Easy Christmas Craft: Glue Dough and Glue Paint

This isn't just for Christmas. You could make little brooches with this stuff, beads for necklaces, refrigerator magnets, and small figurines. The star in the picture is some 20 years old. I have misplaced the directions for the dough we used to make it, but I remembered that it had glue and cornstarch in it- I thought it was equal parts, but the only recipe I can find online calls for:
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup white glue

You mix the two completely- obviously, this only makes a small amount. If it is too sticky, add more cornstarch, too stiff and liable to break apart, add more glue. It's messy to work with, but very cool stuff.

You can store it in a plastic bag- I have often mixed it in the bag to keep my hands somewhat clean.
Then you roll it out very thin and use cookie cutters to cut the shapes you like.

The magazine where I originally found this recipe suggested making shapes out of tin foil and then molding the thin layers of dough over the tin foil. I'm not much of a sculptress, so I stuck to the cookie cutter idea.

If you're going to want to hang it, poke a hole in it with a needle now. Leave these out over night (or longer) to dry. They dry hard, and in a nice creamy white color. Now you paint them.

The paint on this star is a mixture of glue and food coloring. The more food coloring you use the deeper the color, naturally. The glitter is from a tube of glitter glue or a glitter pen (I forget. It was twenty years ago!). I love the bright, clear colors from the glue and food coloring.

These dry hard and impervious to age or mold. If something breaks, glue works very well, since it already is half glue.

Oh, look, Google turned up another another recipe:
1 cup Flour
1 cup Cornstarch
1/2 cup White Glue
1/4 cup Water
Extra Flour (for hands)

From the Pooh Corner Website. Says it dries hard in 48 hours.

And another:
"Put equal parts of white flour, cornstarch, and white glue in a bowl. (1/4 c of each will give you a lump of dough about the size of a tennis ball.)
Mix, squeezing and kneading, until it is well-blended. If necessary, add more glue; or flour + cornstarch. Only a little at a time, though. "

That looks about right. That one's from Martha Beth's "Fun Stuff" webpage, and she does have a good variety of fun stuff! (note from Dec. 06: I found my original recipe, and this is it. Mine called for 2 ounces each of glue, cornstarch, and flour, and I double it. This stuff also works well if you roll it thin and mold it over shapes you make from tinfoil)

I expect that any of these recipes would work just as well, and the paint is glue and food coloring, and that's the best part. I should add that I think it had to be regular glue, not school glue, for best results.