Salt Dough Ornaments for the Season
A Christmas project that is good for all ages. With so much room for creative movement, these Salt Dough Ornaments are meant to be a holiday tradition. Here I share exactly what I used & did for these cute, imperfectly perfect decorations. I share different things you can do to make them special & just how to make them last for years to come. This is going on the tradition list for sure!
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In this blog post you will happily find…
+ this fun & festive Christmas time activity
+ shopping list & instructions to make your own salt dough ornaments
+ different ways to decorate your creations
A family friendly, Christmas time activity — Homemade Salt Dough Ornaments
This Christmas DIY is one for all ages. Another commoner but one that I just never took the time to fully dive into. A fun activity to do with kids or honestly just yourself. I feel like it’s good to have an ornament represent each year. One to put up with so much memory & stories to share. Making these could be that tradition for you or your kids! Whether it is handprints you watch grow or simple memories you glue on or even a story you write in the dough, the opportunities for these ornaments to be fully custom & tell YOUR story for that year is so special. Here is how you do it all!
Everything you need to know to make your own Salt Dough Ornaments.
Here are the instructions I used based on several other blog posts, but referred to this one by Red Ted Art often. I was able to make 10 ornaments with lots more dough to use to cut more with this amount!
shopping list
Flour — 2 Cups
Salt — 1 Cup
Water — Use up to a cup, adding a bit at a time, too much water makes the dough too sticky
Cookie Cutters, knives, &/or mason jar or wine glass for round cutting
Parchment Paper
Paint, markers, sharpies, yarn, anything you want to help decorate these sweet creations!
Food coloring to add to dough before it dries if you want the dough colored
Here are some links that you may find helpful for this DIY...
instructions
Combine your ingredients, adding the water last & as you stir. If you use too much water, your dough will be sticky & will not roll properly or peel from the parchment paper. I had to add quite a bit of salt & flour because I messed up with this. Not a baker!
They say to use a wooden spoon to mix your dough, I used plastic because I do not own a wooden spoon anymore. Oops. Honestly, I just dug my hands in there to knead it & eventually got the NEEDED (lol) outcome.
Slap your dough on some parchment paper & then layer some parchment paper on top as well. Use a roller to flatten your dough out to about 1/4th inch thick.
Once this is done, peel off the top layer of parchment paper & cut your shapes! One your dough is filled with shapes, peel the ornaments off & place on another piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet & roll out your spare dough to get even more cut out! Continue until you have as little waste as possible.
If you want to put a string or hook on these, use a toothpick to add a hole to the top of your ornaments.
Bake your ornaments at 200 degrees F for 3 hours. I did this in our Ninja 10-1 oven & air fryer on the Bake setting. Most people just use an oven — haha that is a story for another day.
Once the baking is done, carefully take out your ornaments with a hot pad or oven mitt & see if they are dried out. You might have to play with the time a bit to be sure they dry properly.
Cool completely before decorating. No instructions on the decorating part — that is for your creativity to flourish. I have preservation instructions below, though!
There are many ways you can decorate these Christmas decorations.
I went with 3 different routes for these ornaments, but there are many more you can do I hear. You can see in the images that I made shapes with cookie cutters, hand cut with a knife & then also round with a mason jar top. The ones I cut I chose to paint different colors in our Christmas color palette. I left our two angles for our angle babies simple. I have seen parents make these with their kiddos using hand & foot prints, coloring with markers & sharpies, & using colored yarn for accents. The options are endless!
Lastly, I collected natural elements from around the house to fill the round ornaments with which was my FAVORITE. Using a heavy duty super glue held these elements to the ornaments for the most part. Some of the thicker items such as the dried orange did not hold as well. Wrapping in twine seemed to do the final trick to keeping these in tact. Keep reading for preservation tips, but note that some of these ornaments will not be store-able. The ones where I decorated with natural elements might not hold up depending on the items used. But that is okay! It was a simple project I can recreate each year.
Whatever you choose to do, they suggest sealing your final product. You can use modge podge or a spray sealer to coat your ornaments & then let sit to fully dry. After that you are complete! After properly sealed & dried, make sure you store them properly if you would like to preserve these for years & years. You want to prevent these from getting moldy, so wrap them up in newspaper & keep them in a cool, dry place.
Although I am only an adult, these ornaments would be a lot of fun to create with friends & kiddos. They are an inexpensive creative outlets that offers a touch of the baking experience. With all the ways to finish these off, you can make a tree filled with different stories to tell. This was my first year making these creations, but I have a feeling I will be adding these to my Christmas time traditions. Whether we use the cookie cutters or hand prints, I cannot wait to see these grow over the years.