It was the boys’ birthday party at the weekend and after my post on alternatives to party bags, I wanted to give the attending children something they might not usually get. Don’t get me wrong, they did get party bags and the contents were all dinosaur related, but I wanted to make a little something that they could keep as a reminder of the party too, which is when I came up with these idea of these cute little salt dough dinosaur fossils!

They are so easy to make and made from a simple salt dough, with no decoration required for a more authentic feel to them. I made them on my own but they would be great to make with the kids too, perhaps as part of a dinosaur learning activity.

Materials (makes 20 small fossils)

• 2 cups plain flour
• 2 cups table salt
• 1 cup water
• large toy dinosaurs

Method

• In a large bowl, mix together the flour and salt.
• Add the water to the bowl and mix with a wooden spoon – you can get your hands in there too if you like!
• Divide the mixture in 20 balls, then roughly flatten each ball (they don’t need to be neat). Place on a baking tray.
• Using the dinosaurs, press a foot into each ‘fossil’ to leave a deep imprint (but not too far so that it goes through the bottom of the dough).
• Bake on the lowest heat of your oven for 3-4 hours, or until the dough is cooked on both sides (I sometimes find I need to turn it over towards the end as the middle underneath is sometimes a little wet still).
• Remove from the oven and leave on the tray to cool.

Of course, you could get your children to decorate them, but I love the authentic look of these just as they are!

Let me know how you get on if you decide to have a go!