DIY Salt Dough Holiday Ornaments

Nothing says “you are thought of,” this holiday season like someone taking the time to make a little something personal just for you. This is why I love to give handmade gifts when possible! This year, I decided to make salt dough ornaments to give away as gifts either by themselves, paired with a bottle of wine, or even as a gift tag or place card for holiday dinners. After making a batch of salt dough ornaments, I realized how easy and simple this DIY craft is! If you are looking for a little something you can make for friends and family try salt dough! These ornaments also make an easy holiday craft if you have kiddos. Here’s how!

What you need to make salt dough ornaments:

all purpose flour
salt
white acrylic paint
rolling pin
whisk
parchment paper
a straw
cookie cutters
paint or markers to decorate with after dry
ribbon or string

How to make:

*this will make 1 large batch, I was able to make around 24 ornaments with this amount
Whisk 2C all purpose flour with 1C salt until even
Slowly add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Add 1/2C cold water and 1/2C white acrylic paint (you can add more paint if you want a stark white ornament, just add more flour to insure dough does not get too watery)
Mix ingredients together until a ball starts to form. If you feel the dough is too watery or too dry just add in either more flour (if too watery) or more water (if too dry). You want to be able to pick the dough up in a ball and knead it.
Knead dough until well mixed into a ball
Roll dough out onto flat surface to about the thickness as a sugar cookie. You don’t want them to be too thick or they’ll never dry, or thin because they could crack when dry.
Use cookie cutters to cut designs into dough and set on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Roll dough out as needed to continue cutting ornaments.
Use a straw to poke a hole for string/ribbon to hang ornament.
Bake dough in oven at 200°F for 3 hours on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Be sure to check on the dough every 30 minutes or so to gauge baking time. Depending on thickness you may need more or less time.
Once ornaments are hardened and cooled you can begin to decorate!