Throwing an Olympic party? Why not get into the spirit of the event and help the kids to make their very own Olympic medals. You can make really simple medals from card… or try your hand with these super easy salt dough ones. They’re simple and cheap to make, and will keep the kids busy for hours.
You will need
- 2 cups plain flour
- 2 cups of salt
- 1 cup of water
- Acrylic paint – gold, silver, bronze and black
- Paint brush
- Ribbons
Step one
Mix the flour and salt, and add the water slowly. Knead together until smooth. Roll out your dough until about 1/2 cm thick.
Click here for full details on making salt dough and more top tips.
Step two
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Cut out circles. You don’t need to buy a special biscuit cutter as a glass works just as well. However do keep an eye on the kids if they are using a glass.
Step three
Design your medal. You can use any design you like, but we’ve gone for a rough version of the official Olympic design. For this version we used a knife to score lines, then added some small squares to give an idea of the pattern. We then added a strip of salt dough to the top to make the loop and made a hole in it for the ribbon.
To bake your salt dough put into a cool oven and bake until firm (about 120C). You may want to take them out half way through and turn them over. This makes sure they don’t get air bubbles in them, distorting the shape.
Step four
Decorate your medals. Use acrylic paint to give your medals a good cover of paint. Allow to dry thoroughly and then paint again. Two coats is quite enough, but you might find the colour is a bit flat. If you want to be more adventurous you can use some black paint to dry brush over the medals to add more depth and age them a little.
To do this use a dry brush and dip it in a little black paint. Wipe the brush on a piece of paper until most of the paint is off and then lightly brush over the surface of the medal. This leaves a slightly aged look behind. You may want to practice it a bit until you achieve the desired finish.
Step five
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Thread your ribbon through the hole at the top….and wear with pride!
