salt dough ornaments!

I decided Ally was old enough to partake in some fun arts and crafts this year, so I found a recipe online for salt dough and made some ornaments using holiday cookie cutters, which we then painted, covered in an acrylic varnish so they'll stay nice and pretty, and finally added some little jewels to make 'em sparkle - cuz all girls love a little sparkle :) Anyway, it was a blast and they turned out so cute! I'm already excited to make this a new holiday tradition each year. The recipe for the salt dough is after the photos below if you're interested! It's SUPER easy. Happy Holidays!

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Salt Dough Recipe:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup salt

Mix all ingredients together until it forms a dough, then turn it out onto a floured surface and knead it for a few minutes until you feel like it becomes uniform and fairly elastic. Then roll it until it's about 1/4 inch thick and cut out shapes with cookie cutters (or free-hand it if you're feeling crafty). Place cut-outs on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and use a straw to poke out holes in the top for the ribbon to go through once they're done. I baked mine in a 170 degree oven for about 6 hours because at higher temps they were puffing up, which is not pretty. You can try at a higher temp if you kneaded your dough better than I did, but keep an eye on them because you DON'T want them to puff up. Once you feel they are completely dried out from baking, take them out and let cool. Then paint with acrylic paints, and use an acrylic varnish to coat them again once the paint is dry - this will make them last so they don't absorb moisture in storage and turn into dough balls again by next Christmas. Then decorate with more adornments if you'd like - for older kids glitter would be fun! Then just loop through some ribbon and tie for cute ornaments, or you could even skip the hole and turn them into magnets or pins - really cute homemade project and REALLY easy.