Tag: gift ideas

Categories
Creative

Make Salt Dough Ornaments

Salt Dough Ornaments are a perfect craft project to do with the kids.

They are fun and you can make whatever your heart desires. Your imagination can run wild.

My kids wanted to create different animals and I made them do handprints as well. You can do feet prints if you wish.

The kids will love to see their creations hanging from the tree, or on the doorknobs of cupboards and doors.

You can make these decorations for any celebration. Easter, Birthdays and more!

Make Salt Dough Ornaments today with the kids
Make Salt Dough Ornaments today with the kids

 

Ingredients

  • 4 cups of plain flour
  • 1 cup of salt
  • 1 and a half cups of water
  • Food dye (whatever colour you wish to create)
  • Paint if you wish to paint the ornaments rather than colour with food dye.
  • Glue
  • Glitter or Glitter Glue
  • Ribbon or string to thread through the ornament.
  • Chopstick or another item to make the hole to hang the decoration on the tree.
All my ingredients aside from the food dye to colour the dough.
All my ingredients aside from the food dye to colour the dough.

Method

  • Mix all the ingredients together.
  • Add the food dye and mix some more to make sure that it is the right colour.
  • I separated the dough into three different batches. I made different colours for each child. This is a good way to ensure you know who’s decorations are whos.
    Julia mixing the blue dough.
    Mixing the blue dough.
    All three coloured salt dough.
    All three coloured salt dough.
  • Roll out the dough so it is not too thick and not too thin. (I made some of ours too thick and it has taken a while to dry)
  • Cut out the shapes with the cookie cutters and then press handprints or footprints on the decorations.
    Adding the hole so you can hang your ornament. Make sure to do this before you bake the ornaments.
    Adding the hole so you can hang your ornament. Make sure to do this before you bake the ornaments.
  • Make sure to add a hole to put the string or ribbon into the decoration.  Don’t forget to do this. Once dry it will be next to impossible to add the hole for the ribbon to tie onto the tree. We used the end of a chopstick.
  • Put the decorations on a tray with baking paper and then bake in the oven.
  • Bake in the oven for 1-2 hours at 100°C. or 200 °F. Time might vary depending on how thick the dough is for your decorations.
  • If the ornaments are still doughy you can put them back into the oven, or maybe leave them out to firm up before you decorate them.
  • Once the ornaments are dry you can decorate them.
    The salt dough creature is ready to bake now. You can clearly see the hole that will allow you to put string/ribbon to allow you to hang up your decoration.
    The saltdough creature is ready to bake now. You can clearly see the hole that will allow you to put string/ribbon to allow you to hang up your decoration.

     

  • Add glue to the areas you wish to add glitter then sprinkle the glitter. Make your decoration sparkle! (I ended up buying glitter glue instead of just glitter. This saved me from adding the glue and then the glitter.)
  • Add ribbon or string to thread through the hole that you have added to the ornament to allow you to hang on the Christmas Tree or elsewhere.
Decorating the Salt Dough Ornaments with Glitter Glue.
Decorating the Salt Dough Ornaments with Glitter Glue.
The finished Salt Dough Ornaments. Some are harder than others as they were not as thick as the others. The thicker ones need more time. If I was to do it again I would make them a bit thinner.
The finished Salt Dough Ornaments. Some were harder than others as they were not as thick as the others. The thicker ones need more time. If I was to do it again I would make them a bit thinner.

I hope this helps you create your own wonderful salt dough masterpieces.

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Originally published 3 December 2017

Categories
Review

Trapped -The Art Heist

Games that make you think and solve problems are fun, a game that means you can only leave the room when you have the right pin code to open the door is even better.

TRAPPED Escape Room Games allow you to turn “ANY room into a family-friendly escape-room adventure where you move around the room actively solving puzzles.”

We have never played an escape room game so as you can imagine the kids and I were rather excited.

I loved the fact that it was a game that made the kids think and is engaged, plus not staring at a screen for a while.

