Salt Dough Ornaments 101

Last week I guest posted on my friend Jen's blog about different affordable gift ideas. One of my favorite is Salt dough ornaments. I love making them because I can get my "cookie" fix without the calories. Plus the boys love it!! They love rolling the dough, doing the cookie cutters and of course decorating them. Since doing the post I have had a number of friends ask me specific questions about them so I decided I would do a post on them too:)

Here is the basic recipe:

Classic Salt Dough Ornament Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

1 cup water

Directions:

1. Mix salt and flour.

2. Add in half the water, then gradually add the remaining water.

3. Knead until the dough is smooth, this can take up to 10 minutes.

4. For flat dough ornaments roll out the dough on baking paper

Create:

Use cookie cutters, cut-out templates, or just use your hands.

Dust dough with flour and begin to add details to the ornaments with a toothpick, popsicle stick, and knife.

Don't Forget:

Use a straw to make a hole so you can hang the ornament or a small piece of wire inserted while the dough is soft (I use 34 gage, cut it about an inch then fold it to a horseshoe shape and stick the two ends in the dough)

Baking: Time varies based on thickness of ornament

Temperature: 325 degrees for 1 1/2 hours - or until dry

Decorate: Let cool before you begin

Paint with acrylic paints

Glue on beads, buttons, or any fun accessory

I like to use puffy paints and glitter glue

Preservation: Making them last a long time

Coat with acrylic varnish when everything is dry

- Substitute coffee for water - great for gingerbread people, reindeer and a bonus is it smells goodJ

- Add food coloring to make dough a unique color - white, blue, red, etc...

Sorry my pictures are backward:)-Anyhow this year we are trying a few new techniques. -I tried doing some rubber stamping on a few and the boys did watercolor on theirs. I also tried gold leafing on some and that turned out really pretty. I will try to post pictures as we finish more, but I am a really bad photographer-so frustrating. I need someone to come give me tips!!! Anyone out there have any for me let me know:)

Head over to Today's Creative Blog and Get your Craft on!!