Salt dough decorations are a fantastic way of creating loving and fun-filled memories that you can cherish forever. Whether you’re an adult or a child, you can have a bundle of fun with this crafty activity, from making fun shapes to going all out with the decorations!

What you’ll need:

Ingredients for the salt dough

  • 500g all-purpose flour 
  • 125g table salt 
  • 190g warm water 

Tools and equipment

  • Large mixing bowl 
  • Wooden spoon 
  • Baking paper 
  • Rolling pin 
  • Cookie cutters 
  • Straw or toothpick (for poking a hole so you can hang the decorations)
  • Paint (optional, if you want to add a background color)
  • Glitter or any other fun and sparkly decorations (optional, if you want to jazz them up a bit)
  • Ribbon (for hanging the decorations)

Making the salt dough:

  1. In your mixing bowl, add the flour and the salt 
  2. Stir until well combined 
  3. Slowly add the water whilst stirring (you may need help with this)
  4. Keep stirring until all of the water is added and combined 
  5. If your mixture becomes too hard, ditch the spoon and use your hands!
  6. The dough will start to come together; keep handling it until it is smooth and mouldable.
  7. Lay out some baking paper and place a considerable chunk of the dough in the middle
  8. Cut out another sheet of baking paper (the same size as the base layer) and lay that over the dough (the dough should be sandwiched between)
  9. Roll out your dough until it is ½ cm thick. In this case, the thinner the dough, the better, as it reduces the chances of breakage. 
  10.  Remove the top layer of baking paper and begin cutting out your shapes!
  11.  Remove the excess dough and try to make some more shapes 
  12. Take your straw or toothpick and poke a hole in the top of each decoration (it needs to be big enough for a ribbon to hang) 
  13.  Transfer your baking paper and decorations onto a baking tray 
  14.  Bake in the oven for 1 hour at 150 degrees/ gas mark ⅔
  15.  They will be completely cooked when they are hard to touch 
  16.  Take out of the oven and leave them to cool completely 

Decorating;

(You don’t  have to decorate them, you can hang them just as they are.)

  1. If your decorations are looking uneven in colour, you can paint them with white paint or any other colour so that they look more uniform.
  2. Once the paint is dry, you can decorate the ornaments any way that you like, the more out there, the better!
  3. Once you have finished decorating, leave your ornaments to dry completely so they will be ready to hang.

Making them last:

  • The easiest way of making sure your decorations last is by keeping them tightly sealed in a Tupperware box.
  • If you have Mod Podge, you can also apply a small layer on each side, and it will keep the decorations looking fresh and brand new for years to come.

We hope you enjoyed making your very own Christmas decorations! It is a great activity for everyone and one that can be cherished each and every year. 

Happy Christmas!