I had some salt dough left over (wrapped and refrigerated) from our stamped salt dough extravaganza and on a whim invited a friend over for some salt dough fun yesterday. She wanted to try stamping the dough, while I tried a couple of new ideas I’ve had in mind.
Our toddlers wove in and out of the action with playing, snacking, fighting over toys, and working with the salt dough themselves.
2 New Salt Dough Ornament Ideas
Lacy Punched Salt Dough Ornaments
MY LATEST VIDEOSThe first idea I wanted to try involved punching holes in the salt dough ornaments with a straw to create a lacy effect.
We usually use straws to punch a single hole in the top for hanging; this time I punched holes all over.
After a while the hole end gets too gunked up to use so I would turn the straw piece upside down, use the other side, then toss it and grab another. (I cut the straws into thirds first to reduce waste.)
Beaded Salt Dough Ornaments
I also tried beaded salt dough ornaments, pressing small glass beads directly into the uncooked dough. I pressed them pretty far in, hoping that they would act kind of like stained glass and allow light to shine through the bead.
Daphne made a few beaded ornaments, too. She loves poking beads in dough and has done it a few times in the past with playdough.
Here is my cookie sheet of punched and beaded ornaments (with a couple of them combining the two techniques) ready for the oven.
Salt Dough Recipe
And once again, here’s the salt dough recipe I used this time around ::
- Mix 4 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 1 1/2 cups water.
- Bake at 225 (or so) Fahrenheit for 2-4 hours.
I LOVE these lacy salt dough stars! They worked so well and are quite sturdy despite being only a 1/4 inch thick and punched full of holes.
But I think I love the beaded “stained glass” salt dough ornaments even more, especially with the sun shining through them.
This sweet one was made by Daphne. Love, love, love!
For more salt dough ornament ideas, see my post on 11 Salt Dough Ornaments Kids Can Make.
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Gosh, these are totally beautiful. So creative.
I’d also want to know – you baked the ornaments with the beads on?
I LOVE the stained glass ornaments. Reminds me of something I saw on Pinterest where someone had drilled holes in a fence and put colorful marbles. Great work. :)
Also, I wonder if you could use something like Pearler beads (sp?) that are supposed to be melted anyway. I wonder if the length of baking would be too long? Thinking as I type…
I just tried to post a reply and it vanished so if this comes up twice please delete!
You are probably right, it would be a mess, I have just always found perler beads kind of boring because they only go in certain shapes — I want to melt a big mess in the oven and see what happens. It can’t be a good idea though, eh? :)
(PS, some of the beads are transparent — kind of sparkly, some glow in the dark too. We have a bucket of about 6000 of them and I’m looking for other fun uses. Maybe other readers have some ideas?)
Wow–what a great variation on these. I love it! Can you just clarify–you did actually bake the beads? And there were no problems? I’m totally pinning these right now.
Yes! I baked the ornaments with the beads in them. They are glass beads and the oven temp was low. I wouldn’t try this with plastic beads.
Thanks! Yes. The beads were added before I baked the ornaments.
These look like so much fun! Love, love, love!
Haven’t heard of Pearler beads. What are they?
Just looked them up. The plastic perler beads aren’t transparent like the glass beads so wouldn’t have the same effect. Also it looks like you just swipe an iron over them quickly to fuse them together. 3 or more hours in an oven might not be a good idea.
Well, hey. if you decide to try the oven idea (or anything else fun) with the perler beads, let me know how it goes.
These look so colorful and fun!
When I made salt dough ornaments with my 3 year old, she unintentionally made lacy ornaments when the single hole intended for hanging turned into a hole punching party. Half the ornaments got the punched hole treatment, and those ornaments are my favorites. Yours came out so pretty — love the glass bead affect.
These are just gorgeous, Im thinking we will make salt dough ornaments tomorrow. Last night we finished up some candy cane play dough gifts which my children loved (and today other children loved receiving), thanks for the inspiration! You can see them here: https://thegreendragonfly.wordpress.com/2011/12/16/candy-cane-play-dough/
Ive just recently started subscribing to your blog and I love it- you are very talented!!!
Awesome! I have 2 kids on my lap that want to try this now! But I think I’ll till tomorrow for this activity sounds fun :)
These are gorgeous! Pinning this for the future!
I used the perler beads just as an experiment and they did fine in the oven. FYI.
Sorry, I meant the regular plastic beads not perler. Need more coffee.
So cute! i love it very much. thanks for sharing.
I’ve never thought of this before, what a great idea. Were they very fragile after they dried?
Blessings,
Amanda
Plastics can let off harmfull gases when heated, I wouldn’t advise putting perler beads in the oven for too long.
What size beads did you use and where could I find them?
How long and at what temp do you bake these?
Those are beautiful! I cannot wait to try this..and the great thing is I have everything on hand..nothing to buy. I particularly love the black ribbon..looks fab…Thank you!
I love both versions! I’ll be sharing soon on The Crafty Crow :)
Simply beautiful, what a great idea. Thank you for sharing.
These are beautiful! Where did you purchase the glass pony beads? I’m tempted to try these with the regular plastic ones, but glass would be even nicer to use for parent gifts.
you could maybe use candy too in there? hard candy? gorgeous, I think I might try it.
What are the glass beads called? What size? Where can I get them? (New to all of this…) Thank you for your wonderful blog!
I know this is late, but I thought about the plastic beads in the oven and came up with some things for people to think about. First, do what you are comfortable with! That said, when I first started doing salt dough figurines, etc, we always just let them air dry. It might take a week or so, but it works. They do NOT have to be baked. You might want to turn them over after they are firm enough to do so–the underside will still be damp and will dry sooner when exposed to air.
A game changer for me as a preschool teacher was when, somewhere along the line, I read that you can bake saltdough at a super-low (for an oven) temp, like 175-200 degrees. (Great! I can speed up the drying time on class projects! A child was gone for 2 weeks and came back just before Mother’s Day? I’ve got it!) Back to the topic of heated plastic in the oven. Well, I live in Phoenix. The inside of our cars gets close to that hot. (110 degrees plus 1/2 hour equals 145 degrees). I suspect the beads would be just fine if baked on the lowest setting. Better yet, turn the oven off after it reaches tempetature. However, if you start to smell plastic, I would take them out and air-dry them.