DIY Salt Dough Keepsake Ornaments

It’s no secret that the holidays are going to look a lot different this year with COVID. With this being John Robert’s first Christmas, the past few weeks I’ve been thinking of activities and traditions that we could do at home that could make it extra special this year since we’re unable to do some of the things that I wanted to do. Fast forward — I decided the other night while scrolling through Pinterest during little man’s 3:00 AM feeding that I wanted to make DIY salt dough ornaments. Not only would it be a fun activity to experience with him, but they would be such a great way to remember our little man’s first Christmas. Another perk? They’d make such cute Christmas gifts for the grandparents!

DIY Salt Dough Ornaments

Ingredients:

2 cups of flour
1 cup of salt
1 cup of water

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Combine all your ingredients into a stand mixer. Mix for a few minutes until the ingredients are completely mixed. If the dough is too wet / sticky, add a little more flour.

Roll out the dough on a well floured countertop. Keep in mind that the thicker the dough, the longer they will take to bake and completely dry out. Once the dough is rolled out, use a round cookie cutter to cut out the ornaments. (You could really use any shape that you want though!) Once cut out, use a straw to poke holes in the ornaments so that you’re able to string them to hang later. Then, press your child’s hand prints or foot prints! Make sure that you press them firm enough to get a good print.

Bake your ornaments in the oven at 200 degrees for approximately 3 hours. Thicker dough ornaments will require longer than thinner dough. I baked mine for three hours and then let them continue to dry out on the counter overnight. Once they are dried out, tie them on some string, and they are ready to be hung on the tree (or wrapped as gifts!)

Optional: Paint

If you have a wiggly baby like I do, some of your hand prints or foot prints wont completely turn out perfectly or the print may be hard to see. One great tip I got when I shared these on Instagram was to paint the prints festive colors so you’ll be able to see them better. I ended up painting mine and I loved how the turned out! (Paint is totally optional though!)

Here’s a cute little reel video I made of the process that I shared over on Instagram!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIomG2pnxoc/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Well there you have it, friends! I hope you enjoyed these DIY salt dough ornaments, and I hope I inspired you to possibly make some of your own this Christmas season. If you end up making some of your own, I’d love to hear how they turned out in a comment below!