Have a kid who loves to draw? Check out our NEW Drawing Skills Master Class!  Designed for kids 6-11 to gain skills and confidence.

How to Make Painted Salt Dough Ornaments

by Jean Van't Hul
October 27, 2023
350 Shares

Try making painted salt dough ornaments this Christmas by melting crayons on warm ornaments. These are a new favorite process craft activity!

Updated December 2023

It’s almost Christmas time and we have a great new way to decorate salt dough ornaments!

Salt dough is so versatile. We’re always tweaking and experimenting with materials and techniques. This time we combined two all-time favorite crafts, melted crayon art and salt dough, to make painted salt dough ornamants for a beautiful vibrant ornament to hang on your tree.

Check out our favorite salt dough recipe at the end to help you get started. For even more craft and ornament ideas, check out 11 Salt Dough Ornaments for Kids.

How to Make Painted Salt Dough Ornaments

MATERIALS

  • Salt dough (recipe at the bottom)
  • Crayons
  • Straw or other tool to make holes for hanging ornaments
  • Washcloth, paper plate, or placemat (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Make Salt Dough

    Follow the recipe below to make a batch of salt dough. Lay parchment paper down for your dough. The parchment paper helps to keep the dough from sticking to the table.

    salt dough ornaments

  2. Roll Out Your Dough

    Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough and cut out shapes with cookie cutters.

    salt dough ornaments

  3. Bake Your Ornaments

    Use a straw to poke a hole in the top of your ornament. Bake at 225F for 3-4 hours.

  4. Decorate with Crayons!

    At the end of your baking period, take one ornament at a time out of the oven (one for each decorator) and then draw on it with crayons. The crayons will melt as they glide over the hot surface of the ornament, leaving a thick and shiny wax coating of vibrant color just like it does with melted crayon rocks and other melted crayon art.

  5. Let Cool

    Allow your ornaments to cool and dry before hanging them up.

Some Helpful Tips

Once the ornaments cool down, the crayon doesn’t melt as readily. There will be a mix of melted crayon and not-so-melted crayon. Put your partially melted ornaments back into the oven to reheat and fully melt your crayon decoration.

We placed our ornaments on a washcloth to protect the table from the heat and the crayons. The salt dough isn’t that hot (not like the rocks). We could touch the ornaments with our bare hands, so the washcloths probably weren’t necessary. A paper plate or a placemat might be plenty—anything you don’t mind getting crayon on.

Print
clock clock iconcutlery cutlery iconflag flag iconfolder folder iconinstagram instagram iconpinterest pinterest iconfacebook facebook iconprint print iconsquares squares iconheart heart iconheart solid heart solid icon
stamped salt dough ornament

Our Favorite Salt Dough Recipe

  • Author: Jean Van’t Hul
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 3 hours
  • Total Time: 3 hours 15 minutes
  • Category: crafts

Description

We’ve tried so many salt dough crafts and made lots of variations of salt dough ornaments over the years. Here’s our favorite salt dough recipe with instructions to get you started.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 cups flour
  • 1 cup salt
  • 1 1/2 cups cold water (+ extra  1/4 cup of water if needed)

Instructions

  1. Mix flour with salt then stir in water. If the dough doesn’t come together, add another 1/4 cup of water or so. 
  2. Turn out the salt dough onto a countertop and work together with your hands until evenly mixed. 
  3. Store in a plastic bag in the fridge until ready to use.
  4. Place a fist-size piece of dough on a sheet of parchment paper and cover with a second sheet of parchment paper. Roll dough out with a rolling pin 1/8 – 1/4 inch thick.
  5. Use cookie cutters to cut out the desired shapes. Pull away the extra dough from around the shapes with the cookie cutters still in place.
  6. Use the end of a drinking straw, a skewer, or a chopstick to poke a hole at the top of each ornament for hanging.
  7. If you plan to decorate the ornaments, do that step now. Try stamps and a stamp pad, poking a pattern of holes in the dough with the end of a straw, or poking glass beads into the dough.
  8. Gently move the sheet of parchment paper with salt dough ornaments onto a cookie sheet and bake in a 275F oven for 2-3 hours or until the salt dough is hard, but not browned. Let cool.
  9. (Optional) Add a coat of Mod Podge or some paint (we like BioColor paint for these) and glitter.
  10. Add a ribbon through the hole and hang in the window or on the tree!

Keywords: salt dough ornaments

More Salt Dough Ornaments for Kids

Want even more creative ideas?

Check out our Holiday Creativity pack!

Let’s celebrate the holidays with all things crafty! Here are 53 pages full of our favorite drawing prompts, creative play ideas, art activities, and more!

Pin It for Later

How to Make Painted Salt Dough OrnamentsHow to Make Painted Salt Dough Ornaments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe rating 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

FREE EBOOK!

Subscribe to get your free copy of the 10 BEST Kids Art Ideas eBook!

10 Best Kids Art Ideas
Just Print & Draw!
34 pages of colorful, creative fun!
Encourage scientific exploration with all kinds of creative fun!
Shop Printables
350 Shares
Print
Share
Pin350