Snow(dough)men

Nearly two years ago I posted a recipe for homemade play dough...it was a big hit! But that dough is more like the kind you'd buy at the store...something you want to hold on to and use over and over again.

The recipe you'll find below is more of a create-something-and-let-it-harden kind of dough...like the snowmen (and snowdog and snowfairy) my children and I made shown here.

It's a ton of fun and can be made into any color with a bit of patience (it's kind of messy to do and you need more food coloring than you'd think)...but it's worth it...the kids love the colors! Here's the how-to:

Ingredients

• 1 cup salt
• 1-1/2 cups warm water
• 3 cups flour
• food color - optional

Directions

1. Dissolve the salt in the warm water until it's nearly all gone by stirring for several minutes.
2. Add the flour and knead and pound until nice and smooth (if it seems too sticky, add a touch more flour).
3. Divide it up and add food coloring if desired.
   

We made some orange, pink and a greenish/brown (we were trying to reach black, but stopped at this shade). We also had some chopsticks on had to poke in eyes, smiles and buttons. And for the stick arms we rolled out a think strip and let it harden while we created our figures...and then poked them in at the end.

The kids really had a great time and really got creative! August helped Hazel make the guy on the left, August made the man on the right on skis and Martha made the pink snowfairy. And yes, I made the tall guy in the back and the snowdog at the kids' request. And then we showered them with snow (flour).