Creating Salt Dough Crafts and Christmas Ornaments

Looking for some good holiday crafts? It's the perfect time of the year to start on those fun Christmas projects that can be used as gifts, or to decorate your home! Salt dough is a very inexpensive, versatile medium for creating all kinds of goodies! And, if you preserve them correctly, some of them could even become a cherished keepsake!

Here's a basic recipe for salt dough:

4 c all-purpose flour

1 c salt

1 1/2 cups hot tap water

2 tsp vegetable oil (optional)

food coloring to color the dough (optional)

Mix flour and salt together in mixing bowl. If you are going to add food coloring you can mix it into the water. Gradually add water to form a firm dough (you can add the vegetable oil now if you'd like, to make the dough a better texture to work with). If the dough is too sticky, add a little more flour, or if the dough is too crumbly, add a tiny bit more water, until you get a pliable dough. Knead the dough until it is nice and elastic.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

Form ornaments, letters, shapes, figurines from the dough using rolling pins, straws, toothpicks, cookie cutters or whatever tools you can find...use your imagination1

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Place the salt-dough creations on the cookie sheet, leaving some space around each one. Baking time will vary according to the thickness of the salt dough creations. Make sure each part is completely dry and hard. If parts are browning during cooking, you can cover those areas with aluminum foil

Cool completely. You can now paint the creations, add ribbons and other decorative elements.

To preserve your creations, seal them on all sides with clear varnish or polyurethane spray.

If you have extra dough, it does not keep well, only a couple of days in the refrigerator.

Last year I started on a pretty big project that I'd like to finish this year: Creating salt dough ornaments to use on a Jessie Tree, or Jesus Tree. (The idea of a Jessie Tree is taken from Isaiah 11:1 in the Old Testament and uses symbols and Bible verses that point the way to the New Testament story of the birth of Christ and our need for salvation. You can find out how to make one, with free templates you and your children can color or use to make salt dough or other types of ornaments, as well as the verses that go along with them here).

You'll notice in the photo below that several of the ornaments cracked during cooking. A little glue should fix this before I paint them, but beware, as I learned the hard way, not to make your salt dough creations too thin!

Below I've included a few of the Christmas ornaments I made. They still need to be painted: There really is no limit to the things you can make with salt dough, Christmas ornaments are only the tip of the iceberg!

A project we did a few years ago, which makes a wonderful keepsake, was make our children's handprints in salt dough. I first cut out circles using a large lid to fit each child's hand, then had the child press their hand carefully in the dough to make their handprint. Using a toothpick, making tiny dots that run together, I printed each child's name, age, and the year. We already enjoy seeing how much they've grown when they now place their hands in their handprints from several years ago!

Children love making salt dough creations! I have used this project to keep little ones occupied while babysitting, and at the end of the day they get to take home their creation to their mom and dad. I've also seen online some very intricate pieces of art formed from salt dough! Do an internet search sometime for photos of salt dough creations. It's pretty amazing what you can do with simple flour, salt, and water!

Sources:

Gary R. Kennedy, Why We Celebrate Christmas, Jesus Tree Decorations

Easy Child Crafts, Salt Dough Recipes

ScottsHelper, Domestic Legacies, Legacies From Dough