Thursday, January 13, 2011

Salt Paint Snowmen


I like salt paint.  When it dries, the final project looks so unique and you just have to touch it.  Last Easter, we made salt paint marshmallow chicks (click on the link to check them out!) and they looked just like marshmallow Peeps!

While cleaning under my kitchen sink, I found the bottle of liquid laundry starch that has been sitting there for quite some time and figured it was time to use some of it.  I decided to make salt paint.  This is the recipe:
  • 1/4 cup liquid laundry starch
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 2 TBSP paint (we used white paint this time to look like snow)
  • 1 cup salt

I mixed all of the ingredients in a foil pie pan and C and R got to work making snowy scenes.  When the salt paint dried, C and R used markers to add details to their snowmen.

It is really hard to capture the texture in photographs.  This is C's salt paint snowman:


Here is R's salt paint snowman:



We followed this with a snowy story time.  We began by reading Snowmen All Year by Caralyn Buehner and Mark Buehner.

Just like the other snowman books by these authors (Snowmen At Night and Snowmen at Christmas), this book is fun to read and the illustrations are perfectly sweet.  We love to find the hidden pictures on each page too!  The concept behind this book is unique - imagine your snowman friend could last all year, think of all the things you could do together.  C and R like the idea of trick or treating with a snowman and taking a snowman to the beach in the summer!  I am particularly fond of the snowman camping under the starry skies. 

Our second snowman book of the night was Snow Party by Harriet Ziefert.  On the first day of winter, snow men, snow women, and snow children come out for a special party.  There is dancing, singing, and seasonal fun.  The illustrations are very charming!  I like the simple text too.

Any book that has snowmen coming to life makes my children very happy!

I am linking this to stArt, Kids Get Crafty, and Read, Explore, Learn.  Visit all three sites for more book inspired projects!
 

25 comments:

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

We just returned Snowmen All Year to the library - it is very cute.

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

We have to make salt paint again one of these days - these pictures turned out lovely. We read this new Snowmen book in the store, but I thought that earlier books in the series are more fun.

Jennifer said...

Guess I'll be adding liquid laundry starch to my grocery list!

And I didn't know there was a third "Snowmen at Night" book! I loved the first two! I'll definitely be looking for this one now too! Thanks!

RedTedArt said...

Ooooh SALT paint! What a fun idea - definitely fun for textures and a great way for exploring different "mediums". Wonderful. Thank you for linking up to Kids Get Crafty and sharing it with us!!

Maggy

SnoopyGirl said...

Your snowmen turned out so cute! I am off to my library to find some of these books. I love winter!

Debbie said...

I've never heard of salt paint. Very interesting. Love their paintings!

Sherri said...

I have never used salt paint before...I think I will do this with my wee ones today! Looks fun! Thanks!

Ticia said...

I was thinking yesterday that I needed to get some liquid starch, and this is yet another reason to get it.

Brimful Curiosities said...

Hmm...I don't think I have any laundry starch. Looks like it does make some lovely snowy pictures. We have Snowmen All Year checked out from the library right now!

MaryAnne said...

Your paint looks so pretty! I think I need to add liquid starch to my craft stash.

Michelle said...

I love them...I will be adding laundry starch to my shopping list :0)

I am going to check to see if my library has these books they look great.

Thank you for linking up to stART!!

Michelle said...

Very cute! I love adding things to stuff like paint and play doh to make it different and fun. Last year we made water, chalk and sugar swirlly snow pictures. They dried really pretty too.

Unknown said...

That looks awesome. I'll have to try it.

Valerie @ Inner Child Fun said...

Oooo... we're going to do this!! I have some liquid laundry starch on-hand too. Great idea!!

The Mom I Want To Be said...

Oh fun, I've never tried salt paint before :)

Anonymous said...

We haven't tried salt paint or read either of these books, we have a lot to look forward to! They turned out terrific.

Mara said...

I have not heard of salt paint either. I need to add this to our list to try. Thanks for posting!

Jenny said...

Thanks for the recipe! We've never done that before.

Monica said...

They turned out really great! They really seem to sparkle. What fun your kids must have had.

Unknown said...

I love the salt paint effect. It is so cool. Both books look great! We are sharing snowman book next week on Read.Explore. Learn.

Thanks for linking up. I am off to Stumble this post.

Amanda said...

How fun!

Anonymous said...

oohh how cool! I will have to try this at some point.. but I need to get some starch first :-)

Charlene Juliani said...

I love salt paint!!

I picked up that book at the library and carried it around until the end when I had too many and had to put some back...darn now I wish I would have borrowed it lol!

LitLass said...

Cute snowmen! We'll have to check out those books.

Elle Belles Bows said...

So cute! I will definitely need to try it! Thanks! Kerri