Our children are the most precious thing in this world. I want to fix everything related to the baby in my memory for a long time. A salt dough imprint will help us with this, which can forever imprint the hand or foot of a baby at a tender age. It will constantly remind you of the hours and minutes dear to your heart. In addition, such a print will be an excellent gift for grandparents, and in the future it can be shown to an older child.

Recipe No. 1 - for simple crafts

• 200 g = (1 cup) flour
• 200 g = (0.5 cup) salt (fine, not rock salt).
• 125 ml water

Please note that salt is heavier than flour, so they are the same in weight, but in terms of volume, salt takes up about half as much.

For thin relief figures, add your choice:

• 15-20 g (tablespoon) PVA glue or starch (tablespoon)
• wallpaper glue (mix it with a little water first)

Recipe No. 2 - Strong dough for large products

• 200 g flour
• 400 g salt
• 125 ml water

Recipe No. 3 - Dough for delicate work

• 300 g flour
• 200 g salt
• 4 tbsp. glycerin (can be purchased at a pharmacy)
• 2 tbsp. glue for simple wallpaper+ 125-150 ml of water pre-mix.

It is better to use a mixer for kneading - this will simplify the task, and the dough will turn out better.

Universal recipe for salt dough

• 2 cups of flour (you can add dry starch to the flour, without going beyond the norm of two cups. For example, 1.5 cups of flour + 1/2 cup starch. With the addition of starch, the dough will become more elastic. This dough makes thin parts especially well , for example, flower petals);
• 1 glass of salt;
• 1 partial glass of water, approximately 180 g, you can add 2 tablespoons. spoons of PVA glue. Instead of water, you can cook a starch paste.

Mix all ingredients.

Knead the dough until the mass becomes homogeneous and elastic; if the dough turns out to be runny, you can knead it further, adding a little flour until it becomes elastic.

Water can be replaced with starch jelly, then the mass will be much more plastic.

Kissel is made like this:

Dissolve one tablespoon of starch in 1/2 cup of cold water. Heat another 1 cup of water in a small saucepan until it boils. Pour the starch solution into boiling water, stirring. When the contents of the pan thicken and become transparent, turn off the heat. Let the jelly cool and pour it into the flour and salt mixture instead of water.

Methods for coloring salt dough

Tint salty dough You can use food coloring, watercolor or gouache. You can color it when preparing the dough, adding the dye during kneading, and then actually ready product- on the surface.

Great chocolate color obtained by adding cocoa. You can experiment with other natural dyes - soot, beet juice, carrots, ocher, etc. Can the product be made from salt dough Brown in the oven for natural color.
When tinting, you must take into account that after drying the color will become less saturated, but if you cover the craft with varnish, it will become brighter again.

What varnish can I use? Acrylic and artistic are very good. It is also possible to use ordinary construction materials water based for breathable surfaces, i.e. for parquet or wood.

Features and methods of preparing puff pastry

There are a few things you can't do with salt dough. So, for example, you cannot add pancake flour (or flour with any other additives) to salted dough, since the figures will rise like good dough for pies and will crack.

Also, you cannot add iodized salt - large inclusions do not dissolve, and subsequently the dough is not homogeneous - it turns into grains. Likewise, rock salt should not be added without first dissolving it.

About the water. It is best to use very cold water for the dough; be sure to add 50 ml in parts after each addition, knead (due to the fact that for different flours you may need different quantities water).

The salt is first mixed with flour, and only then water is poured into the finished mass.

Salt dough is stored in a plastic bag or tightly closed container. Salt dough from plastic bag It is better to take it out in small pieces, since lumps of dough quickly become covered with a crust and when rolling or molding, these dry crusts spoil the appearance.

And one more point: if the figures are thick (more than 7 mm), then after the first stage, you need to reverse side remove excess dough.

The dough may be too soft. Then proceed as follows: mix a tablespoon of flour with a tablespoon of salt at the bottom of a bowl. Press the ball of dough into this mixture and then scrunch it up. Do this until the dough becomes more dense.

You can sculpt or cut out figures directly on a baking sheet. The baking sheet should first be moistened with water; in this case, bubbles will not form between the product and the surface of the baking sheet, therefore, the surface of the product will be smooth and stable.

Everything that falls off is simply wonderful and, most importantly, it is glued invisibly with PVA glue.

Swelling or cracking of salt dough crafts occurs in three cases:

1. If the flour is chosen incorrectly. For greater strength, you can add rye flour to the dough (the color will be warmer and there should be no cracking, for example, a glass of regular flour + a glass of rye, 1 to 1); 50 gr. starch also gives the dough elasticity and prevents it from cracking. You can also add PVA glue, since it also gives plasticity and prevents the dough from rising.

