Shamrock salt dough pins...St. Patrick's day reminder!

Feels good to get back to blogging. I hope you didn't give up on me! Time seems to be getting away from me...lots of fun things going on in my life. Tomorrow is our 2nd day for the N2God store to be open. Yikes!

A few weeks ago my daughter, our great friend Kim and I got together to work on my 'St. Patrick's Day' idea/project. The purpose of this project is for the 'shamrocks' to be a reminder to 'Save the date ~ St. Patrick's Day March 17, 2011'...for friends who I've invited to make the Cursillo weekend which starts that evening. Of course, I made extras to share (about 39 in all). Some of these I gave at our first team meeting with a note to give to the ladies they are inviting. They are large group of wonderful ladies and liked my idea. Cursillo is a Spanish word which means 'Small course in Christianity' and is for Catholics. There are similar weekends in other Churches.


Originally I planned to use a cookie cutter and there was not one to be found...even asked a baking supply store to track one down...didn't have any luck. After all...St. Patrick's Day is eight weeks away. We did have a very LUCKY project. Shaping each shamrock by hand, made each one unique. My friend Sr. Loretta reminded me that is how God makes us...each different and not with the same mold. She was the first to see my container of green treasures because she was the one who gave me this particular recipe.

This project was so easy and fun! I decorated them a week later so my daughter and Kim will see the final project in the photos.

Salt dough recipe

1 cup very hot water

1 cup of salt

2 cups of flour

Mix up the water and salt well getting the salt dissolved as much as you can. Knead it well and cover what you are not using at the moment. After shaping (3 same sized balls pressed together for shamrocks) bake in a low oven (225 degrees for an hour or two) or until very hard. Don't brown! After they are cool you are ready to decorate. You can use any paint such as spray paint if you don't mix the color directly into the dough when kneading. Giving the finished art a clear coating shellac is a good idea.

For the shamrocks, green food coloring was added when I kneaded the dough (about 5 table spoons). On some I used decoupage applying a little words and art I cut out of a magazine and green fabric paint. Using gold glitter glue the little colored glass beads were applied...and I discovered the more the better. Color is fun part of Cursillo and has beautiful meanings. Lastly using my glue gun I added the pins and magnets. You can't beat the glue gun..the pins will stay on forever!


The sky is the limit making things with salt dough. My little sis has created the most amazing Christmas decorations over the years. Remember that your salt dough art will keep for a long time if entirely sealed with shellac. Try it...it's fun!