Bored?

OK....let's do some crafting.   These salt ornaments are super easy to make, really fun to paint and will use only pantry ingredients.  Make the dough, form the ornaments with cookie cutters and then bake them to harden.  Spread out an old sheet or towel on the kitchen table and paint away as a family.   My family has made these as Christmas ornaments and gift tags.  One year my Dad helped paint (see below) and his ornament is our most treasured...it's also really good!  You can use circles to make monogram wine tags, use Halloween cutters to create spooky ornaments you can hang on a branch for your October table or get a head start on the Christmas holiday ornament exchange.   Be sure to make a hole in the ornament before you bake...we use a new pencil to poke a hole.  

Click here to print my Salt Ornaments  Recipe 

or follow along below 

Salt Ornaments

Recipe courtesy of Celeste Podojil

2 cups salt (not kosher salt)

4 cups all purpose flour

2 cups luke warm tap water
(I also add lavender or grapefruit extract, peppermint would be fun too) 

In the bowl on a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook (this works best) combine the salt and flour.  

Turn on medium setting and slowly add the water.  

Mix/knead for about 5 minutes.  

The dough will be soft and shouldn’t be sticky.  

If too sticky you can add more flour, 

a Tablespoon at a time.  

After using the stand mixer, I hand knead as well.  

You can do this by hand but add kneading time by 

hands to 7 minutes or until dough is soft to the 

touch and not sticky.  Start in a bowl with a wooden 

spoon and add to a floured surface to knead until soft. 

You can store it in a Ziploc at this point to use in a few days. 

If you are ready to go, flour your surface and roll the dough out to about ¼ inch thick.  

Cut shapes with cookie cutters and place on a cookie sheet over parchment paper.   

If you want to use as ornaments at this point take a new pencil and poke a hole in the top of the ornament for your hook (use the unsharpened side of a pencil).  

You can dry them for a few days or bake them at 200 degrees for 45 minutes-3 hours or until they harden.

You can paint them with craft paint (don’t forget the back) and when dry modge podge both sides….you can also use a spray polyurethane but it turns white paint yellow after some time. 

You can add to your tree, gifts, wine bottles, use as tags (write on back with sharpie) or they make cute placeholders at your holiday table.