Rainbow Salt Printing - Conference Idea

My first conference project was inspired by Deanna Jump - Rainbow salt printing.  Deanna had a friend that used a box lid then added construction paper and salt for writing.  I  liked the idea, but I had visions of the lid being dropped during transporting and the salt going everywhere.  Plus, I was worried about storing the lid on a shelf.

I decided that I needed a container with a lid, so I went to Wal-mart to get a couple of containers. I thought I had the perfect size container not too big or too deep.  The problem - I didn't check the inside of the container and I bought the divided containers, geez.  I, really wanted to make it for my kids to use right away - so I checked the house and found two Ziploc containers that I could use.  Of course, I couldn't find any construction paper in the house - so I scavenged through my scrapbook paper.

Total cost of the project - $.48 for the salt.  Score.

Below are the directions for the project.

First, I made a template of the bottom of the container and traced it on to black cardstock for a base.  I thought it would be easier to attach the rainbow pieces to something.

Gathered my cardstock, which is so much brighter than construction paper.

I divided the base into 6 sections and made a paper template - then traced on to the color cardstock.

I found the middle and worked my way out.  I tucked the pieces under the other color cardstock - so there were no gaps.  I used scrapbooking adhesive squares because I wanted to be able to move it around a little when I was laying it out and tucking the paper underneath.

This is what it looked like when it was finished sticking to the black piece. I turned it over so the black side was showing and cut off any of the color rainbow that was sticking over.  Per Deanna's recommendation, I laminated it - so the salt wouldn't get in between the rainbow layers.

I taped it to the bottom, but will probably end up gluing in down - not sure yet.  Pour in the salt.  I used about 1/2 the salt for both containers.  If you put in too much salt, it is hard to move the salt around.  I understand why she used the box lid - it gave them a bigger working surface to move the salt around.  But, I still like the idea of not having the salt everywhere and the kids being able to manage this center on their own.

I gave them a small paintbrush to write in the salt with.  They enjoyed writing in the salt.  I will probably make letter and word cards for them to copy in the salt.  They were super quiet when they were playing with this center.  Cleanup was easy, they put the brush in the container and made sure that they snapped the lid on tight.

I noticed that I had a pin on my Pinterest page where they put the salt into a pencil box.  This idea would work that way too - but I didn't have any pencil boxes at home.  I couldn't wait to get it made for the kids.  I will probably try that idea, too.