Traveling with your family can be a fun and exciting adventure, especially when you are taking your younger kids. You’ll be making lots of new memories with pictures and videos to be able to look back on and commemorate. However, traveling with younger children can also be very stressful. You have to take into consideration the things you need to pack and make sure their needs are still being met while traveling.  

by Barbara L.

It was hard to find a Father’s Day craft that my one-year-old could participate in, but I finally came across one in which she could take part. My daughter and I made this “punny” paperweight for my husband.

Materials:

  • 1/4 cup salt*
  • 1/2 cup flour*
  • 1/4 cup water*
  • bowl
  • cookie sheet
  • pea gravel or small pebbles
  • Optional: acrylic sealer

*Please note, if you plan to do both a hand print and lettering, double the amounts of salt, flour, and water. Our paperweight came out pretty thin with this recipe.

To make the craft extra special, my daughter and I went to the beach, and she picked out the pebbles for daddy herself. I’ve never had to say, “Spit it out and put it in the bucket!” so many times in my life, but it was worth it.

Directions:

  1. Mix flour, salt, and water in a bowl to make salt dough. Add flour if needed. Dough should not be overly sticky or crumbly.
  2. Knead dough until it has an even consistency, then place onto cookie sheet and flatten.
  3. You choose what to do with the stones. Imprint your child’s hand and fill it in with rocks. Or, spell out “Daddy rocks.” Or, do both! (As noted above, if you do both, double the salt dough recipe for a bigger paperweight).
  4. Preheat oven to 250 F.
  5. Bake for 2 – 2.5 hours until hard.
  6. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before removing from the cookie sheet.
  7. Optional: brush your paperweight with an acrylic sealer.

Tutorial found at: http://joeseoulman.blogspot.com/2012/03/father-day-dad-rocks-paperweight-craft-1.html