Glowing Clay Ghost Garland

The Halloween countdown has begun, and this week I’ll be spending time with my little family- making some costumes, carving pumpkins, and enjoying the little bit of Autumn we get to experience here in Texas. But before I sign off, I thought I’d leave you with one last Halloween craft that you can enjoy with the ones you love- and this one has a spooky surprise!

Glowing Clay Ghost Garland

If you’ve been following along with us lately, you know that the twins have had a sudden surge in interest for all things dough, which means we’ve been trying out all sorts of fun concoctions both on and off the blog. After seeing how much fun they had with our marbled autumn salt dough ornaments, I decided I wanted to give baking soda clay a try. I’ve seen it in the archives of many of my favorite blogs, so nothing revolutionary here…except for the fact that our ghostly ornaments glow in the dark with true Halloween flair!

To make our dough, I used this basic recipe for baking soda clay (adapted from Arm & Hammer):

• 2 cups baking soda
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 1 1/4 cups cold water

To make the clay, stir together your dry ingredients in a saucepan, then add your water and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture reaches mashed potato consistency (took about 15 minutes- be patient!). At this point, turn your clay onto a plate or countertop and cover with a damp cloth until cooled. IMPORTANT- this clay retains heat, so don’t cheat and try to manipulate it before it’s cool (it will also be extra sticky when warm).

This basic recipe resulted in a pure white, super soft and silky dough that was lots of fun for the twins and I to play and create with. To make it glow, I took the batch of basic dough and kneaded in a full bottle of glowing paint (here is the exact brand I used for your reference, although I bought mine at Michaels). It was a bit of a trial and error process since I didn’t add it during the initial cooking of the dough; I wasn’t too keen on using acrylic paint in a pot that we use to cook spaghetti sauce 😉

Adding all of that additional liquid meant that I needed to add extra dry ingredients so the dough didn’t become too wet, so I added baking soda and cornstarch at a 2:1 ratio (just like in the recipe) as I added the paint. So kinda like this: take your dough, add a couple of big squirts of paint, dump in two spoonfuls of baking soda and one of cornstarch, knead it all in, and repeat until all of the paint is worked in and your dough is a moldable consistency.

The twins and I played with this dough in lots of ways; making little sculptures, cutting out shapes with cookie cutters, stamping with all sorts of objects…it was lots of fun (although it did smell a tad like paint and I wouldn’t recommend using it with kids who are still prone to tasting- leave the paint out if that describes your kiddo). Although I’m only showing you the “ghosties” today, we have lots of fun creations to show you down the road- you’ll just have to hold your horses!

We cut out several sheets of “ghosties” using a metal cookie cutter, (I linked to one with the same shape but a comfort grip because we LOVE them for little hands) made holes with a nail (you can also use the end of a straw, but I found it distorted my ghosts a bit) and let them dry all day and overnight. I know some have been successful with hurrying the drying process in a low oven- I was hesitant to do so on account of the added paint, but if you do try it be sure to turn frequently and watch for browning.

After they were dry, I added loops of twine and we strung them onto a festive garland to hang on our mantle. I stored the leftover dough in the fridge, but after a few days it was a bit crumbly, so I dumped it into a plastic bin and let the twins play in the “gooey snow” (their words, not mine) in the pitch black bathroom while I made dinner. Talk about multi-tasking! Glow dough ROCKS!

More Autumn/Halloween Dough Ideas:

Marbled Autumn Salt Dough

Sparkly Spider Web Play Dough

Fall Forest Play Dough Invitation

Fall Play Dough with Tree Block Stamps

The Homemade Play Dough Recipe Book

If you love play dough, (or salt dough, or bread dough…) as much as we do, I highly recommend that you check out The Homemade Play Dough Recipe Book written by Cathy James of NurtureStore. It is a super creative e-book packed with amazing ideas regarding all things play dough, including:

• all the recipes you need for the activities in the book including non-cook and cooked play dough, gluten-free dough, salt dough, modeling dough, and real bread.
• ideas for 52 weeks of loose parts play, in a printable poster format
• a whole year of play dough activities, arranged seasonally. There’s an idea for every week of the year including sensory and imaginary play, storytelling, art ideas, small worlds, math activities, reading and writing ideas.

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