This is an activity we do every year. It is very fun, sometimes messy, always a great way to spend a saturday morning :o}
To make salt dough:
Mix together
1 part salt {table salt, not cooking salt, as it is finer}
2 parts plain flour
and as much water as needed to create a dough consistency. Add this just bit by bit – add more flour if you end up adding too much water.
To bake:
line cookie sheets with baking paper and bake in a 150-160 degree oven until they are hard. This time varies according to how big / thick your salt dough ornaments are.
It should look nice and smooth like this…
And then you can colour it. Separate some dough and then just add a few drops first and knead the colour through.
You can roll it into shapes and you can roll it out flat and use cookie cutters to make shapes.
I used a mini cookie cutter for the carrots and little chickens. And then I used a larger one for the rabbit faces and the egg shapes. We then just rolled dough into egg shapes. A lot of this tray is stuff I made.
Noah really just likes to play with the dough – drive cars through it etc. But he is also more than happy to ‘decorate’ the shapes – such as this bunny face :o}
He decorated a few eggs as well – and then also made a mobile phone out of dough which of course we have had to bake!
I also made these salt dough tags to tie to easter baskets or for hanging. This is just an egg shape with the letters stamped into the dough before baking. {I just used a regular rubber stamp set}
I also made a hole in the top for the twine.
After baking I used a silver pen to accent the letters and I glued a little salt dough chicken on as well.
The eggs often crack while baking in the oven – I think it’s just because they’re too thick? According to Noah – a chicken has hatched out of the cracked ones. :o}
I said that salt dough is sometimes messy … here’s proof.
It is not usually this messy – but does get harder to keep together the more it dries out, and so then bits and pieces go everywhere! Keep it moist and add a teeny bit of water if needed and hopefully you won’t get this :o}
Great idea, I’ll have to give this one a go 🙂
you said one part salt and 2 parts flour….how much is that 1 cup? 2cups?
Hi!
If you use 1 cup of salt, use 2 cups of flour. This makes quite a bit! But in case you need to make a huge batch, you would use the same ratio – 2 cups salt, 4 cups flour. I hope you have fun! 🙂
Hi Bianca,
Such beautiful ideas. Can I ask what food colouring you use and how you get those gorgeous soft colours? I am shocking at mixing colours and it always ends up much too dark. I see you add colour once the dough is cooked and knead it through – are your colours pre mixed?
Thanks!
Hi there! For these I just used the average food colouring from the supermarket – I think the brand is Queens? I don’t use a lot as I want the colours to be a bit muted – and then after baking they are more pale than they are before baking. I add just a drop of colour at a time – knead it through and then add more if needed. I think you could add one drop of colour to the water if you wanted to skip the kneading the colour in part but as I make one batch and separate into smaller batches to colour I normally colour after I’ve made the dough.