My dinosaur obsessed son was ecstatic when we found a beach nearby that had dinosaur fossil rocks. He could have stayed there all day exploring all the different textures that the rocks had, not to mention the shapes that resembled parts of a dinosaur skeleton! Such a fun place!
So we decided to make our own imprint fossils at home. We had plenty dinosaurs to use for them. 🤣
First make up the dough that will become your clay. We tend to use the same recipe as it seems to work for us but there are lots out there. Some that you don’t even have to use an oven for. We used;
- 1 cup of salt
- 1 cup of flour
- 1/2 cup of water
Knead all the ingredients together until a dough is formed. Then have them separate dough into a few different balls. Have your child roll out the dough balls for their imprints.
My son loved doing the next step as it involved his dinosaurs. If your kids have bigger dinosaurs they can do imprints of the feet/claws. These make really good prints when finished. My son also used a few smaller dinosaurs and lay them flat to print the full shape of the dinosaur.
We found that the Stegosaurus worked the best because it had the most spikes. You’ll find that with most of the dinosaurs you’ll only be able to get some of the details imprinted but some is better than none and we found its even better as it looks more ‘fossily’ and authentic lol!
Once your child has made their imprints it’s time to put them in the oven. Preheat your oven to a low temperature of 200F (93C) for 3 hours. As I mentioned before there are lots of different clay recipes that would work just as well for this craft so if 3 hours is too long then do whatever works for you. Air dry clay is good too but I find it also takes time and often breaks and cracks easier once dry.
Once they come out the oven let them cool for at least an hour before painting them. Have your child pick out some colours. My son picked out some dinosaur shades that are camouflage like browns, greys and greens.
We found acrylic paints works best for our clay creations but you can use any sort of paint. Water paints aren’t recommended as they usually require a few coats, and who’s got that much time to wait for each coat to dry?! 😆
Our fossils turned out awesome and we were even able to use them for our dinosaur world that we created. As keepsakes they hold up pretty well and you can even coat them with mod podge. This will hold them together longer.
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