Salt Dough Ornaments

Our friend Donna told me about a year when their family made salt dough ornaments as favors for a Holiday party. It sounded like something the kids would really enjoy so we did it. The adults had a lot of fun too! It's really easy to do and "no-fail" !




Ingredients/Supplies

• 4 cups of flour
• 1 cup of salt
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• Paper Clips
• Craft Paint
• Clear Coat Paint (buy a gallon...I'll explain why later)

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 325. Cut paper clips in half so that you have two round ends from each clip. These will be the loops for hangers. Mix the salt and flour and then gradually stir in the warm water. Mix as well as you can with a wooden spoon and then finish it off by kneading with your hands until the dough is consistent. Roll it out a batch at a time to about 1/8th inch thick. It's ok if it's a little thicker but don't make them more than 1/2 inch. Use cookie cutters to cut out your shapes. Insert a hanger loop at the top of each ornament and bake for 45 min-1 hour.
Let them cool and then paint them. Let the paint dry and then seal them in clear coat paint.

*Here is why you need a gallon of clear coat*

It would take forever to paint them all with clear coat so we opened a gallon of clear coat and proceeded to dip each ornament in the clear coat and then hang it on a makeshift cloths line between two chairs. We put garbage bags under the line so they could drip. We let them dry overnight and they were good to hang the next morning.

*Note* They were still a little spongy feeling for several days but after about a week they were hard as rocks!