Try making painted salt dough ornaments this Christmas by melting crayons on warm ornaments. These are a new favorite process art activity!
Updated November 2024
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 ornaments 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 10 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
- 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.
- Roll out your dough
Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough and cut out shapes with cookie cutters.
- Bake your ornaments
Use a straw to poke a hole in the top of your ornament. Bake at 250F for 2-3 hours.
- 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.
- 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.
The salt dough isn’t that hot (not like the rocks). We could touch the ornaments with our bare hands, but you probably want to do this on a paper plate or a placemat to protect the table from the crayon.
Our Favorite Salt Dough Recipe
- 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
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup salt
- 1 cup cold water (+ extra if needed)
Instructions
- Mix flour with salt then stir in water. If the dough doesn’t come together, add a bit more water.
- Turn out the salt dough onto a countertop and work together with your hands until evenly mixed.
- Store in a plastic bag in the fridge until ready to use.
- 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.
- 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.
- Use the end of a drinking straw, a skewer, or a chopstick to poke a hole at the top of each ornament for hanging.
- 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.
- Gently move the sheet of parchment paper with salt dough ornaments onto a cookie sheet and bake in a 250F oven for 2-3 hours or until the salt dough is hard, but not browned. Let cool.
- (Optional) Add a coat of Mod Podge or some paint (we like BioColor paint for these) and glitter.
- Add a ribbon through the hole and hang in the window or on the tree!
More Salt Dough Ornaments for Kids
- 10 Salt Dough Decoration Ideas for Christmas
- How to Make Stamped Salt Dough Ornaments
- How to Make Salt Dough Ornaments with Sparkly Glass Beads
- 20 Homemade Christmas Ornaments the Whole Family Can Make
- How to Make Cinnamon Ornaments
- Lacy Salt Dough Ornaments for Christmas
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!
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