Celebrate extra special occasions with these nostalgic, salt dough ornaments! Simple ingredients, easy to make and fun to decorate. These make wonderful keepsakes for future holidays and is a lovely tradition to start with your family.
2cupsAll purpose flour(plus an extra 1/2 cup for rolling out dough)
1cupTable Salt(not Kosher salt or other chunkier salts)
1cup Warm Water(should be a little warmer than room temperature)
Twine or other stringfor hanging the ornaments
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F or the lowest temperature your oven will go to.
In a medium to large mixing bowl, add 1 cup of flour, salt, and water. Mix thoroughly using a wooden spoon or your hands. Keep kneading the dough in the bowl for a few minutes. Add a sprinkle of extra flour if the dough is too sticky.
Once the dough has a soft, mostly dry texture, let the dough sit in the bowl for 20-30 minutes.
Sprinkle a little flour on the counter top or cutting board and roll out the dough to ¼” thickness.
Press cookie cutters into the dough surface, making sure to arrange them in a way so that you can use up as much space as possible. Peel away excess dough and carefully add the cut shapes to a parchment lined baking sheet. Continue cutting out ornaments (occasionally reforming dough and rolling it back out when you only have scraps left) and placing them on the baking sheet until all of the dough has been used up.
Use a straw to make a clearly defined hole near the top of the cut shapes.
Place on a middle rack of the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
Using the spatula, carefully flip the ornaments over and bake for another 30 minutes or until the shapes feel firm. Depending on your oven, it may take more or less than 30 minutes. Keep checking every 5 minutes or so. Don't let the ornaments become brown.
Take the baking sheet out of the oven and allow the ornaments to rest on the baking sheet until completely cool.
Decorate any way you like (adding paint, glitter, accessories, etc.) and thread a piece of ribbon or string through the top hole of the ornament. Enjoy!
Notes
Use lengths of raffia, cotton kitchen string, twine, yarn, metal ornament hooks, or anything you like for hanging the ornament securely.