how to make Salt Dough Ornaments
Every year I love to have my son make salt dough ornaments and keepsakes to hang on the Christmas tree. It's so fun to pull them out every year and see how much his hand print has grown! You can also do footprint or fingerprint salt dough keepsakes! Can you believe that this salt dough recipe only uses 3 ingredients?! And, I bet you have the salt, flour, and water already in your kitchen! Easy peasy.
There are tons of techniques on how to make them like using a kabob stick to trace the handprint into the dough then use your fingers to pinch/smooth the edges. You can also leave space around them, just have the kids press their print into the dough then cut ½ inch around the handprints. Just like the santa ornament below...
Make sure to check out our footprint snowmen, footprint penguins, and fingerprint snowman ornaments!
Best Salt Dough Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 cups flour
- 1 cup table salt
- 1.5 cups water
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 250 degrees.
- Pour the flour, salt, and water into a big mixing bowl. Stir with a spoon until you can't anymore.
- Use your hands and knead the dough so all the ingredients get combined. This could take a few minutes.
- Use a rolling pin and roll the dough out on parchment paper until it's about half an inch thick (or less if you prefer thinner/lighter ornaments).
- Get out your cookie cutters or have the kids stick their hand/foot/finger into the dough to make a print. If you're making salt dough ornaments, use the end of a pencil or straw and poke a hole at the top for the ribbon later!
- Lay a sheet of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and line the cut ornaments up, leaving at least 2 inches between each other.
- Bake for 2 ½-3 hours until they are hard to touch (with an oven mit!) Depending on thickness they could take up to 3 ½-4 hours total.
- Let cool and then have the kids paint them with acrylic paints.