler if you need to cut the edges of the frame with the plastic knife.

If you have a specific photo you know you want to put into your frame, try to measure it up against the center of the frame so you know it will fit. I used an Instax photo (of me and my lil dog!) which fit perfectly with my frame.

Dip your finger in a little water dish and smooth the edges of your frame with your fingertip. Next, roll out some more dough as we did before and cut out some long strips.

Cut those strips into evenly sized squares.

Dip your finger into the water bowl and rub a bit of water onto the surface of the frame. The water will act like glue. Begin to add your squares to the wet surface in even lines.

After you have places all your squares on the frame, you can add a decorative element to them. I added little dots with a toothpick. If you’d like your squares to say something you can carefully spell it out with a toothpick also.

Now it’s time to ask an adult to help with the oven. The temperature should be set at 200F. Add a thin layer of flour to the bottom of an oven tray so it doesn’t stick while baking And carefully place your frame on the tray. Ask an adult to put the tray in the oven.

Leave your creations baking in the oven for 3 hours.

Once the time has passed, ask an adult to take the tray out and let your artwork cool COMPLETELY before touching it. Once it is totally cool it will be time to paint a base coat of white on the frame.

Please handle your creations very carefully! They are delicate and need special care! Get your white paint ready and paint over all the frame.

Let the white paint dry and then get ready to paint some bright patterns on your frame!

Let your colored paint dry and paint a clear layer with either clear nail polish or mod podge or a craft glue that dries clear.

Let the clear coat dry. Tape your photo to the back of the frame so that the image is facing forward. Display your gorgeous salt dough creation somewhere where it will be safe from breaking!

St. Lawrence students, please send a picture of your finished artwork to stlawrenceartclass@gmail.com so I can display it on the school’s website!