2. If drying is not done correctly.

3. If cracking occurs after painting, this means that the product has not completely dried (the product continues to dry and the air needs somewhere to go), so the surface of the paint or varnish is cracking. Take your time to paint or varnish the product, so as not to regret it later and not to redo it.

How to dry salt dough

It is best to air dry natural conditions, but this takes a long time (complete drying can take a week or more, especially if the humidity during drying is high, since salt draws out moisture), so you can dry it in the oven, following several rules:

• The oven should be at minimum temperature;
  It’s good if drying goes with open lid ovens;
• Products must not be placed in hot oven immediately, heating should occur gradually. Just like taking the product out of the oven, it is better if it cools gradually instead of with the oven;
• It is ideal to carry out drying in several stages: let it dry for an hour on one side, turn the craft over, dry on the other side;
• The drying time for a salt dough product depends on the thickness of the product itself. And also on the manufacturing recipe used. So, dough containing butter, cream, etc. dries much longer than dough without oil-containing additives;
• To avoid cracking of the product, you can dry it in three to four stages, in the oven at the very minimum and always with the lid open for about an hour and a half, then a break of two to three hours, or overnight, the craft dries itself, and then again Turn the oven on low with the lid open.
• During natural and oven drying, the craft must be rotated at each stage of drying, i.e. takes an hour to dry front side, resting, on next stage turned it over and dries on the reverse side.

Life flows, children grow up, mothers and fathers set them free, but only touching memories remain in the soul of how small they were... Parents try in every way to capture their children: they take photos, videos. We offer one more interesting way- make casts of the baby’s arms and legs.

Time is so fleeting... It would seem that not so long ago children learned to walk, and today young grandparents are looking at photo albums and souvenirs related to the childhood of their grandchildren's parents. More and more generations are brought up on such memorabilia. Family stories supported by “physical evidence” are always much more valuable than those that have nothing to attach to them. One of these cute “proofs” that mom and dad, it turns out, were little too, can be panels self made with casts of arms and legs. There are several ways you can make casts of your baby’s arms and legs with your own hands, and we’ll tell you about the most accessible ones.

How to make a cast of a baby's hand and foot print?

Sand cast of arms/legs

We will tell you about the simplest method, which can be easily handled by a mother who does not know the art of sculpture. The cast can then be decorated with buttons, shells and chains.

Useful for creativity:

• fine sand;
• biscuit tin;
• alabaster;
• brush.

How to do it?

1. Sand is poured into a box and leveled. The child's imprint is made in the center.

2. Next, the alabaster powder is diluted very quickly with water to the consistency of thick sour cream.

3. It is poured into the cast in a thin stream. The thickness of the material above the sand is from 2 to 4 cm.

4. Leave the container for 20 minutes or more, take out the cast and clean off the grains of sand with a brush. Then you can start decorating the cast.

Decorative panel "Casts of the handle of the leg" from auxiliary materials

1. We make salt dough from half a glass of salt and a glass of water, add enough flour to make an elastic dough. To prevent it from sticking to the arms and legs, you need to knead it and let it stand for a while. If desired, you can grease the palms and soles of the legs with vegetable oil, but with a well-kneaded dough you can do without it.
2. If the baby is only a few months old, he may pull his oiled hands into his eyes and may involuntarily wipe them on his mother’s clothes. It is not always possible to make impressions when the child is sleeping, because the arm will need to be pressed, and it is generally better to make the leg while standing for good pressure. After all, all the lines of fate must be imprinted!

3. Don't think that we made too much dough, because it needs to be divided into 4 equal parts to take prints from two arms and two legs. Gently press the baby’s dry hand or foot into the resulting thick cakes. If the drawing cannot be made clear, you can crumple the dough and repeat the procedure again.

4. Before taking prints, select suitable containers or boards for the pieces of dough, because dough impressions are only the first stage of work. You could leave them, but after a few months the dough will lose its shape.

5. We got four cakes with indentations in the form of feet and hands.

6. Now you can dilute dry plaster or alabaster to the consistency of thick sour cream. Stir them thoroughly so that there are no air bubbles or unstirred clots. Do not forget that alabaster hardens very quickly, you need to work with it extremely quickly, with gypsum you can work more slowly. Pour the resulting solution into the recesses to their edges and leave until completely dry. After this, we clean the casts from the dough, preserving the structure of the imprinted skin.

7. It is best to paint with gold or bronze from spray bottles. These materials highlight texture much better than other paints and will look great on your panel.

