Monday, December 23, 2013

Salt Dough Recipes for Ornaments: Handprint Santa and Christmas Gift Tag Ideas

Sure, so Mother Nature gives us a 70 degree day smack dab in the middle of December - along the Mid-Atlantic- and makes it RAIN? What is up with that? That's like the worst tease ever.   Wah Wah Wah...and so we were stuck in side...again.  And guess what this mom had up her sleeve...another kids hand print project!  I have a whole board of handprint art ideas on Pinterest..and I have to say they are very popular!  The one we made today is different than anything we've made before because it's actually a 3D ornament, instead of just a paint hand print.

The are a few different salt dough recipes for ornaments floating around out there, but I did this one <<<.  To make one Santa handprint ornament and eight other small to medium size ornaments I went with 1 cup of flour and half a cup each of salt and water.

This is a toddler-friendly craft and since I had a pint size helper, he helped me mix the flour and salt together in a bowl.



Don't pour the water in yet...Once you get the flour and salt mixed up you want to have everything else ready before you pour in the water because you need to work quickly at that point.  So get your oven preheated to 200, your baking sheet, cookie cutters, rolling pint, spatula, knife and some kind of pointed object to make a hole out and ready.


After your work area is all ready, pour the water into the flour and salt mixture and stir to form the salt dough.


Roll out the dough and quickly make the handprint.  Press your child's fingers and palm down firmly.   Then use the knife to cut around the handprint and the spatula to carefully place it onto the baking tray.  Make a hole in the palm side for the ribbon or hook you plan to use to hang it on the tree.  

If you are want to make any other ornaments or Christmas gift tags work quickly with your cookie cutters so the dough doesn't start to harden. I cut out about 5 circles to attach to gifts.   My daughter didn't want to make a handprint santa, so I made her a few other fun Christmas shapes so she could decorate them.


Once all of your salt dough ornaments are cut on the baking pan, put it in the oven.  I set my oven for 30 minutes initially.  Then added about 15 minutes.  After the first 45 minutes, I flipped all the ornaments over and let them cook for another 30 minutes.  Then I flipped them back and they baked for another hour at least.  I just kept checking them and finally pulled them out once they were hard.

I let the ornaments cool completely - which didn't take long - and then we decorated them with craft paint. For some of the smaller black details on the Santa I used a Sharpie marker.


The paint dried very quickly, which is great for kids who want to layer colors, but have no patience. :)  


Finally, I added the ribbons for hanging. 

I think they turned out really cute and there are countless ways you could decorate these - especially the little round ornaments.  Wouldn't monograms or just a single initial be cute, too?  I am not a very skilled painter (as in: I suck) so I just kind of stuck with the basics, but if you have a steadier hand than me, then I'm sure your salt dough gift tags / ornaments will turn out awesome!




Thanks for stopping by 2IY! If you like what you see, we'd love for you to pin it!


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