After Leah was born, my sister-in-law gave me a little gown that had been hand-made by her beloved Nana, her's and Doug's paternal grandmother. Nana passed away before Doug and I met but I know she's been a great influence in his life, and everybody talks in glowing terms of her. A kind lady with a green thumb and a vicious card player streak - she must have been something.
I was really touched by this present, all the more so because Nana had made this baby gown for R, my nephew. The gown came wrapped in a piece of old-fashioned wallpaper. P. told me that it had been wrapped in this wallpaper when she first got it from Nana -- a left-over piece from her kitchen wallpaper. I know what to do with the gown but I had no use for the piece of wallpaper. Yet, I couldn't just throw it away. But stashing it in some corner for years to come? It would become just another piece of clutter.
Then I had an idea. I have some decal frames - wall decals in the shape of picture frames. We also have a staircase full of art and photos, our ever growing motley collection of things we like and that can be hung on a wall. So I cut the wallpaper down to size and stuck it on the wall (wall - wallpaper, get it?) with the decal - and voila! It's cute, visible, it's a reminder of Nana that is both whimsical and touching and I don't feel bad about either throwing it out or it collecting dust somewhere.
And then we also made new hand prints. Remember the not-so-great outcome of the ready-made hand print version a few days ago?
Well, David made one at a birthday party last week where they used salt dough. Hah! That's easy, I thought and made salt dough. There are a ton of recipes on the net but basically, it's flour, salt and water. My mother, who is a very crafty person, recommends a little bit of oil and a tablespoon of wallpaper paste powder to create a very fine, smooth dough. Do what she says, people.
Roll out the dough, let kids press their hands in, voila! If you don't like the results, scrape it together and knead a bit, roll out again and repeat. Very fast, best results - much better than the store-bough putty. It has the right consistency for prints - not too soft, so the kids don't go through the dough when you press their fingers down, not too hard so that you don't see anything. Also, kids love salt dough. Any leftovers will be gleefully turned into snakes, balls, or weapons. If you have boys, that is.
I recommend to let anything made of salt dough dry at room temperature for about two days, and then gently bake it in the over at very low temperature for about two hours. The pre-drying prevents cracking - the faster you dry, the more you have the danger of cracking. Patience is a virtue here. Also, the oil and wallpaper paste powder will help here. Once the prints are dried, I plan to color the outlines and leave the prints white. And then, of course, they will go into the artsy stairwell.
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