“Each pack contains everything you need to create your very own escape room in your own home. Wall posters, cards to display, hangers for door handles, ID cards, and secret envelopes are just some of the things you might find inside the pack along with clues to solve and awesome puzzles to crack.”

All the posters, clues and tools needed to crack the puzzles and solve the mystery.


Setting up the game

I put all the contents of the game onto the floor of the girl’s room. I then proceeded to read the instructions to understand what I needed to do. There are a lot of little clue cards and a few posters that need to be stuck around the room, on each card/poster it says where you should put them. Some will say stick on the wall and others say they should be near the exit and so on.

Fun playing the game and solving puzzles.

The pack comes with a book of clues and a code cracker (this is a cardboard cover that allows certain words to be read and others not. You need this when you get asked to read a clue). We did have some interference from a four-year-old who tried to scrunch and rip the code cracker but this was foiled by mummy distracting him and allowing sisters and their mate to play their mystery game.

The instructions didn’t give a great deal of information. I wanted to know if we had to put all cards out. Do the clues on the back of the work passes get read at any time or will that spoil the game if it happens earlier? The mystery envelope with the clues to the code that unlocks the door was already organised so I had no idea what was in there.

If the kids did decide to play in teams how do they negotiate time with the clue book and code cracker? This might prove difficult. Oh well, currently it was just the girls and their mate, so a total of 3 kids originally I was playing but I had to spend time distracting the four-year-old so that he would leave the older kids alone to solve the puzzles.

Cracking the code

Initial thoughts of the game

At first, we didn’t really know what we were doing. The kids and I were in teams. This was proving hard due to not having time at the clue book and one team saying that what they were looking at was super important.

It was then decided that they would work as one group and not have teams. It was a bit confusing about picking clues to work on. I suggested to the kids that they pick one clue and solve it and then go from there. I later found out that they took all the clues off the wall and solved them together, but also one at a time.

I thought the kids might solve the game quickly but it was a good couple of hours before girls and their friends emerged telling me that they had solved the puzzle and finally had the code to leave their room.

What did we think?

I think the game was a lot of fun and definitely worth playing. It was great to see the kids get so involved, help each other, and solve puzzles by finding clues. I believe that games that get kids thinking and away from screens are best.

This is how long the kids were playing the game for

Recommendations

I do have a few thoughts to make Trapped The Art Heist even better.
When you have all the clues and materials ready to set up for the game, I would recommend having a few options for how you can set it up. It would be more like a chose-your-own adventure. You pick scenarios A, B, C, or D. These different options give you different clues in the room and different answers in the envelope when you finish. So if you pick Scenario B, you only put these clues up throughout the room. The posters might remain the same, and the mystery envelope would be different for each scenario that reveals the winners and the secret code.

The girls told me that no matter which way they went the answer to the puzzle was the same.

Great gift/party game

The kids really enjoyed this game and they were playing it for nearly 2 hours! We did thoroughly enjoy this game and it is a great gift or party game. If you are wanting a fun game for the family this Christmas Trapped Escape game would be a good one to try.

Trapped has two other escape room games to try; The Bank Job and The Carnival. You can get all three to have some fun during the holidays.

Stay tuned for the Trapped Giveaway

2 lucky readers have the chance to win a Trapped escape room game for the holidays.

I have the following to giveaway: Trapped The Bank Job and Trapped The Carnival. The Giveaway is going to be on my next post so make sure to follow and enter.

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Stay current with all the things that are happening on Mummy to Twins Plus One. Don’t miss a thing by signing up for my newsletter. This newsletter will list all giveaways and fabulous things that are happening.




If you wish to purchase a Trapped Escape Room Game they are available at ZING/EB Games, Mr Toyworld, BIG W and Mr Puzzle!

A HUGE thank you to U Games Australia for sending us this amazing and fun game to try. Plus the extra giveaways for my wonderful readers.

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