This year is our little one’s first Christmas and I wanted to give holiday gifts from the baby to all the relatives. This could get quite expensive if store-bought so I began researching ideas of simple, inexpensive (and easy!) homemade gifts that I could give everyone on Christmas morning.
There are so many cute ideas online (you can use baby’s fingerprints, handprints and footprints for many adorable gifts), but in the end I chose to make something I did with my mom when I was a child — Salt Dough Ornaments.
These are super easy and fun to make (you can get really creative with cookie cutters and a little paint), and I decided to do handprints for our baby’s first holiday season. All you need is salt, water, flour, ribbon and little hands to get started!
Ingredients:
- 1.5 cups flour
- 1/2 cup salt
- 1/2 cup water
- A straw or toothpick to make hole for ribbon
- Acrylic paint (optional)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
- Mix together flour, salt and water to knead until a play-dough like dough is formed. If dough is sticky add in a touch more flour and if dough is dry add a little extra water to get the right consistency.
- Roll out dough as you would to make cookies and use cookie cutters or the rim of a glass to cut out designs for your ornaments (I used the rim of a glass to make round ornaments that our little one’s hand print would fit nicely in). This recipe should make about 15 ornaments.
- Press hand print (or footprint) into dough.
- Use a straw to cut a hole in the top of ornament to thread ribbon after baked.
- Bake ornaments for about 2-2.5 hours and let cool for an hour.
- Paint if desired (they also look beautiful without paint). If painting let dry for one hour.
- Thread ribbon to hang!
