How to Make Salt Dough Ornaments

Want a fun way to spend the afternoon with your kids and have them create something they can hang on the tree for years to come? Then try this recipe for Bakers Clay. Its easy and the nice thing about it is that you don't even have to know how to bake (because these are not to be eaten).

As you can see, I didn't just make Christmas ornaments, we made gifts to give to Grandma, Mother's Day, Father's Day, sporting events and, yes, even pictures of our animals (they count too).

As you can also see, you do not have to be an artist. My daughter and I spent about two hours painting these while just talking and having fun. In the recipe that follows, watch for little hints.

Salt Dough Ornament Recipe

  • 4 cups, Flour
  • 1 1/2 cups, Salt
  • 1 1/2 cups, Water
  • Cookie Cutters

What Can You Use to Decorate Salt Dough Ornaments

  • Acrylic Paints
  • Paint brushes, various sizes
  • Varnish

How to Make Salt Dough Ornaments

Combine flour and salt together in a medium bowl, slowly add the water and mix until a soft ball forms. This is when I usually roll up my sleeves and go to it with both hands and knead the dough for about 2 minutes, or until it is mixed.

The dough should be the consistency of a pie dough or bread dough. If it is too sticky add a little more flour, if too stiff, add a little more water.

Take half the dough and flour your board. Roll out the dough to about 1/4″ thick.

You'll definitely want to use lots of flour to make sure the dough doesn't stick to the surface when you start making shapes for the ornaments.

Take your cookie cutters and make shapes in the dough, making sure you press down evenly so your shape is solid.

Tear away your unused dough from around the shapes. Use a spatula to pick up the shapes and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. 

If using cookie cutters that have no designs, just take a toothpick and draw some designs in them before you bake. This is also when you'll want to add the a hole for the twine or ribbon to hold the ornament.

How Long Do Salt Dough Ornaments Cook

Bake at 300 for approximately 25 minutes (or until hard, but not brown).

Decorating Salt Dough Ornaments

Wait about 15 minutes for the cookies to cool completely and decorating can begin! We would always write the kids' names or year, and of course make fun shapes just as sweet keepsakes.

How to Seal Salt Dough Ornaments

After the paint has dried for at least a day, you can wipe varnish over each ornament to preserve them.

Cinnamon Salt Dough Ornaments

If you want to make some cinnamon scented salt dough ornaments, you can add either ground cinnamon or cinnamon oil to the mixture before baking. The measurements for either ingredient to add to this recipe would be:

Keep in mind that the cinnamon powder will cause the ornaments to turn brown. If you still want to decorate or paint with a white palette, the cinnamon bark oil would be a better option to have the fragrance without discoloring the salt dough.

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How to Make Salt Dough Ornaments

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  • Author: Andrea Deckard

Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 cups, Flour
  • 1 1/2 cups, Salt
  • 1 1/2 cups, Water
  • Cookie Cutters

Decorating Supplies

  • Acrylic Paints
  • Paint brushes, various sizes
  • Varnish

Instructions

  1. Combine flour and salt together in a medium bowl, slowly add the water and mix until a soft ball forms. Knead the dough for about 2 minutes, or until it is mixed. The dough should be the consistency of a pie dough or bread dough. If it is too sticky add a little more flour, if too stiff, add a little more water.
  2. Take half the dough and flour your board and roll out to about 1/4″ thick.
  3. Take your cookie cutters and make shapes in the dough, making sure you press down evenly so the imprint will remain.
  4. Tear away your unused dough from around the shapes and use a spatula to pick up the shapes and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. 
  5. Bake at 300 for approximately 25 minutes (or until hard, but not brown).
  6. Wait about 15 minutes for the cookies to cool completely and then get the kids painting them and writing names on these little keeepsakes. 
  7. After the paint has dried for at least a day, wipe varnish over each ornament to preserve them.

Did you make this?

Share a photo in the comments if you made this so we can see!!

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5 Comments

  1. Esabella Brilmyer says:

    This looks absolutely FAB! my trick for getting all the christmas gifts done is to start making them early, in October before Halloween comes around!

  2. Emily Poulson says:

    I loved this idea I found that the dough was to dry so i added some water to it until i could work with the dough. some developed bubbles but other than that they turned out great. We maded them for our family chirstmas party one for everyone it was so much fun..

  3. lia haile says:

    they crack in about a week can u email me tell me why and hjow tro keep bubbles out of the clay

  4. I have the problem of crackin is it because I bake fast? and air bubbles please help

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