Homemade Salt Dough Ornaments

Baby Boy and I made some salt dough for the first time. I'm hoping that we can continue the crafts we've done as yearly traditions, because they're so much fun and are so personal.

I wanted to try colors so I cut the dough in half and added blue to one, leaving the other the normal dough color.

A crafter's battle scars

Here are some shapes I made to test the recipe.

I've never used salt dough before, so I wasn't prepared for the porous look after baking. Didn't really care for it.


For the actual batch I decided to coat my shapes with egg wash to give them what I hoped would be a rustic, antiqued look.

Toa's huge little hand

They came out darker than I wanted, and they puffed unevenly, but still looked kind of charming.

We ended up with 6 snowmen ornaments and Baby Boy's handprint ornament, which I've been meaning to make. Just need to write the year on the back and it will be a little keepsake to bring out year after year.

Casualties

Cook time: 40 min per batch at 400 degrees.


For now, you still have time to make some ornaments of your own! So here's the recipe that I found earlier this year and I wish I could remember where I got it from.

Salt Bread Dough

¼ Cup Salt

½ Cup Boiling Water

1 Cup All-Purpose Flour

¼ Teaspoon Vegetable Oil

Food Coloring (optional)
Pour boiling water in a bowl and add salt. Add remaining ingredients. Knead dough to desired consistency for crafting. If coloring dough with food coloring, work it uniformly into the dough as you knead the craft dough. Keep slat dough wrapped in plastic when not in use.

Model Dough as desired. It may be helpful to keep a bowl of water nearby while crafting to smooth dough and attach pieces.

Bake at 300 degrees for 45 to 60 minutes. Ornaments will puff a little when baked.

Completed ornaments may be painted, or brush with beaten egg and water mixture prior to baking or a darkened, shiny appearance.

A benefit of making Christmas ornaments with salt dough is that it can be colored with food coloring when it is made, and so does not have to be painted when it is finished. On the other hand, if you enjoy painting your Christmas ornaments, salt craft dough can be made plain and painted when it is dry. Salt dough is easy to work with and makes a lot of inexpensive Christmas decorations.

When crafting your Christmas ornament from salt craft dough, you may choose to cut the craft dough with cookie cutters or go for a more personal keepsake Christmas decoration. This salt dough recipe works well for baking handprint keepsakes; make handprint plaques, or with little hands, make a handprint Christmas ornament that can hang from the tree.

Now if only I could figure out where to put them. Baby Boy loves the way they look so I'd love to place them somewhere he can enjoy seeing them. Have fun decorating!