Salt Dough Ornaments Recipe (2024)

Make the perfect homemade ornaments with the best salt dough ornaments recipe.

These salt dough ornaments are easy to make and will help fill in your tree if you need a little extra somethin’-somethin’.

As I mentioned before, I’m toning down my Christmas decorations every year. I’m going less glitz and glam and embracing more natural decorations, neutral textures, and just a lot less stuff in general.

I don’t want all my surfaces dripping with Christmas.

Don’t get me wrong – I still want that cozy, festive look. But I’m learning that you can achieve that look with a lot less.

Christmas decor feels more thoughtful to me that way. It’s also easier on your home. Easier on your budget. And easier for you!

I wanted to give you guys a little glimpse of our tree this year too. I know many people out there have two or even three trees in their homes this time of year.

We used to do that as well. I used to put one “fancy” tree upstairs in our living room and one “kiddie decorated” tree in our TV room.

I would agonize over the placement of each Christmas ball on our fancy tree. Everything had to be perfect. Perfectly placed ribbon. Christmas balls were evenly spaced using geometric equations (not really, but it felt like it).

This year couldn’t be more opposite of that! We put up the handmade ornaments, the ornaments we collected from our travels, our baby ornaments, etc. I used a few Christmas balls and that’s it. And you know what? I love it so much more.

I love the feeling of letting go of perfection. My family and I had so much fun decorating to the sound of Bing Crosby’s greatest Christmas hits. This tree feels more real to me. And quite literally, it’s not a real tree.

It’s an unlit 7 foot Silverado Slim from Balsam Hill that I picked up on clearance last year. The pre-lit trees are super convenient but the lights never last for me. This way, I can use my own lights.

Maybe one year I want colored lights.

Maybe the next year I want white lights or cafe lights.

It leaves me with the option. And it doesn’t take me long to put the lights on every year.

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The Best Salt Dough Ornaments Recipe and Tips

Let’s get to making these salt dough ornaments.

Here’s the recipe …

1. Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl.
2. Slowly pour the water in while mixing until you get a nice dough consistency. Salt dough ornaments are very forgiving. Too much water? Add more flour. Not doughy enough? Add more water.
3. Now just roll them out to about 1/4 inch thick. Use a dusting of flour to help you roll them out. If you make them too thick, they won’t bake right, too thin and they will crack easier.
4. After rolling out, use your favorite cookie cutters to cut out the shapes. Don’t forget to poke a hole in them before baking for the string. I used a toothpick.
5. Bake them on a parchment-lined baking sheet in a preheated oven at 200 degrees for about 30 minutes. They will also continue to dry just left out in the open. It can take several days for them to fully harden this way.
6. Once the ornaments are cooled, you can tie on a piece of jute twine to each one. Voila! I love the handmade look to these with the added texture from the jute twine.

That’s it!

Making salt dough ornaments is basically like making Christmas Cut Out cookies – but please don’t eat these! Or let your pets get into them. The sodium content is crazy high.

You can also spray them with clear acrylic sprayto set them. (optional)

If you want more of a decorated look to them, see below for more ideas with your salt dough ornaments.

These star salt dough ornaments should last years for you. The ones I made last year are still going strong. I store them like all my other ornaments – wrapped in tissue paper and put them into my ornament box.

More Ideas for Salt Dough Ornaments

I tried four different ways with them – one which is more personal (family style), one marbled batch with food coloring (love how these turned out), one “hand-lettered” batch that we decorated with watercolors, stamps, and markers, and finally salt dough snowflakes.

Stamped Version

Did you know you can stamp ornaments? You can!

I used my Christmas acrylic stamps to stamp festive phrases on them and then painted them with watercolors. I bought the stamps from a local craft store around me butthese stampsare something similar I found on Amazon.

You don’t necessarily need the acrylic blocks that go with them to do these ornaments but you will need them eventually if you use the stamps for other projects.

I love acrylic stamps because they don’t take up a lot of space and you can see where you are actually stamping because they are clear! Genius.

Marbled Ornaments

This method will give you a marbled look to your ornaments which I absolutely love.

All you need to do is add 1-2 drops of food coloring in with the dough. Carefully knead it in and you will start to see the marbling. Don’t go crazy with the kneading here or the marbling will be too blended. Then cut out your shapes and bake as you normally would. A little bit of food coloring goes a long way.

I think these are so pretty. See the subtle marbling??

Hint – you might want to section off your dough to keep colors separate and try different color combinations.

Painted Salt Dough / Handprints

My sister made me a salt dough ornament with my daughter Hannah’s handprint on it years ago.

I wanted to make one with my son Tyler. I just rolled out a circular shape and stamped his hand on there. I used watercolors and a metallic marker to outline it after it was baked and cooled.

I also wanted to make something for our Wheaten Terrier, Sasha. I used a dog cookie cutter for her and finished it off with a bow collar and some marker. I just used a toothpick to engrave her name.

Making salt dough ornaments is a fun project to do with the kids and an inexpensive way to add a personalized touch to your tree. After all, Christmas is about spending more time with the ones we love.

Plus, there is something very nostalgic about pulling these ornaments out every year. It brings up happy memories that bring a smile to your face.

Try these Holiday crafts next …

Happy Crafting!

Xo Karen