Earth Day

Happy Earth Day!

First off, how amazing is this Dear Earth print by Katie Daisy? I have a few of her prints, and love them all, but this may be my new favorite.

Now, I have been enamored with this adorable plantable paper earth since I saw it last week on Modern Parents Messy Kids, but never really had the time to make it happen. But then inspiration hit me when I least expected it (as usual). Sunday night, 6:30pm, I was making dinner and reached for the box of kosher salt. Yes, it was the kosher salt that gave me my inspiration – I can’t explain these things, they just happen. I could make a little earth out of colored salt instead of plantable paper. So never mind that dinner was almost ready and it was already super late. Once the idea was in my head, I had to drop everything and do it. I grabbed that kosher salt, some green and blue food coloring, scissors, glue, and a piece of cardboard and we were ready to go.

This whole project, including photos, took about 10 minutes. It isn’t perfect, but it was fun and we feel so earthy over here now. Totally worth dinner being a little late. And a little well done.

Directions:

1. Trace a salad plate onto a piece of cardboard and cut it out. (You could also use an old cereal box – It is earth day and all)

2. Put about 1/2 of a cup of salt in 2 different bowls. Add a few drops of blue food coloring to one of the bowls and a few drops of green to the other. Mix well with a spoon so that all of the salt is colored somewhat evenly. (We used kosher salt because that is what I was already using for dinner, but I think table salt would actually work better.)

3. Squirt some glue on your cardboard that somewhat resembles a few continents and rub it around with your finger. Please don’t look too closely at mine…it isn’t even close. Remember, we were in a hurry.

4. Place your cardboard on a dinner plate to keep all of the excess salt contained. Sprinkle the green salt on your glue and shake off the excess.

5. Now add glue to the rest of the globe (the oceans) and spread it around. Sprinkle the blue salt.

And that’s it. Easy. Don’t let the somber face fool you. (When she saw this photo she said, “My face doesn’t look so happy.” She was not, however, worried about it enough to take another picture.)  But just 2 minutes earlier she looked like this…