Salt Dough Hand-print Butterfly Keepsake

How to make a salt dough hand-print butterfly as a fun craft and lasting keepsake. We can’t get enough hand print and foot print crafts in my opinions!

I love the simplicity and reliability of Salt Dough, and how it has been used as a way to treasure little models and kiddie hand prints for generations. Our very popular Foot Print Salt Dough Plaques and Christmas Salt Dough Ornaments rank in the top 10 most searched articles on this site, and that proves its lasting popularity too.

We made another hand print keepsake using salt dough, to add to our little display collection, this time with a butterfly theme!

 

First of all we whipped up the easy-peasy salt dough recipe in a just a few mints, which is truly as simple as:

1 cup plain (all purpose) flour

1 cup salt

1/2 to 1 cup warm water (add this gradually and see how much you need)

Mix it into a dough, then knead it until smooth and pliable. It should resemble play dough yet feel a little more grainy to touch. Roll it out and when it’s ready to work with, separate it into as many portions as needed, then roll it straight out onto the baking tray (this helps avoid any sticking to the table top!)

Then press each hand, slightly turned outwards, with the thumbs together, to resemble a butterfly. They can then add dots above the antennae with a finger tip.

 

Pop them into the oven at a very low temperature, around 100 degrees C (200 F) for 3-4 hours. Check on them to see if they are hardening and turn them over during drying. If they rise then the oven is too hot. If they are still doughy then the dough could be too thick or else they need another couple of hours. Persevere, because when you work it out it really is the most amazing craft material!

When they were ready we set them out with some acrylic paints and they decorated them.

They are sitting on our kitchen sideboard along with our original Salt Dough handprints, the Christmas Tree Keepsakes and Footprint Plaques! I love seeing how the sizes have changed over the years (sob!)

See all our other salt dough ideas here and our Rainbow Glitter salt dough here