How to make Salt Dough Ornaments

Salt Dough Ornaments

I have a confession, I have a borderline ornament addiction. Okay it's an all out addiction! I love ornaments! The holiday season and purchasing our tree and decorating it is a big deal in our house. Even before I had my daughter, I would always make a big deal of decorating our tree. I obsess over ornaments. I constantly buy new ornaments. I cannot go into a store with ornaments and leave without a new one. It's bad I know! I have storage container, upon storage container of ornaments. Last year, I decided to try to make my own. I figured it would be a great tradition to start with my daughter. The ornaments turned out awesome, and this year, I worked out most of the kinks I encountered last year, so these are near perfect. The best part about making these is that with the exception of polyurethane, you probably have everything you need to make these. You can use any molds, paints, or glitters that you have. If you don't care whether or not these last years to come, you can even skip the polyurethane and use Elmer's glue.

Ingredients
1/2 cup of flour
1/2 cup of salt
1/4 cup of water
Glitter
Polyurethane clear coat/ a clear glue
Paint ( I use Martha Stewart brand)
Parchment paper

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 200F degrees Add all ingredients to a bowl, mix until the dough comes together, then knead the though until it's smooth and forms a ball. Place the dough on a sheet of foil or parchment paper. Using a rolling pin roll the dough out into an even layer, then use cookie cutters to cut out fun shapes. Move the parchment paper with the cut outs to a cookie sheet. Using a toothpick punch a small hole in the top of the ornament. You'll need the hole to string through ribbon or an ornament hook, so make sure it's big enough. Just stick the toothpick in and swirl around until you reach the thickness you need:

 Place the ornaments in the oven for 1-2 hours or until they are hard and dry. Once they are hardened remove from the oven and let them cool completely about 20 minutes.

Now the fun begins. Paint the ornaments on both sides with your choice of paint.

Once the paint dries (10-15mins) use a paint brush to apply a coat of polyurethane, immediately add glitter, and let dry for 5 minutes then repeat on the other side.

Once both sides are dry, you can string through your ribbon and you're done. You can save these for your own tree or give them away as gifts!

What are some of your favorite holiday traditions?

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