These lovely salt dough ornaments are easy to make and are the perfect addition to any Christmas tree!
Updated December 2020
Making salt dough ornaments has become a Christmas tradition for us. They are the perfect way to get into the holiday spirit and we love to decorate our tree with them. They also make great gifts!
Salt dough is super versatile and there are many different ways to make your ornaments. Don’t worry, we’ve done the trial and error bits for you! We’ve made ornaments and then used paint and glitter for a successful bit of fun. And we’ve tinted batches of salt dough different colors before making the ornaments. Not quite as successful, but still fun.
This year, we’ve brought out our stamps for a stamped version of this easy holiday ornament. Be sure to check out our favorite salt dough recipe at the end to help you get started on your stamped ornaments!
How to Make Stamped Salt Dough Ornaments
MATERIALS
- Salt dough
- tempera paint (we used Biocolor)
- straws
- stamps
- glitter
- parchment paper
- cookie cutters
INSTRUCTIONS
- Make and roll your 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 and cut salt dough
Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough and cut out ornament shapes with cookie cutters.
- Stamp ornaments
Use stamps with and without ink for a variation in designs.
- Bake your ornaments!
Use a straw to poke a hole in the top of your ornament. Bake at 225F for 3-4 hours. Let cool completely. Then use ribbon or yarn to hang your ornaments.
An optional step: add paint and glitter to your ornaments!
BioColor works great on salt dough! It’s better than tempera paint, which we’ve tried in the past. It soaks into the dough too much and dries kind of powdery. The BioColor, on the other hand, dried quickly, stayed on the surface of the dough, and remained vibrant once dry.
Our Favorite Salt Dough Recipe
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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
- 4 cups flour
- 1 cup salt
- 1 1/2 cups cold water (+ extra 1/4 cup of water if needed)
Instructions
- Mix flour with salt then stir in water. If the dough doesn’t come together, add another 1/4 cup of water or so.
- 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 275F 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!
Keywords: salt dough ornaments
More Salt Dough Crafts for Kids:
- How to Make Painted Salt Dough Ornaments
- Lacy Salt Dough Ornaments
- 11 Salt Dough Ornaments Kids Can Make
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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