Salt Dough Ornaments

For the past two years we haven't really gotten much into the Christmas spirit. No tree, no stockings, etc. Maybe because of the play, The Family Clause, we were inspired to actually try something festive this holiday season. For whatever reason, we made salt dough ornaments.

Salt dough is pretty cool. It's cheap and easy to make. Easy to clean up too. You mix flour, salt, oil, and water together and there you have it. I heard that if you add cream of tartar and food coloring you get playdoh. Nice.

Anyway, Zorah mixed the dough with her bare hands, which she thought was fun for a little while. When it got too sticky, she wasn't too sure about it. As you keep kneading the dough it dries out a bit and becomes more manageable.

Next, we floured the rolling pin and rolled the dough flat. It was a little tricky because if she pressed the pin down too hard, the dough would stick to the pin.

Then Zorah started cutting out ornaments. She started out doing one shape in the middle, but by the end was starting at the side of the rolled-out dough to fit as many shapes as possible.

After drying the ornaments out in the oven on low heat, she painted them, glued hair on the fairies, and we were done.