Creating and Crafting Fun with Homemade Ornaments

Today we had a really fun advent activity, we made and decorated salt dough ornaments! I had no idea it was going to be so much fun and I love the pretty works of art we have to share with our family and hang on our own tree! I searched for weeks for the perfect homemade ornament for this year and found several beautiful ones but it was hard to find one that Ava Kate could really participate in. I finally decided to just go with the simple salt dough ornaments and I'm so glad I did. In fact we might just make the salt dough ornaments an annual Christmas tradition. The dough was so easy to make, cut out and bake. After they bake and cool the creating begins. I love all the colors, designs and creativity that went into each one. Ava had a blast painting and sprinkling glitter and putting on buttons! I think Justin and I had as much or more fun ourselves. It was messy which is why Ava and I opted to wear our I love NY tshirts and we continue to find glue, paint and glitter in our hair, on our clothes and floors but it was so worth it. I highly recommend this activity for anyone with kids! I've even included the recipe at the bottom of this post.










Salt Dough Ornaments- this recipe will only make about 10 depending on size so I would double it.
What you'll need:
½ cup salt
1 cup flour
½ cup water
Rolling pin
Cookie sheet
Toothpick
Miniature cookie cutters: star and Christmas tree
Acrylic paints: green, yellow, and various colors of your choice for tree ornaments
Glitter glue or glitter paint
ribbon
How to make it:Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.
Mix together, salt, flour, and water until dough is formed.
Knead the dough on a floured surface until the mixture is elastic and smooth. If dough is too sticky, sprinkle with flour, continue to do so until stickiness is gone. Do not add too much flour, this will dry out the dough and will cause it to crack before you get a chance to bake it.
Roll out the dough to about ¼” thick with a rolling pin that has been dusted with flour.
Use cookie cutters to cut out as many trees and stars as you want.
Use a toothpick to make a hole toward the top of the shape. Poke the toothpick into the shape, then holding toothpick straight up and down, make a circular motion as if you were stirring something. Keep circling until the hole is the size you want.
Place all shapes onto an ungreased cookie sheet and place into the preheated oven.
Bake for 2 hours.
Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
Paint the trees green and the stars yellow.
Use the handle end of the paint brush to dot on ornaments by dipping into paint then dotting onto ornament.
When paint is dry, use glitter glue (we used green) or glitter paint (we used gold) to put a sparkling cover coat on your ornaments.
When dry, thread ribbon through hole and tie in a knot in the back.
Tie onto package.