Project #1 Salt Dough Ornaments

This project was completed a month ago, but I thought it would be a great subject to post about. I found this pin about making Salt Dough Handprint ornaments. The pin linked to Homemade Grit's tutorial. Check out her post to see how her ornaments turned out!

We started with the recipe:
4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 1/2 cups water

I combined all the ingredients and let my stand mixer (with dough hook) knead the dough for 15 minutes. Then I let my daughter reach in & hand knead the dough just for fun.

 

Next we rolled out the dough and cut it into circles using a plastic cup.

When we had enough scraps from the circles, I rolled them into a ball, pressed them flat & cut another circle.

I took my daughters hand and carefully pressed them into the dough. For the leftover smaller circles, I used stamps (with no ink) to press shapes into.

V enjoyed getting dirty, and taste-testing the salt dough.

We used a straw to cut small holes in each ornament to thread the ribbon hangers through, and I used small alphabet letter stamps to press my daughter's name into the ornaments.
The next step was baking. The tutorial I used for a guide suggested to bake at 300ºF about 20 to 25 minutes or until golden (spray cookie sheet with nonstick spray first). Our ornaments were thicker and needed nearly 40 minutes of bake time. After time was up, I turned the oven off and let the ornaments cool.

The next day, I used a paint pen & some old nail polish to paint in the handprints, my daughter's name & the year. Once the paint was dry, my husband sprayed the ornaments with a clear coat to seal them. Finally I added a ribbon to hang the ornaments.

The ornaments were a lot of fun to make, and pretty easy. They made great gifts for the grandparents this year.