Easy Salt Dough Recipe for DIY Christmas gifts!

how to make salt dough ornaments | salt dough recipe | diy christmas gift ideas | homemade ornaments | Poplolly co — **PIN** this image for later!

This salt dough recipe is perfect for making DIY Christmas gifts WITH your kids! Use it to make personalized ornaments, gifts or decor, and all by using things you already have at home.

What you need:

I’ve seen recipes using all sorts of kitchen spices, but I wanted ours to stay pretty true to white. So all I used was flour, salt and essential oil to give it a nice smell.

I’ve linked some of these items below to save you time. Some are affiliate links (meaning I make a small commission if you buy- but it is at NO EXTRA COST to you!) 🙂

Flour
Water
Salt (we used kosher)
Measuring cups
large bowl for mixing
parchment paper or silicone mat
cookie sheet pan
rolling pin – I have this one and I love it!
straw
cookie cutters- I bought this set years ago and am so happy I did!
Essential oils for fragrance (we used Holiday & Pine by Melaleuca)
Embellishments of your choosing (glitter, paint, stencils, doilies etc)

kitchen twine for hanging homemade ornaments | Poplolly co — If you’re going for a natural simple look like I was then kitchen twine is perfect for hanging your ornaments.

How to make salt dough ornaments.

Mix 2 cups flour and 1 cup table salt in a large bowl.
Mix in one cup cold water. Slowly drizzle in as you stir to mix thoroughly.
Knead dough with your hands until the ingredients are fully mixed and your dough isn’t too sticky. If you find that your dough is sticking to your fingers keep sprinkling in flour and kneading. You want your dough to be soft and pliable, in other words- easy to roll out. But you don’t want it so wet that it sticks to your rolling pin! Add a few drops of essential oil for a yummy fragrance.

salt dough recipe | how to make homemade ornaments | Poplolly co

4. TIP!!! Once your dough is ready you will want to roll it out ON TOP OF A PIECE OF PARCHMENT PAPER OR A SILICONE MAT! The reason I have this in all caps is because this step is super necessary to making your life much easier. Once you cut out your shapes all you will need to do is scrape out the remaining outer edges then lift the parchment paper with shapes on top, and place it onto the cookie sheet. I don’t know about you, but I have never been able to successfully scoop up raw dough without squishing the design.

salt dough ornament ideas | easy recipe | christmas crafts | Poplolly co

5. You can also place of piece of parchment paper on top before rolling it out. This will prevent your dough from sticking to your rolling pin.

cut out cookie or ornament ideas | diy christmas gifts | Poplolly co

6. Cut out your shapes! Obviously this is the fun part. We used cookie cutters to cut ours out, and found things around the house to make embossed designs. Some examples would be: a crystal glass, doilies, lace, cheese grater, fork, stencils. You roll or gently press the sides of these into the dough, and it leaves the coolest designs. We even used a leaf from a faux garland. It was plasticy enough that it didn’t fall apart when we pressed it in. Next, you will want to cut out the shapes. Before you bake you can even sprinkle on different types of glitter if you want to give them a sparkly iridescent effect.

salt dough ornaments - make designs with things you have at home | diy christmas gift ideas | Poplolly co

diy ornament ideas | Poplolly co — If you want to use a stencil just gently press around the shape so the dough rises through the design. This will create an embossed look in the dough.

salt dough recipe ideas | christmas gifts | christmas craft ideas | Poplolly co — How the stenciled design looks after you press out the outside area.

glitter for homemade ornaments | Poplolly co — If your dough isn’t too dry you could also sprinkle glitter over them before baking. You could also mix it into the dough.

7. Be sure to make a hole with a straw! This is if you plan to use these as ornaments, gift tags or you just want to hang them somewhere.

juice box straw for making ornament holes | Poplolly co — We found that a juice box straw was the perfect size.

8. Next its time to bake your salt dough ornaments! We decided to bake ours to speed the drying time. You could also let them sit out at room temperature for a couple of days. I set my oven to its lowest temperature setting, and baked for 45 mins to 1 hour. Then I flipped the ornaments over and baked for an additional 45+ mins.

christmas craft ideas for kids | Easy salt dough recipe | Poplolly co

Other ideas for salt dough ornaments.

handprint Santa painted salt dough ornament | Poplolly co

I love how salt dough ornaments can be personalized! In fact, the sky is the limit! Another great idea for gifts for the grandparents is handprints of the littles. We just painted these to look like Santa and I wrote the name, date and age of each kid on the back with a sharpie. If you like making diy gifts for Christmas check out this super easy snow globe gift card holder HERE!

We also LOVE making THESE COOKIES for gifts. They’re super easy to make and SO GOOD!!!!

Here is another example of a custom salt dough ornament.

childs handprint in a DIY salt dough ornament | Poplolly co

homemade salt dough ornament | diy christmas ornaments | Poplolly co

homemade salt dough ornaments | Poplolly co

I wanted our tree to have a natural boho look this year by keeping the colors neutral. All you would need to do is make one batch of salt dough and you could fill up an entire tree like this one!