Salt dough ornaments are a wonderful holiday craft, and can be used to decorate, as gift tags, or as sweet handmade additions to a nativity scene. They are simple to make, and required only three ingredients that you most likely have in your pantry: flour, salt, and water.
Salt Dough Recipe This recipe makes enough salt dough for about 20-30 2-3″ tall ornaments. You can easily scale the recipe up by keeping the ratio the same. The dough can be divided so each child can have their own dough to work with. If you have extra dough at the end, you can save it for later by storing it in an airtight container.
Ingredients
2 cups flour
1/2 cup salt
3/4 cup water
Optional: add a few teaspoons of cinnamon powder to make the dough darker
Method
Mix flour, salt, and water in a bowl to form a nice malleable dough. It should not be too sticky once mixed.
Roll out on a lightly floured surface or on a piece of parchment paper. Roll dough to 1/4″ thick.
Cut shapes out using a cookie cutter or freestyle by tracing the design with a bamboo skewer first.
Cut out the designs using a small pair of scissors. Place the shapes on a parchment paper covered baking sheet.
Make holes in the ornaments for a string before you bake them. Use a bamboo skewer to do this.
Bake at 225 degrees F for 60-90 minutes, or until ornaments are hard all the way through.
Allow ornaments to cool, then add string to hang them up.
Notes: Keep salt dough out of reach of pets. The high salt content is dangerous for them, but for some reason my cat wanted to lick them. Salt dough is not edible. Tastes quite salty so I doubt kids would want to eat it, but you never know! To make these budget friendly, I use the cheapest flour that I keep on hand specifically for crafting. Remember to poke the holes for string before baking! Salt dough ornaments can be saved for years if kept dry.