Guys, today was not my day! Today’s letter in the bloggers’ A to Z Challenge was S. To go skiing with my costal decor for the summer I made salt dough starfish. Complete failure! It’s funny now. Earlier I was sad lol.
To make your starfish, sand dollar, or a mold of your baby’s hand you need:
- 1 cup salt
- 2 cups flour ALL PURPOSE FLOUR
- 1 cup water
So where this went wrong is here. I only had self-rising flour. Close enough right? No. Stay tuned for what went wrong…
Make the salt dough
Mix the salt & flour together. Begin adding the water slowly as you continue mixing.
For me here? Perfect, no problem.
Once mixed, kneed the dough for about 5 minutes.
After kneeding? Still no problem!
Make your starfish
Break off a piece of dough & flatten it until its the size you want.

Cut a simple star shape.
Use a toothpick or skewer to press slightly into each arm of the fish. Use the pointy end to poke small holes along both sides of each arm.
Still no problem!
I told you it wasn’t my day. I took a pic of my head…
Bake at 200° for about two hours. I did this… waited a few hours, counting down the seconds & planning all kinds of plans for my beautiful starfish & two sand dollars (I never had much hope for them).
Your starfish will be beautiful, don’t worry!
This…. is what I got…

Guess that’s why they say all-purpose flour! I got these Patrick size starfish! Yall, I was so let down by myself lol. My plans were shot to you know where!
That’s OK, I hope you get a laugh out of this. I’m laughing my booty off now. Earlier not so much. But alls well that ends well. When I get my all-purpose flour I’ll redo my fish & I’ll show you how they’re supposed to look. Tomorrow I’ll put these Patrick Star fish in my centerpiece & show you. We’ll all get a good laugh again.
Oh my gosh! Update! This gets funnier & funnier. My husband just got home from work (9:15pm here). He was like oh yay, cookies! My son told him those aren’t cookies. He didn’t listen. He asked me. I busted out laughing, & he said, “Well, can I?” Since he didn’t take my laughter as a warning I said, “Yea.” I ran out of my room- just in time to hear spitting & “Ugh nuh!” I tried to get a picture for yall. Alas, I was just a bit too slow. He’s good at taking things in stride though. Jax & I got another huge laugh though! How you did too!
Well this has been letter S of the A to Z Challenge. I hope you’ve had a good week. Sick around & check out the other letters in the challenge. Traffic Jam Weekend link party is open. He’s over & link up. Not a blogger? That’s great too, check out all the great posts from our friends!
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This is such a funny story!! I like your starfish though, I wouldn’t call it a failure. I’ve had troubles of my own with salt dough! Last Christmas I tried three times to make a salt dough “sugar cookie” house. In the end I still wasn’t completely happy with it, but I posted it anyway. Still, I think I’ll make it a yearly tradition…that way I can see how much I improve year after year!
Thanks for the encouragement Becca! I hope they turn out better with all-purpose flour lol. I’m going to try today. I thought I’d let my readers get a good laugh. I think I’ll start sharing the failures along with what works. Maybe some of you can show me how to correct what went wrong on some projects!