8. Glue onto the prepared rectangle or square of thick cardboard either with a special glue gun, or liquid nails the resulting casts, a photo of the baby, around you can put an ornament of buttons, pieces of plastic, feathers and other beautiful little things. And we insert the casts into the frame.

Some people use plastic instead of salt dough, others buy special sets for casts, but the dough inspires more confidence because it is environmentally friendly.

Dough casts of arms and legs - video

Homemade ceramics "Hand-leg casts"

1. Instead of dough, you can use wet sand. But to do this you need to find good, clean, fine sand or thoroughly rinse the existing one. Then pour it into the selected container.
2. Let's say you have chosen a round or oval container, in the center of which the baby's leg can easily fit, and along the edges you can place shells, circles, a chain, beads - everything that can be imprinted beautifully and in relief on the wet sand. The entire resulting composition will need to be filled with the same alabaster or plaster, and when everything is dry, the surface must be cleaned of sand and painted.

3. You won’t need to stick anything onto the cardboard, but you will have to select a frame to match the formed round or oval plaster panel. However, if you immediately decide on a beautiful and neat container and do not take anything out of it, its edges can serve as a frame, only a hole in the upper segment will have to be drilled in advance so that the head of the screw on which you will hang the decoration fits into it.

4. A more logical material here might be clay rather than gypsum. And you will get an excellent ceramic disc. All that remains is to figure out where and how to burn it. But this is for those who have experience working with clay.

Ideas - baby's prints

Currently, many parents make casts of children's hands and feet with their own hands. Such a memorable print looks very cute and will allow you to remember the wonderful moments of early childhood for many years.

DIY casts of children's hands and feet

To make casts of arms and legs with your own hands, you don’t need experience, you just need to carefully read the instructions. As a rule, sets contain everything necessary materials and tools. In addition, they often provide the opportunity to make several casts, because working with a child is completely unpredictable, and whether the perfect contour will turn out depends largely on our small models.

How to prepare for making a three-dimensional cast of arms and legs with your own hands:

1. take care of good mood small model;
2. you can use sleep time;
3. Residue from the mixture after making may be difficult to wash off, so wear clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty;
4. the participation of two adults is necessary - one to take care of mixing the ingredients, the second to hold the baby and distract him;
5. if you have touched the sides or bottom of the mold, you can pour plaster into it and then smooth out any imperfections with sandpaper;
6. the time it takes for the mold to completely harden depends on the temperature of the water used - than colder water, the longer it will harden; the warmer the water, the faster the material will harden; room temperature of the water is optimal;
7. Make sure the containers are the right size for your baby's feet or hands.

How to prepare a child to make a cast of children's hands and feet with your own hands

How to prepare molds for casting casts for children with your own hands

To make an impression with your own hands, mix the mold powder with water in any container and pour it into a closed plastic container; you can mix the mixture directly in the same container. Measure ingredients accurately as poor ratios can affect the final result. You can use a test sample, which is sometimes included with the kit, to have information about the curing process.

Wet the skin of children's feet or hands thoroughly so that they slide out of the hardened mold easily.

Thanks to this manipulation, your child will be able to get used to the temperature of the mass, in addition, we will minimize the risk of air bubbles that worsen the quality of the product. Guide your baby's hand so that it slides accurately and accurately into the prepared paste.

Don't worry if your baby moves his arm. The beginning of the hardening process will show a change in the color of the paste, and this is the moment at which the child should not make very sudden movements. After hardening (about 1-1.5 minutes), remove the handle. To avoid holes in the set mold, guide your child's hand without touching the bottom or sides of the container.

How to prepare and pour plaster

Pouring plaster should not last longer than 5-6 minutes.

1. Prepare a plastic bowl and measure required quantity water and gypsum in appropriate proportions. Always add powder to water, not the other way around;
2. Pour the plaster of Paris into the water slowly, stirring constantly, until the mixture reaches the consistency of very thin yogurt. Mixing too intensively and for a long time can lead to the mass beginning to harden already during pouring into the mold. Also, stirring too much can cause bubbles to form. If you see bubbles on the surface, tap the container a few times to release them;
3. Initially the plaster is very watery, but after a while it gently begins to thicken. The plaster is ready when it reaches the consistency of pancake batter. Then, pour a small amount of plaster into the mold and carefully move the container in different directions so that the mixture fills exactly each hole;
4. After filling the form 1/3, tap the container on the table surface;
5. Pour in the rest of the mixture in batches;
6. Leave the container to harden for several hours.

How to avoid air bubbles in plaster?

Air bubbles spoil volumetric impressions; as a result, the plaster does not reach the fingertips, and the impression will not completely replicate the child’s hand. This problem mainly occurs with hand impressions, since the fingers on them are longer than on the feet, and the plaster does not always flow well into these holes.

