These adorable Salt Dough Footprint Heart Keepsakes where first shared in 2015!
A big hello to all of you Red Ted Art readers, I am Amy Louise. After several years of working in a Primary School, I am now a stay at home Mom to a lovely little girl who is now 2 years old. I blog over at Learning and Exploring Through Play, we share activities, arts, crafts and sensory play activities with a focus of bringing a creative approach to child development. I have a passion for children learning through their play.Make some Salt dough for your Footprint Keepsake
Salt dough is super easy and versatile to make – simply mix the following (adding the water gradually).
- 2 Cups of Flour
- 1 Cup of Salt
- upto 1 cup of water
Making your Footprint Keepsake:
We set about making our Salt Dough Heart Footprint Keepsake using our simple Salt Dough Recipe. In 5 simple steps and 3 ingredients you can create endless crafts, gifts and keepsakes for any occasion.
Little N enjoyed measuring the salt and flour into the cups, adding them to the bowl and giving them a good mix together, she was in her element! I like her being involved in preparations where possible.
I folded the dough until it came together to make the mixture and used a tray to roll out the dough. The mixture this recipe makes will make one set of footprints (as pictured), we had only a small amount left over.
Once the dough was rolled out, we set about getting Little N’s footprints into the dough. We overlapped her heels to create a footprint heart.
Using a sharp knife I cut around the footprints and created a heart ornament. I left it overnight and most of the following day to air dry before putting it into the oven at 125 degrees Fahrenheit for around 3-4 hours. I kept a close check on them to make sure they wasn’t burning or cracking.
Once they were dry it was time to set about painting them. I did this using acrylic paints.
When the painting was done, I used a black pen to include a saying around the edges ‘I love you from the very bottom of my heart, to the tips of my toes.’ I used clear varnish to seal them but you can also use PVA glue.
Now wasn’t that just the easiest footprint keepsake ever?! I hope you like it and have a go too!
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Amy joins us on our 31 Days of Love series for January 2015. This is a “Love” themed series we first started last year. It is a way, not only to bring you some fantastic Valentine’s Day Activities for you and the kids, but also to celebrate the blogging community that I am a part of. 40 (we aimed for 31, but ended up extending to 40) of my co-bloggers, share a post each day about Love with you this month. There will be Valentine’s Day Cards, Valentine’s Day Decorations, Valentine’s Day Treats or Valentine’s Day Gifts for you check out and enjoy!
If you loved these adorable keepsakes.. you will also LOVE LOVE LOVE these Valentine’s Day Crafts for Preschoolers:
Check out a round up of last year’s Valentine’s Day Card ideas? 14 in total – one of each Valentine’s “Day”….
why does it look like the feet prints are raised on the painted one and the ones on the foil look like its an imprint???
I think it is just a trick of the light and reflection of the light, Sharon?
I would love to try this with my baby girl.What is the measurements of salt and flour please and thank you
So long as you keep the parts the same – you can use any amount – 2 large cups of flour, 1 large cup of salt, or two small cups of flour etc…
Hi ! I lkie this keep sending me things like this i like to this with my grand kids . Lynn
i want to make your salt footprints
That is great! Have fun – there is a link to the salt dough recipe in the body of the text!
Would like to makes these with my grandchildren, wondering how much water to add?
You add UP TO one cup of water! (same cup size as for flour and salt). Gradually add the water until you have a smooth dough!
So excited I saw this idea. Perfect to send to my daughter’s birth families!!!!
Neat idea for children to do.
Any suggestions on how to make a good foot print? Every time I have tried in the past it never works. You can’t see the actual prints.
This is such a precious craft. We would love for you to share with our readers at the Spring Craft Blog Hop going on now. #SCBH2015
When baking it at 125 is that Celsius or farenheit? My oven doesn’t go Nas low as 125 so I’ve had it on the lowest setting of 170 for almost 5 hours and the still seem soft…..suggestions?
Saltdough really takes a while to dry out – I tend to have it in the oven for 2-3 hours and then take it out and let it dry near a radiator for an additional 2-3 days before painting. You CAN heat the oven right up – the only risk is a) that the edges turn brown (but not so bad if you are painting it anyway) and b) the saltdough can bubble up a little.
you can also use cold left over coffee or black tea to change the shade of the dough
I get so frustrated because I cannot print the craft projects that I see on here. I am subscribed to the site. Please help!
Can you not print the webpage off? won’t your printer let you do that?
What do you do if it cracks while in the oven? And how do you prevent it from cracking before you put it in the oven?
Love this idea!! It’ll be such a fun activity to do with my little… Quick question, to seal it, do you think I could use modge podge glue?
I was wondering the same exact thing.
A few days ago Happy Hooligans put a recipe off of your site fir a heart garland. The ingredients were baking soda, corn starch and water. I’m just not sure the amounts of each. Can you help me? Thank you!
Hello Jill – where you after this recipe here – https://www.redtedart.com/2015/01/12/white-clay-heart-bunting-valentines-day-decoration/ ?
Clay dough was substituted with large paper plates. One paper plate features the heart shape foot prints of the toddler & preschool daycare children with your quote along the edges of the paper plate. The second paper plate features their heart shape hand prints with the same quote with the exception of the word “fingers” substituting the word “toes”. We look forward to your creative, easy, fun & inexpensive crafts for future daycare crafts & will continue to tell others about your website.
Hi i hust made these with my daughter and took them out of the oven after less than 2 hours because they are rising… im not sure what i did wrong… please help i would love to fix it
How hot did you have the oven? If the oven is too hot, they will bubble 🙁
Hi! I don’t know if you still check this, but I wanted to tell you how much I am in love with this project. It was time consuming, but easy. I did mine just like yours with just a minor change. I love it so much- I made four! Cool thing is the more you make, you can save the left over dough and make another! Lol. Before cooking I added a big hole on the top and when it was done I strung ribbon through it and tied a cute little bow for decoration. Thank you, it’s going to make a great present for the grandmas!!!!
Awwww so pleased to hear it and thanks for the tip!!! 🙂
To make this project for one infant, two toddlers and one Pre-K child should I triple or quadruple the recipe?
Hey I followed all of your instructions and put in the same ingredients and followed how you said to do It. When I put it in the oven it started turning like a gold color and it’s not fully hard and from where it was drying the flour it looks like it cracked but it was only in there an hour. What did I do wrong?
Hello,
I used this recipe and let my heart sit out to dry, well, it cracked. Do you have any suggestions on how to fix this? Or what I did wrong?
Oh I am not sure why it cracked 🙁 so sorry to hear it and not really sure how to fix it either.
I want to do this with my boys. My one ? is once you mix the ingredients and then roll it out how do you get it into the heart shaped and how did you get yours to have some depth to it?