use the below step by step guide to make your very own, sweetest, little salt dough ornaments!


last week i got a wild hair and tried to be the crafty mom. the mom that has the perfect, little memento ornaments hanging on her tree. you see...i have an ornament hanging on our tree from waaaaay back when i was born in '83. i also have a little apple ornament i still remember making in kindergarten in '88. so...when it came down to it, i also wanted these special ornaments for my gals. 

doing what any crafty mom would do - i went to pinterest. i picked the tutorial with the prettiest pictures and got to work. i made the dough, stamped the hands, baked the dough and voilà! they didn't turn out. well, elliot's did...kind of. but kaye and sawyer's ornaments both ended up getting really large air bubbles and they had to be tossed. 

so, a few days later, discouraged but not defeated, i looked up a different tutorial. this one had crazy santa hands and green feet reindeer - but it was for salt dough, so i went for it. 

three seconds later i had a sticky-ish dough. and i thought - this dough is really sticky. i'll roll it out on wax paper.

i repeat - do NOT roll out your dough on wax paper. it rolled out just fine, but it was IMPOSSIBLE to get up. it completely ruined the handprints. alas - i had to redo the hand stamping just one more time. 

i scraped up the dough, sprinkled a little extra flour onto some parchment paper, rolled it out after rubbing a little flour on the rolling pin...and this did the trick. no sticking. no sticking to the surface, the rolling pin, or to elli's sweet, chubby baby hand.

next, i grabbed my handy circle cutters (if you don't have a circle cutter you can use a large mug or bowl) and measured it around elli's hand. i left room for a hole at the top and some space for writing above her thumb and pointer finger.

and, this goes without saying but i'll say it, i repeated the process with kaye and sawyer as well...except for kaye i had to use a giant bowl because she has giant hands and what the eff...where did my baby go? seriously...i blinked and she's no longer that clingy nine month old following me around the house.

once the three ornaments were cut out i used the end of a straw to punch a hole in it for the ribbon.
next, and this is important - let them fully dry. do not bake them. baking them turns them golden. i didn't want mine golden. i wanted a sweet, cream color. also, if you're drying on the parchment paper, you'll need to flip them, so i recommend using a cooling rack to let them dry.

also, be super careful as they start to get a little dry - kaye's cracked slightly in two spots. i used superglue to seal it off.

final step! spray your ornament with modge podge for a sealant. now, as soon as you get yourself some modge podge - that's when you know you've reached a new level of craftiness. this was my first can and i'll probably proceed to modge podge just about everything in our house...mostly because i like the smell.
oh my gosh, i lied. this is the last step - if you would like, write on the ornament.

funny story - i had to look up the spelling of elli's name because we always write out elli and not elliot. my farmer and i were like - did we do two t's?

we're running low on sleep people, give us a break.
and that's that! the sweetest little handprint tutorial!

keep scrolling for the recipe!
SALT DOUGH ORNAMENT RECIPE
(this will make five child-sized handprint ornaments)

1 cup of flour
1/2 cup of salt
1/2 cup of water

1. in a stand mixer, mix together the flour and salt.
2. once the flour and salt are mixed, slowly add the water.
3. allow to mix well. you can use the dough immediately.

if you find that the dough is a little sticky, kneed in a bit of extra flour.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. kneed dough into a ball and roll out until you have a thickness of about 1/4".
2. stamp their hand or foot, but make sure not to push too hard. you want the back to still be a decent thickness so the ornament isn't brittle.
3. cut into desired shape. i chose a circle.
4. punch a hole for the ribbon using the end of a straw.
5. allow to dry for a full 24 hours.
6. spray with modge podge (i used a matte modge podge finish)
7. optional - write on your ornament! (i used a gold sharpie)

enjoy!

if you've run out of time to make these easy ornaments this year, pin me for next year!