Salt Dough Leaf Prints

I was working with salt dough this weekend and decided to try and make some leaf prints.






Materials Required:

salt dough, recipe to follow
artificial silk leaves
round container to use as cutter
oven
acrylic paint
mod podge for sealer



Salt Dough Recipe

4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 1/2 - 2 cups water
extra flour for kneading

Mix first 3 ingredients together to form a nice soft dough. Knead smooth with extra flour. The more you knead this dough the easier it is to work with.

Keep leftover dough in the fridge.







Make up your salt dough. This recipe will make enough for 8 rounds.







Roll out dough and the using circular container or bowl, (coffee can) cut your rounds.






Pick a leaf for your design. I initially tried this with fresh leaves but they did not leave a good imprint. I think it would have worked with clay.

The silk leaves leave a better impression in the salt dough.








Place where you want it and press the leaf into the dough.














When you lift it off you should have a nice impression.











Place on a parchment or foil covered cookie sheet and bake at 250 degrees for about 2 - 3 hours or until hard.


Let cool.








Take some acrylic paint in Autumn colors.








After trial and error I found the best way to paint these is to paint the leaves in different colors first. Let dry.








Then using dark brown paint that you have watered down apply a wash, like an antiquing glaze to the entire surface. The dark color picks up the veining in the leaf and still lets the Autumn color show thru.


Let dry and then apply a coat of glossy Mod Podge as a sealer.

That's it. A good project for all ages.

See you next time,