Today I want to share a fun Christmas craft you can do with your kids and use in your holiday decor or give away as gifts come Christmas.
Salt Dough Handprint Ornaments!
There's still plenty of time to get them made!
So let's get started on a tutorial...
I invited some of my girlfriends over for fun ornament making party so we could all experience this process together. It was a lot of fun to share this with them!
I gathered as many supplies as I thought we could possibly need
for cutting and decorating our ornaments.
cookie cutters of all shapes and sizes
rubber and foam stamps
paint brushes
acrylic paint
I also set out baking pins, mats with parchment paper, and flour (for rolling).
To make the dough you will need
4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1.5 cups water
Start by mixing all three ingredients together with a large spoon. As it starts to thicken, start mixing with your hands. When it start to form the dough, knead it thoroughly for about 5-10 minutes. Add more water or flour in small amounts as necessary to get the right consistency (not sticky, but not too dry). You should be able to tell when you get there!
Roll your dough out until it is about 1/4" thick.
With small children (think under the age of 1!) it will probably take two people to get a good handprint in the dough. One to hold the child and the other to keep the baby's fingers straight and press into the dough. Older children will only need someone to help press their hands into the dough evenly.
If you have a cookie cutter (or cup or bowl) that is large enough to cut out the handprint, do so. If not, find a tool to use to cut a rough circle around the handprint. You certainly do not have to stick to round cookie cutters. Try a Christmas tree or Santa face for a more fun shape!
BE SURE TO POKE A HOLE IN THE TOP OF YOUR DOUGH IF YOU'RE GOING TO USE YOUR CUT OUTS FOR ORNAMENTS! You need to be sure you have somewhere to put the wire or ribbon so they can hang on the tree.
The dough can be a bit fragile before it is cooked so I would recommend taking the parchment paper you just cut the ornaments out on and placing it directly onto a baking sheet. You definitely need to use parchment paper as a buffer between the dough and the pan or there will be a lot of sticking.
You can see in the photo above that I tried out a lot of different shapes not even using the handprints. I thought while the dough was there I would try a few other things, too. ;)
Once you have all of the dough on a parchment paper lined baking sheet, pop it into a 350F oven for about 20 minutes.
Note: Your ornaments should feel fairly solid once you pull them out of the oven and let them cool for 20 minutes or so. If they don't feel firm, put them back in the oven for another 5-10 minutes.
The baked handprint ornament looks pretty much just like raw version!
Now its time to get even more creative!
Decorate the ornaments!
My girlfriends were super crafty and made Santa faces with some of their ornaments.
I was little more lame and stuck to coloring the hands one color and the backgrounds another.
I also made a Christmas tree with everyone's thumbprint.
Note: Some of my paint looks bubbled up because I actually stuck my ornaments back in the oven after I had painted them to harden them up some more. Learn from my mistake! Make sure they are hard before you paint them. ;)
You can label the back of the ornaments with a Sharpie marker.
Once all of the paint is dry, varnish the ornaments to seal the paint and further harden the ornaments.
Thread wire or ribbon through the hole in the ornament so you can hang them!
I love how our thumbprint tree turned out! This will be such a fun ornament for us to hang on our tree this year. This is actually two cookie cutter cutouts stacked on top of one another.
I'm going to use these little handprints as decoration on the grandparent gifts this year.
I think they'll be a big hit!
And, of course, a pair are going to stay at my house as keepsakes. :)
