How to make a Blarney Stone with a hidden treasure

Tradition says if you kiss the Blarney Stone you will be given the gift of gab. You will be able to talk eloquently and convincingly. I don’t think these girls need any help with the gift of gab, but we still thought we would make these Blarney Stones. A treasure can be found in the middle of each stone.

Homemade Rocks Recipe

Mix up:

• 1 cup used coffee grounds (or used dry espresso grounds–what we had) If they are too wet I am sure it would change the color of the mixture
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1/4 cup sand
• 1 cup flour
• 3/4 cup water
• (I think it would be very easy to tint this mixture with tempera paint—they might be dull colors when dry)

Mix together dry ingredients and then slowly add enough of the water to make a stiff dough—you might not need all off the water, so add slowly.

Knead the mixture on a floured surface until fairly smooth.

Break the dough into desired sizes. We divided it into 4 equal pieces. Hide your trinkets (super balls, small plastic toys, etc.) or money in the center of each ball of dough.

Bake at 150F degrees for 2 hours (I turned them over half way through) and then air dry 2-3 days (or longer). If you make smaller rocks I would dry one hour in the oven and then air dry 2 days or more. The size of rock and the amount of humidity in your home will affect the drying time. They will look and feel like rocks when dry.

I had hoped to paint them with green and white paint for fun and wait to open them on St Patrick’s Day, but nobody was willing to wait to crack them open with a hammer— let alone wait for paint to dry.

I think we might make some egg shaped ones for Easter.

Thanks Kate, for sharing!

Kate writes…..

I‘ve discovered lately that its really easy to dye homemade playdough with natural ingredients. We dyed ours using raspberries, rose petals, beetroot, blueberries, turmeric and oak tree bark. Check out the results in the picture below. Pretty good eh?

As well as creating some great playdough it’s also a lovely way to teach kids that some of the most beautiful dyes can be found in your own back yard.

First of all you need to extract your dye:

Raspberries and strawberries

Put a big handful of raspberries and a cup of water in a pan. Bring to the boil then gently simmer on stove for 20 minutes (until liquid has reduced to about half). Once cooled pour through sieve then follow playdough recipe below

Rose petals

Roughly tear up the petals from about six red roses and put in pan with a cup of water. Bring to the boil then gently simmer on stove for 20 minutes (until liquid has reduced to about half). Once cooled pour through sieve then follow playdough recipe below.

Beetroot

Chop up one medium sized beetroot and put in pan with a cup of water. Bring to the boil then gently simmer on stove for 10 minutes. Once cooled pour through sieve then follow playdough recipe below.

Blueberries

Put a big handful of blueberries and a cup of water in a pan. Bring to the boil then gently simmer on stove for 20 minutes (until liquid has reduced to about half). Once cooled pour through sieve then follow playdough recipe below.

Turmeric

Put approx two teaspoons of turmeric in a pan with a cup of water. Bring to the boil then gently simmer on stove for 20 minutes (until liquid has reduced to about half). Once cooled pour through sieve and follow the recipe below.

Oak tree bark

Put a big handful of oak tree bark in a pan with a cup of water (its best not to take it directly from the tree – if you scout around you will find plenty on the ground). Bring to the boil then gently simmer on stove for 20-30 minutes (until liquid has reduced to about half). Once cooled pour through sieve then follow playdough recipe below.

Playdough recipe

½ cup of flour

½ cup of dyed water

¼ cup of salt

½ tbsp cream of tartar

½ tbsp cooking oil

♥ Combine all the ingredients in a pan (don’t worry about sieving the flour).

♥ Put the pan on a medium to low heat and keep stirring until mixture forms a ball. It will probably stick to the bottom and sides of the pan too!

♥ Allow it to cool a little and knead it on a well floured worktop.

Needless to say, this recipe is for a non-edible playdough. Please also remember that natural dyes stain…so make sure you wear a pinny and try to avoid using your best pots and pans! Lastly, please don’t let your little one/s anywhere near hot or boiling water.

You might also be interested in the this  how to make playdough tutorial and this homemade playdough recipe.

Yes, you can make homemade lick and stick stickers. If you want to make some too you will need gelatin, light corn syrup and flavoring extract. We used LorAnn’s flavoring (in apple) but you can also use the extract from the spice isle at the grocery store. You might try lemon.

Homemade Sticker Gum

1 envelope (1/4 oz)  unflavored gelatin

4 tablespoons boiling water

1 teaspoon light corn syrup

1/2 tsp flavoring extract

Add gelatin to the boiling water and stir until dissolved. Stir in corn syrup and flavoring.

Paint sticker gum on backs of pictures cut from magazines or pieces of wrapping paper.

After the backs of papers are coated allow to dry completely.

Once paper is dry use punches to cut out fun shapes from the wrapping paper. Once you have all of the shapes cut out —- lick lick away!

Then stick!

These stickers really work and the possibilities are endless. They could decorate note cards, lunch sacks, favor bags or make adorable stickers for gift wrapping with matching gift tags. Around here one special four year old has requested an alphabet book. Finding all of the letters and items that begin with the letters in our magazines will keep us busy!

Note: If you have left over sticker gum it will harden into a gel. To re-use, heat until it becomes liquid again.