Home Made Christmas Ornaments

Did you know that you can bake salt dough (ie, home made play dough) and it will harden enough to make a 3-dimensional sculpture...like an ornament?  I'm wondering how I have made it this far in life and just realized that.  We had a fun afternoon playing with the dough--free hand sculpting, rolling, cutting and molding.  My 7 year old made a snowman, Mary + Joseph and baby Jesus, then another 2 little baby Jesuses, a Christmas tree and a wreath.  They are adorable, very authentically his, and fun little secret santa presents.  The 4 year old wanted to make a pile of candy canes which will look almost planned out and cohesive on our tree.  I made a few big snowflakes and trees and will give them away as little presents.

We also used some extra cookie cutters and backed them with fun paper prints to make some ornaments.  The scissor work was slightly tricky, and the gluing/taping was kind of intricate.  But my 7 year old especially liked this.

Home Made Dough Ornaments
yield-dough for 5 dozen +/- ornaments
4 c all purpose flour
2 cups salt
1 1/2 cups water
1 t alum (we didn't have this;  it's a bitter preservative agent--I used ginger and cinnamon instead and the dough seemed fine.

Mix all ingredients thoroughly with hands.  Add water 1T at a time if to dry.  If desired tint dough with food dye by kneading in.  Cover (keep covered while working in dry climates);  can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.

Roll-1/8 inch thick and cut with cookie cutters.  If making ornaments use a straw or stick to make a hole near the top.

Mold-up to 1/2 inch thick.

Heat oven to 250 deg F.  Place decorations on ungreased cookie sheet and bake about 2 hours (until completely hard and dry).  Cool completely on wire rack.  Sand decorations lightly until smooth.  You can paint them with acrylic paint and seal if desired.