Olympic Pins

What You Need:

• Mixing bowl
• ½ cup salt
• ½ cup flour
• ¼ cup water
• Rolling pin (optional)
• Cookie cutters (circles, squares, or rectangles are best)
• Shirt pins (from craft store)
• Glue
• Paint
• Paintbrushes
• Clear varnish (optional)

What You Do:

1. Start by making kid-friendly salt dough. Have her pour the salt and flour into a mixing bowl.
2. Have her create a small well in the center of the dry ingredients, and pour the water into it. Have her start mixing by using her fingers.
3. As soon as you have a ball formed, place the dough on a floured surface and roll it out until it is about 1/2-inch thick.
4. Using cookie cutters or a butter knife, have her cut out some circle, square, or rectangle shapes. These will be the face of the pins, so make sure they are the proper size—a reasonable size to place on her shirt or hat (or in a keepsake box).
5. If you're both feeling really creative, help her make small hockey sticks or a wreath out of dough, and stick it onto the base. Have her try making the Olympic rings and placing them in their pattern on a pin. Now she has a three-dimensional pin!
6. After she has formed her desired number of pins, allow the dough to air dry, which takes at least one night.  If she doesn't want to wait to finish the project, place them on a cookie sheet and bake at 200° F, until they are dry.
7. Once they are dry and have cooled, it’s time to paint! Gather some Olympic information from the Internet; look at different events, flags of countries, or even the Olympic rings themselves as ideas for these unique pins.
8. Invite her to paint her designs on the pins, and let them dry thoroughly.
9. Once they are dry, ask her to use the craft glue to attach the pin backing. She is now ready to collect, share, or trade these Olympic mementos!