You can use the following methods to avoid this:

In what position is it most convenient to make 3D impressions?

0-5 months. For very young children, the procedure should be carried out in a supine position, as for feeding.

5-12 months. Place the baby sideways on one knee with the parent, legs should hang freely. Make an “airplane”: the parent holds the baby on his stomach with his hands, the arms hang freely. In a sitting position: the parent sits the child on his lap, facing the table.

After hardening, carefully sand the product with sandpaper. After painting with paint, this treatment will become invisible.

How to make casts of arms and legs with your own hands

The resulting casts can be prepared in different ways:

You can add photographs of the baby to the composition at the age when the print was made, and also come up with a background with a thematic plot - for example, a footprint on sea sand.

The resulting souvenir will delight you, and you will be able to enjoy this memorable and a beautiful thing long years.

As soon as you have a baby, be sure to make your own hand and foot prints! Time flies very quickly and the imprint of a baby’s hand will never be repeated! Try to make a panel with prints in the very first days of the baby’s life, because babies sleep much more soundly at first and have a little more free time.

Below is mine master class with photos on how to make baby’s hand and foot prints voluminous, and now I’ll tell you about all the other methods known to me.

It is best to make handprints of a baby while you sleep, and then wipe your hands with wet wipes. The easiest way to make prints of your baby's hands and feet is with paint. The “healthiest” thing, that is, completely harmless for the baby’s delicate skin, is to make prints on salt dough.

How to make prints of baby's feet and hands on salt dough
Although this is the simplest method, it is also the least durable. Keep in mind that over time you will have to throw away the dough, as it may deteriorate, for example, soften from humidity. Nice layer varnish will help the salt dough pen imprint retain its appearance, but it definitely won’t live to see the grandchildren.

Salt dough recipe for fingerprints:
Salted fingerprint dough is made in the most primitive way! Take the finest salt and mix it with flour 1 to 1, for example, a glass of flour to a glass of salt. And add a little water, kneading a stiff dough. If it's too much, add flour. Next, you can take a plastic container, place a piece of dough there, make an imprint, if necessary, cut a circle around it and put it in a dry place. There is no need to bake, as is said in many master classes on casts of arms and legs made from salt dough! The dough will change its shape and the print will become deformed. After a few days, the print can be covered with acrylic paint and varnish on any surface (varnish is sold in construction stores).

How to make plaster prints with your own hands
I made these with my eldest daughter, but I didn’t really like the result, because they are quite heavy and then there is nowhere to put them. To make plaster prints of a child’s hands and feet, buy plaster at a hardware store (20 rubles a pack), dilute it according to the instructions on the package. Pour into a beautifully shaped container - a round cup, for example, pre-covered cling film. Touch with your finger - after a few minutes, when the plaster begins to harden and becomes denser, make an imprint with the child’s hand and foot, lubricated sunflower oil or very rich cream. Remove from mold. Ideally use silicone molds.

And now I’m sharing my experience, How to make three-dimensional casts of a baby's arms and legs at home!

It so happened that I made my children’s handprints from salt dough when my youngest son was born. Then I left them to harden on the windowsill and happily forgot about them for several months. When I remembered my desire to do volumetric handles kids, the size of the kids’ hands was no longer the same! But I took out the dough pieces and... discovered that they had almost spoiled - some had become soft, some had completely softened, others were somehow holding on with all their strength (here it is - minus the salt dough!). It was urgent to save the situation. And I remembered that I had the cheapest self-hardening plastic lying around for six months, bought for training in sculpting doll heads.

Here it is in the photo, the pack was a kilogram (365 rubles), enough prints for 10. I bought it in Gostinka (St. Petersburg), in the department on the first floor with brushes, paints, etc. Those who live in another city will be able to order self-hardening plastic on the Internet or buy it in large cities in stores with goods for artists. Stores with goods for making dolls will have better plastic and four times more expensive. Also in the photo - in the same department I bought the cheapest acrylic paints for any surface (92 rubles for the whole set. Enough for 10 years if my daughter doesn’t get it).

And now about how to do volumetric impression baby's legs and arms made of plastic.

First, make imprints from the salt dough and leave them to harden. In general, you can varnish them, wash them after work and then give them as a souvenir to your grandparents. I read on the Internet that I recommend making the base for impressions from the same plastic. But, firstly, it is not very soft, and secondly, it does not smell very pleasant, so I didn’t want to touch the baby’s skin with it.

