Salt Dough Fingerprint Magnets for Valentine's Day

Yesterday's Valentine's round up really got me in the mood for Valentine's Day.  The kids and I made these super easy salt dough magnets to give to our family.  I love that they can be used year-round on people's fridges and that their little fingerprints make it so special.  I got the inspiration from Pinterest (which led to this Messy Little Monsters post) however, as usual for me, it turned out to be a major #pinterestfail.  The recipe I found for colored salt dough called to mix in paint instead of half of the water and instead of a bright, red color that I was looking for, the dough came out like a rusty, dusty light pink.  Not the look I was going for at all.  So, I doctored it up with a little red craft paint, added the gold paint to enhance the finger prints and voila! 

Getting both kids aged 3.5 and 1.5 to cooperate with their fingerprints was the hard part.  The idea was that two thumb prints form an interior heart on the magnets but I actually love how they all turned out different.  Some have just one thumb print, others have one from each kid and some have two from the same kid.   I put a little tutorial at the end of this post.

I already had some supplies on hand to put together Forrest's Valentine's for school so I used the clear baggies, filler and ribbon I had on hand to wrap these up to deliver to family in the next week or so. 

And on that note, I have to show how cute Forrest's little Valentine's for school turned out  That kid always does give me a "raisin" to smile!

I got the tags as a printable from LoveLucyDesign.  I adore all of her precious invitations and cards. 

We put together a little care package for our friends in DC that we used to have our nanny share with.  Forrest loved packing everything up to send to his buddy Archer and his baby brother.  The little glow sand Valentine's are from Target. 

Salt Dough Fingerprint Magnets

Tools:

**I used this salt dough recipe.  It was super easy and fail-proof, even for me.  I recommend doing this and skipping the coloring of your dough in the dough-making process.  Just paint the things afterwards. 

**I used these cookie cutters.  I love that you had three different sized hearts to play around with. 

**Pick any color paint you like but I went with this red and this gold. 

**You will need a rolling pin.  I add this in because I had to make a special trip to go out and buy this one from Target because I.do.not.bake.

**Modge Podge I recommend getting the gloss finish.

**Parchment paper.  Ever since this happened, I use the stuff for everything.

**Magnet backers.  I got mine from Michael's but something like this would work fine if you, like me, are an Amazon junkie.

Steps:

**Make salt dough and roll out until it is about an inch thick.  I found it easier to split the dough into fourths and then roll out one section at a time.  I cut the dough using all three sizes of the heart cookie cutters. 

**Place the heart shapes on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.  Have your child place their fingerprints in the hearts in the desired location.  (Good luck with this.)

**Bake the magnets low and slow at about 200 degrees until the dough is hardened.  Check the underside to make sure they are hardened all the way through even if they look done on top.

**Paint the entire heart red.  It took me about three to four coats until the color was as saturated as I wanted it.  Fill in the finger prints with the gold.  I just used a small paint brush and made circular strokes.

**Once all the red and gold paint has dried, paint a coat of Modge Podge over all the magnets. 

**Adhere the magnetic backing.

Enjoy for years to come!