Diwali salt dough candle holders

(Goblin is 24 months)

HAPPY DIWALI!

After some searching of the blogosphere I finally discovered NurtureStore which is a great blog with tons of toddler ideas, and I found some very cool Diwali ideas there. I wanted to try the lentil Rangoli, but we are on holiday in the middle of nowhere and the cupboards didn't contain beans and lentils. Fortunately they did contain the ingredients for salt dough, so I opted for salt dough candle holders. Traditionally Indians use little ceramic oil lamps to light their homes on Diwali, and these candle holders are a nod in that direction. 

 I have never made salt dough before and couldn't believe how easy it is. 

• 1 cup of water;
• 2 cups of salt; and
• 2 cups of flour.

Our version was 1 wine glass of lo salt, 1 wine glass of plain flour and half a wine glass of water. Fortunately that was enough to make 5 candle holders (and a bit more that ended up in the bin when Goblin was "tidying"). 

While making candle holders we also made salt dough snakes and snails. And we counted them, 3 snakes, 2 snails and Goblin made them a home in the dustpan. 

We baked the dough in the oven on 120 degrees C (Gas 1/2, 250F) for 3 hours. The dough doesn't go brown, it just goes hard.

And then we painted them. This was fun, if a little messy. Goblin put glitter on his candle holders. He did some himself but I didn't want him upending the full tubes so I helped with those ones. 

 Goblin's attempt at putting the glitter on his holders resulted in a rather pretty Diwali hand!

We left the painted and be-glittered candle holders to dry while we tidied up and washed Goblin off.

 Goblin had a little inspect of them after we'd hosed him down. Then I lit the candles and turned the lights off to show Goblin what they looked like. I think they are wonderful. And we seemed to avoid making them look too Christmassy. The idea is to leave the candles burning spreading light for Diwali - the festival of light. But I have a huge hangup with leaving candles burning and the risk of fire when I am not in the room so I let Goblin blow them out. 

 He really enjoyed this and demanded that we relit them several times. 

I'm linking this to Red Tent Art's link up Kids Get Crafty! Red Tent Art is a fantastic blog. Nearly every time I see a good idea on a link community and click on it it takes me to Red Tent Art Blog. So check out the link up but also be sure to check out the rest of the blog.