She drained the oil, crushed the pancake of plastic and pressed it into the print. That is, I pressed it in there thoroughly with my fingers so that it took the shape of a child’s hand. To prevent it from breaking later, I added pieces of plastic to the dented one. My surface is not very smooth, since this plastic also sat in my not very well closed package for more than nine months, so it was not very plastic and crumbled. Your print should repeat all the smallest folds of the baby’s arms and legs.

I took out the print, it comes out easily after the oil.

Since my dough was already soft, I removed the crumbs with a cotton swab and oil. If you have a fresh print, and even coated with varnish, you won’t need to do this.

I cut it out with a regular knife and left it to dry. flat surface for a few days.

You can also involve the little ones in covering children’s casts of arms and legs with paint; they will be happy to help!

Then I covered the plastic casts with two more layers of gold paint.

It is not necessary to coat acrylic on any surface with varnish. All that remains is to make a beautiful panel! You can glue not only casts of arms and legs, but also photographs of children, some memorabilia, first socks and a pacifier...

Ideally, glue it using a hot gun (small one in construction stores, for example in Ob I saw about 150 rubles). You can use glue moment. For the background, take very thick cardboard, or it is better to paint the thick base of the frame itself.

I don’t yet know what kind of panel I want, I made a rough sketch for you. But, of course, I want to use scrap paper, frames, etc. - in general, there is still a lot of work, but the result is worth it! And if you want to make three-dimensional casts of a child’s hands and feet as souvenirs that will remain intact until your old age, it is best to use a deep frame for three-dimensional panels, in which the distance from the substrate to the glass is about 3 cm.

Happy creativity!
Even more master classes for children, with children and for yourself - in the Creativity section!
And delicious master classes in the section

The simplest and cheap way– a print with any paints on paper. It’s better to take finger paints or watercolors, apply them to an arm or leg, and put an imprint on a landscape sheet. Then you can beautifully design the free space around the print. To prevent the sheet from fraying over time, it is better to laminate it and only then put it in a frame.

Plasticine prints

There is another simple way to make an imprint: buy modeling clay or modern plasticine (the one that dries itself in the air) at any store. Choose the color you like best. You need to take the mass and flatten it into the desired shape, and only then press well with your handle or foot. Don’t forget to make a hole for the ribbon so that you have something to hang your “home heirloom” from later. Leave the workpiece overnight and it will dry.

Homemade salt dough print

This type of printmaking is more labor-intensive, but the result will be more interesting.

For the test we need: 1 cup flour, 1 cup salt, 2 tbsp. sunflower oil and 0.5 - 1 tbsp. water. Knead the dough. Let it sit for half an hour, maybe in the refrigerator.

1. Knead the dough, roll it into a ball, then roll it out with a rolling pin, about 1.5 - 2 cm thick;
2. Take some foil, place a piece of dough on it and chill the dough in the refrigerator;
3. Lubricate the baby’s hand (leg) with sunflower oil and press it into the dough;
4. Don't forget to make a hole in the dough for the ribbon so that the finished “work of art” can be hung;
5. If you are satisfied with the print, it should be left to dry for 2-3 weeks;
6. After about a week, you can turn it over, carefully removing the foil;
7. When the print is dry, paint it with acrylic paints.

Salt dough cast

This type of cast making is also quite painstaking. For it we need salt dough, plaster, acrylic paint. Make the dough according to the recipe given above.

Take a larger lump of dough so that the imprint is deep. We print a handle or leg on this lump of dough. We take plaster. You need to dilute the plaster in a ratio of 1/3 gypsum to 2/3 water. To begin with, we dilute a little plaster and lubricate the contour with a brush and leave for 10 minutes so that the plaster dries. Next, prepare the second part of the plaster and fill the print to the edges. Leave to dry for 15 minutes.

When the plaster dries, you will need to bend the soft dough. Do this very carefully so as not to damage the impressions. The remaining pieces of dough on the casts must be carefully removed. That's it, now you can start coloring!

Sand casts

Sand casts look very beautiful and creative. We will need: sand, plaster, frame.

1. Take dry river sand and sift it through a sieve;
2. Then the sand needs to be moistened, add a little water to it;
3. We take a mold (frame) and fill it with wet sand, then make an imprint in it (spread your palm and press lightly on it);
4. Then take the plaster. It is necessary to dilute the plaster in the following ratio: add 2/3 water to 1/3 gypsum;
5. Fill the mold with plaster on top and leave until hardened;
6. Shake off the remaining sand and your sand print is ready!

Casts from creative kits

If you do not want to spend a lot of time studying the issues of making impressions, then purchase a ready-made one. With it you can even make a baby's fist. In such kits, everything is already included in the kit and you just need to follow the step-by-step instructions.