How to Make Salt Dough Ornaments - Recipe, Tips & Tricks! (With Video)

Salt Dough might be my favourite medium for making ornaments, especially with our 2-piece cutter and stamp sets. I’ve always found it to be the strongest once set and the easiest to work with. For me, the easier it is to work with and reshape if I make a mistake (or the stamp doesn’t quite turn out the way I want), the better!

I know this might be different from other people’s experiences. People might think air-dry clay is surely stronger than salt dough (I thought the same at first!), and it might be, depending on which brand you use and your method. But so far, I have found that my salt dough ornaments are harder to break than the air-dry clay ones I’ve made.

We still love to make ornaments with air-dry clay, but let’s talk about salt dough.

What is Salt Dough?

It’s flour, salt & water mixed together to form a mouldable dough that can dry and harden to keep your creations intact. 3 ingredients, that’s it!

It’s different from playdough in texture and consistency. It’s denser and not as soft and squishy as playdough. This makes it perfect for making ornaments and anything else you want to sculpt and make to last.

Why We Love It

It’s a great activity that your kids can be a part of from start to finish, and it can be made with just 3 ingredients you likely already have in your pantry at home.

It’s also a great activity for classrooms, kinders and other early learning settings. We have lots of educators who make salt dough ornaments in bulk, then have their students paint and decorate them for different events and activities throughout the year. You can make them ahead of time and have them ready to go for a simple painting or decorating activity.

It’s easy to make, knead, shape, mould and cut into shapes. I particularly love that if you want to start over, it’s very easy to work with. Just like with playdough, you can roll and squish it back into a ball, roll it back out and start again.

This comes especially in handy if you are using our one-piece dough cutters, but more on that in the tips & tricks below.

The Recipe We Use

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 cup salt
• 1 1/3 cups hot water (from the kettle)

Quick notes on the ingredients

• You can use any type of plain flour, just don’t use self-raising flour or your ornaments will puff up if you dry them in the oven!
• Table salt will work fine, but we use microfine salt. It’s not easy to get, so we recommend blitzing your table salt in a NutriBullet or something like it. This will help it dissolve into the mixture so you won’t have big salt chunks throughout, making for a much smoother dough.
• For the hot water, I just boil the kettle before I start gathering my materials and mixing the dry ingredients, then use that water. Easy as.

Materials you'll need

• Medium-sized mixing bowl
• Spoon or spatula to mix ingredients with
• Measuring cups
• Silicone mat or baking paper
• Baking tray (if oven drying)
• Small paintbrush, drinking straw or skewer (for making hanging holes)
• Acrylic paints (our recommendations below)
• Sealant (we use Mod Podge)

Method 🥣

1. In a medium mixing bowl, thoroughly mix the flour and salt together.
2. Measure and pour in the hot water and stir. At this point, it might look like a hot mess, but don’t worry. Trust the process!
3. Once the dough has cooled enough to touch, give it a really good knead (you can also use gloves here).
4. Do the stick test! If the dough sticks to your hands easily, you want to add just a smidge more flour and test again. If your dough is too dry, add a little bit more water, only adding very small amounts at a time. you don't want to tip it over to being too sticky. 
5. Roll the dough out on your silicone mat or baking paper to the thickness you want your ornaments to be. I find 0.5–1 cm is pretty good. Too thick and they will take ages to dry!
6. Cut & stamp your shapes.
7. Peel away the excess dough.
8. Using the end of a paintbrush or skewer, poke holes in the top for hanging.

If oven drying:

• Put the ornaments on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
• Set your oven to its lowest temperature and bake for around 3–5 hours. If the temperature is too high, they can puff up!
• Once they’re finished baking, let them cool completely before decorating.

If air drying:

• Place the ornaments somewhere flat to air dry.
• Leave them to dry for around 3–5 days. Maybe more!
• Once they’re completely dry, they’re ready to decorate.

Then the fun part!

• Decorate them!
• Seal them — this will help them last a long time and protect your paint.
• Hang them!

Tips & Tricks

Using Our Cutters & Stamps

• Our 2-piece cutters work best to get a clean cut & stamp, but you can also use our one-piece cutters.
• Take a look at my technique in the video. I get the best results when I first place the cutter, then stamp, lift the stamp off, gently twist the cutter in the dough, then remove the cutter.
• For intricate designs like our Long Neck Turtle and Yabby, dust some flour over the rolled-out dough before you stamp. This will make it easier to lift the stamp off without it sticking.
• Give the cutter a little wiggle and peel it off from one of the side edges (see video for techniques).

General Tips

• You can colour your dough before drying using food colouring, bush tucker powder or other natural food powders. Just note that the colour will fade quite a bit if using natural materials.
• To get a really smooth dough, blitz your table salt for 10–15 seconds in something like a NutriBullet. This will help the salt dissolve better when you add the hot water (this is my top tip!).
• We just use regular acrylic paints (I love the brand Jo Sonja), but you could use any paints. Watercolours look really nice too!
• We seal with Mod Podge, but you can use any non-toxic paint sealer or even watered-down PVA.
• Make sure to use a thin layer of sealant. If using Mod Podge, make sure to get rid of any spots where it’s thick and pooling on your ornament. I use a clean brush at the end to do this.
• Lastly, don’t forget to make some plain ornaments with your cutters and decorate them with your own designs! 💚

Caring for Your Ornaments

If you want your ornaments to last a long time, make sure to seal them. Then, when they’re not on display, store them flat in a cool, dark environment free from moisture.

The salt helps to preserve the mixture, and the sealant helps to protect them and keep them looking great.

If you live somewhere really humid, your ornaments might absorb moisture from the air and go soft or soggy. Make sure they are completely dry before sealing them and give them a good coat of sealant, including the back and edges. When you store them away, keep them in an airtight container somewhere cool and dry. You could put a little silica gel packet in with them if you happen to have one.

Whether your ornaments are on display or packed away, you want to stop the salt from absorbing moisture from the air.

Get creative!

Use pretty ribbon, natural twine, beads or seeds to finish your ornaments and make them your own!

Enjoy! 

Mikaela x