Best Salt Dough Recipe for Ornaments and Keepsakes
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. Make sure to check out our 8 salt dough ornament ideas to do too!
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 1/2 inch around the handprints. Just like the santa ornament below…
My other favorites are footprint snowmen, footprint penguins, and fingerprint snowman ornaments!
Watch me make them…
Best Salt Dough Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup All-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup Salt
- 1/2 cup Warm water
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 250 degrees.
- Pour the flour, salt, and warm 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. If it's too sticky, add a tsp of flour more at a time, if it's too dry, add a tsp of water until the right consistency.
- 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! Smooth out the edges of your ornaments or they will dry jagged.
- 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 1/2-3 hours until they are hard to touch (with an oven mit!) Flip halfway through.
- Let cool and then have the kids paint them with acrylic paints.
