Festive Salt Dough Ornaments
Homemade for the Holidays
With the holidays quickly coming up, you might be neck deep in holiday baking, so what do you do if you suddenly find yourself short on tree ornaments? Whip up some homemade festive salt dough ornaments with Life’s Simple Ingredient of course!
You’re likely to have the ingredients for these easy-to-make salt dough ornaments in your pantry already. They’re a fun way for you and the kids to put your own personal touch on the Christmas tree, and the little ones can be involved through nearly the entire process.
You can shape the ornaments by hand or use cookie cutters to get those perfect holiday shapes. Put your own spin on this recipe to help make them personal. They’re also great as presents from the children to grandparents, aunts, uncles, you name it!
So, what do you need to make salt dough? You likely have everything you need: Salt, water and flour. You might need a quick trip to the store for decorating supplies, but you can always make the dough ahead of time and then run out to get any needed paint, glitter and string!
Dough Ingredients:
4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1.5 cups water
Decorating Ingredients:
Acrylic paint
Glitter
Clear glue
String
Clear glaze spray
Instructions:
Get your oven heated to 200 degrees F.
While you wait for the oven to pre-heat, combine the flour, salt and water. Mix well and continue to knead for up to 10 minutes. If you are finding the dough to be dry after using the recommended amount of water (that can happen in Alberta), add more water in small amount until you get a good consistency – not too sticky, not too wet – like a good cookie dough. Add flour to your kneading surface and hands to prevent any sticking!
Once you’ve kneaded the dough, roll it out until it’s about a ½ cm thick. Any thinner and they might break. Too thick and they won’t dry out when you bake them.
Stamp out your shapes with cookie cutters or cut them by hand (carefully!). Use a straw to make a hole in the top of each ornament for the hanging string.
Once you have all your shapes made, bake for 1 to 2 hours, checking how dry they are after the first hour. The ornaments may puff up a bit if they are too thick – let them air dry for a day before trying to bake again.
Once everything is cool and completely dry, you can paint the salt dough with your acrylic paint and then seal them. Once the sealant is dry, add glue if you plan on adding glitter, then glitter away! When you’re finished with the paint and glitter, add your string and hang them or package them to give as gifts! Just be sure to keep them away from pets and small children – the paint and sealant aren’t safe for curious stomachs.
