Sophisticated Salt Dough

I can totally remember being a kid and making salt dough ornaments at Christmas time. Snowmen, hearts, stars all painted and glittered, albeit a bit lumpy, hanging heavy on the tree. Fun.

Thirty plus years later, they're still fun to make and can have a more sophisticated look. Enter Pinterest....my newest and best love. Yours too? It's okay ~ I understand. I was inspired by these from Even Cleavland


and these from Marley and Lockyer (actually of white clay)



I love how elegant these ornaments look especially knowing that they come together with the most humble of ingredients: salt, flour and water.

Here's what you'll need:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup table salt
1/2 cup warm water

I put the dough hook onto my kitchen aid, put in all the ingredients and let it go for about 8 minutes. A bit of scraping and repositioning was needed in the process. You could mix it all by hand too; just make sure it's nice and smooth and everything's well incorporated before you start rolling, stamping and cutting.

I'm doing my tree in silver and cream this year and I love the script stamp M&L used. Found one a Michael's for 50% off along with a pretty leaf and some silver ink.



I rolled out, stamped and cut the dough directly onto my silpat because I didn't want to move them once they were ready to go into the oven. Also, stamp before you cut so as not to flatten your desired shape.



I used a straw to make the holes but a bamboo skewer would work just as well. When everything was ready, I gently slid the silpat onto a cookie sheet and popped it into a 200 degree oven for about 4 hours, essentially drying them out. They'll continue to harden up over time and you can embellish them further. I rubbed some of the silver ink I used for the stamps onto the outsides and backs of my ornaments and then made ties out of torn strips of muslin. I hung them on a little felt tree that I have and I'll keep them there until we get our big tree in a couple of weeks.






These would be great tags to embellish a gift with or make a dozen and give them to a friend who likes a vintage shabby feel to her ornaments.