This Valentine craft uses a recipe for colored salt dough to make some pretty heart-shaped candle holders. It combines reading, math, fine motor skills and sensory exploring to make a lovely gift.
Homemade colored salt dough Valentine candle holders
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Whenever we’re ‘baking’, I always like to write out a simplified version of the recipe for my children, and then I encourage them to take charge and read out all the instructions for us.
With a recipe, children get to read a sequence of steps, and encounter mathematical measures. We had a chat about ratios and how the recipe could be doubled or tripled to make more candle holders.
This recipe should make approximately 6 – 8 candle holders of the size shown.
In a large bowl we measured out two cups of plain / all purpose flour and two cups of salt.
How to color salt dough
There are three different ways you can add the color to your salt dough.
If you have some colored salt, you can use that in place of the ordinary salt – see here for how to dye salt.
You can also add food coloring to the water in the recipe.
And if you want to make plain salt dough and paint it at then end, you can – you can see how the children at The Mad House used that method to make their pretty Valentine candle holders.
We had some colored salt left over from our salt writing tray, so we used that, and also added some food coloring gel to our water.
You’ll need one cup of water to complete the recipe. Pour it in to your bowl, and add some glitter for extra sparkle. Give the salt dough a good stir.
Once all your ingredients have combined together, tip the salt dough out and knead it for a couple of minutes. This is a great workout for hands and fingers.
Then you can roll out your colored salt dough and use cookie cutters or your hands to make heart shapes.
We found a piece of baking parchment under the dough was a good idea, and stopped the dough from sticking to the table. The children also found it easier to mold the dough with their hands, rather than the cookie cutter.
Use one of your tealights to press a circle into your salt dough, to make a space for your candle to sit – but remember to remove the tealight before your candle holder goes in the oven.
Place the salt dough candle holder on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment, and bake in a very cool over (Gas 1/2, 120C, 250F) for two to three hours. (A spatula / fish slice is useful for transferring the candle holder to the baking sheet.)
The time it takes to bake will depend on the size and thickness of your candle holders. It’s a good idea to carefully turn them over half way through baking so they dry out on the under-side too.
Once baked the candle holders will be dried and hard. Carefully remove them from the oven and place on a wire cooling rack until completely cold.
Then you can add the tea light back into the centre and light your pretty Valentine candle holder.
More lovely Valentine’s Day activities for your children
Did you see all my other Valentine’s Day activities for children? I’ve got more free printables, art, math, science, literacy and play ideas, all with a Valentine theme. You can find them all here.
Cathy. these are beautiful. I love the idea of colouring the dough.
Hi I love this idea and would like to use it in school. I was wondering if the dough could be made in advance and used the next day. Can it also be baked a few hours after it has been made?
Thank you very much.
Hi Nicki T. I’ve never kept the dough overnight, but I would guess that if you kept it very well wrapped, it might be fine. And yes, if you lay the hearts out flat after you’ve made them, they can sit for a while before baking.
I made dough last night 31/1/16 and put it in an air tight container and was fine today.
Yes and I refrigerate it overnight in ziplock bags
Do we have to bake them or can we sit them out over night and they will be fine?
Hi Semaj. I bake ours – see details in the post for temp and time. I think you could leave them to dry out but it would take a long time (days).
When you kneed the colored dough, does the color go on to your hands? Do you have to wear gloves?
Hi Linda. I find that if we add the colour in with the water then it combines with the dough very well and doesn’t come off on our hands. It’s when you mix up a ball of dough and then add in the food colouring to the ball of dough as an extra stage at the end that it has been known to stain our hands a little.
They can be allowed to dry naturally but will take several days. I do because the color stays brighter. I gave also kept wrapped dough for a few days with no problem.
Hi Linda. After baking can you leave it outside in the garden. If i want to make garden animals?
Hi Thea. I think the rain would damage them if they’re left out. You might need to add protective varnish.