Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Make Salt Dough Ornaments With the Kids

Earlier this year Ike made a batch of salt dough ornaments to enter into the local fall fair. They turned out to be a perfect addition to the packages of homemade candy and baking mixes that we had prepared for family and friends. This year we made up Ginger Sparkle Cookies, Almond Roca, and Ike's Special Brownie Mix. I found these cute gift bags and the ornaments were perfect to finish them off. The salt dough ornaments are a nice easy craft for the kids to cut out and paint. They make a nice gift for teachers, and family too. Ike brought in one of these bags with a dozen Ginger Sparkles and his favourite ornament to gift to his teacher before Christmas break.

Salt Dough Recipe

2 cups flour
1 cup salt
3/4 cups water

Mix all ingredients and knead to make a pliable dough. If the dough is too sticky...add more flour. If it seems crumbly....add a few more drops or water. Roll dough to desired thickness and place on cookie sheet to bake. I found it helpful to put a layer of parchment under the cut outs. Push a wire loop into the top of the ornament to use for hanging. We took a paper clip and cut it into a U shape 1/2 inch long to make the hanging loop.

Dry in oven at 170F. Allow one hour or drying time per 1/4 inch thickness of dough.

Once cooled, paint and varnish.

1 comment:

Lori said...

We made salt dough ornaments two years ago. Yours are so adorable the way they are decorated.