CRAFTY | HOW TO MAKE SALT DOUGH ORNAMENTS

This year I was determined that the Little Man and I were going to make some Christmas decorations together (despite the fact that we’re not putting the tree up this year!).  I had seen so many versions of the salt dough ornament floating around on the internet that I decided I would give it a go.

The recipe and construction is really easy and it’s so cheap. The thing I hadn’t factored in was how much the Little Man did not want to put his hand in the dough.

There were tears and struggles but I managed to get 2 impressions – albeit with one missing his little finger.

I decided not to fight it and just let him play and push random kitchen utensils into a bit of the rolled out salt dough.  When he was finished playing I used an egg ring to cut around the area that he’d most “decorated” and made it a round bauble. It turned out pretty cool and I love that it’s all his own work.

I had planned to make a big batch of them to use as our gift tags this year, but given his resistance I decided to only make a couple.

I imagine that when he gets a little older this will be a great craft to do together.  I can totally see a mobile made out of different shapes, etc. to hang on our deck.

What you need:

½ cup salt

½ cup plain flour

¼ cup of water

bowl

rolling pin

flour of rolling and dusting rolling pin

baking tray

non-stick oil spray

decorating supplies: paints and paintbrushes, glitter, stickers, paint pen, permanent markers, washi tape, beads, etc.

plastic straw

knife

ribbon for hanging finished ornaments

1. Preheat your oven to 100°C (or 200°F).

2. Put salt and flour in a bowl and add water.  Use your hands to combine in the bowl until a dough is formed.

3. Lightly dust your rolling pin and a flat surface with flour. Roll the dough out until it’s approximately 3 – 5 millimeters in thickness.

4. Use cookie cutters to cut out ornament shapes. Or put your child’s hand in the dough to make an impression and cut around the imprint (leave about a 2 – 3mm distance between the imprint and where you make your cut lines) with your knife.

5. Place ornaments on to a lightly greased baking tray. Use a plastic straw to make a hole in the top of the ornament for the ribbon.  (Be careful not to put the hole too close to the edge, you don’t want it breaking.)

6. Bake for 3 hours.

7. Once baked and totally cooled decorate with paints, stickers, washi tape, glitter, etc.

8. Thread ribbon through hole and hang on tree or use as gift tags.

Inspired by: User upload on Pinterest