Salt dough Handprint ornaments

So I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day last week, I wanted to do something crafty for the Grandparents/Dada this year.  You all have probably seen them, but those salt dough Handprint ornaments that are in the shape of a heart seemed like a good idea.  Some things I learned while doing this craft with 2 little ones:

1) the recipe I will share that I found online was enough for 6 ornaments (they said 3 on the website, but I got 6)

2) Mix the dough....a lot!!  I ended up kneading it like I would bread dough by hand & knead it a lot!!

3) I baked mine at 170 for 1 hr. & then let them harden for like a week, just to be sure they were hard as I knew I'd be shipping them in the mail

4) I used  a straw to make a hole at the top to insert the ribbon, just like the recipe said, but you may need to enlarge it to get the ribbon through

5) Mine don't have perfect edges, but I kind of thought that added to the homemade look of them, so I didn't redo them

Here's the website I found this on & the recipe below:

4 C flour

1C salt

Food coloring

Mixing bowl--large

cookie sheet

Just a tad of water to moisten the dough

Cookie sheet

Small amount of oil to oil cookie sheet

Rolling pin or wooden dowel

Drinking straw to make the hole for the ribbon

Ribbon

Paint or glitter to decorate

Gradually blend the salt, flour, & small amount of water with the salt/flour mix until it resembles fresh pizza dough, you don't want too much water, but enough so you can roll out the dough & make handprints in it.  Knead this dough a lot, the more you knead it the smoother it will become.  If you're adding any food coloring put that in & knead it until the color is evenly distributed.  

I forgot to take any pics of the girls actually putting their hands in the dough, but here are the finished products minus the ribbon that I picked up later.  I did some white/red swirl, some pink, & some purple glitter.  I hope that the grandparents & dada will enjoy the little handprint heart shapes....I think they're pretty sweet!  Here's the poem I included with them to each set of grandparents & to dada :)

This isn't just any handprint

as you can plainly see

For it is a special heart handprint

Made by me

Along with this handprint

I send lots of hugs & kisses your way

And ask that God bless you on this 

Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day 2013