salt dough sun plaque

With the Summer Solstice coming up this month, I thought I’d share this fun little sun plaque craft.

I used strong salt dough, because I had a batch on hand, but you can use regular salt dough as well. After mixing and kneading the dough, I rolled it out thick and cut it into a five inch circle using a lid for a template and cutting around it with a pizza cutter. I made a circle indention in the middle with a small jelly jar, for the face. The nose is just a small coil shape placed in the middle of the circle face and smoothed down with dampened fingers at the top. (Remember to dampen the surface of the salt dough before adding pieces.) I used my fingertip to make indentions for the eye areas. The lips are made from three tiny balls of dough pinched up on the ends. I attached two flattened dough balls for cheeks. I found two little amber-colored beads to press in for eyes. Then when it came time for the sun rays, I looked around my kitchen for something triangular or sun-ray shaped and spotted the ends of my fine mesh metal sifter- perfect! If you decide to make a sun plaque with your little ones, remember to press a hole in the back for hanging when you flip it over to air dry the back. If you have leftover salt dough, make some little sun medallions!

For more Summer Solstice fun, see Kids’ Activities for Midsummer / Summer Solstice.