How to Make Salt Dough Ornaments: Easy DIY Ideas for Kids (2026)

Salt dough ornaments are made from all-purpose flour, table salt and water, then baked low and slow at 200 to 225°F until rock hard. The whole batch mixes in five minutes, shapes while soft, and dries into keepsakes that hold a handprint for years.

I make these every December with my two kids, and the whole batch costs about the same as a cup of coffee. The trick nobody tells you is temperature: push the oven past 250°F and your flat cutouts puff into pillows overnight. Low and slow is the whole game.

This guide covers three styles, because the dough behaves the same but the shaping does not. Cookie cutter cutouts, pressed handprints and footprints, and moulded shapes each want a slightly different thickness. Updated for 2026.

A quick safety note before we start. Salt dough ornaments are not food. They are also not safe for dogs, who will happily eat one and can become seriously ill from the salt load. Keep finished ornaments somewhere out of reach of curious pets and small children.

What You Need

The classic salt dough ornaments recipe is a 2:1:1 ratio by volume: two cups all-purpose flour, one cup table salt, one cup warm water. A softer 1:0.5:0.5 version also works well and is easier for small hands to knead.

• Classic ratio: 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 cup fine table salt, 1 cup warm water
• Soft ratio: 1 cup all-purpose flour, half cup salt, half cup water
• Gluten-free: a 1-to-1 gluten-free flour blend in place of the flour, same quantities

Use fine table salt, and use iodised if you can. Coarse sea salt dissolves unevenly and leaves gritty pockets that never fully dry. A stand mixer with a dough hook beats hand-kneading a double batch if you have one.

For tools, keep it simple: a large mixing bowl, a rolling pin, a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat, cookie cutters or cookie stamps, and something narrow to punch hanging holes. A drinking straw or a metal straw works far better than a toothpick, which cracks the edge. For harder shapes, antique or resin moulds give the crispest relief.

Decorating supplies are whatever you own. Acrylic paint, paint pens, glitter, a bottle of Mod Podge, clear acrylic spray sealer, ribbon or twine, and a small jar of jingle bells cover most projects.

One food-safety step people skip. Raw flour can carry E. coli and Salmonella, and young children are more vulnerable than adults. Spread the flour on a baking sheet and heat it at 350°F for five minutes, then cool it fully before mixing. It costs you nothing and takes one sheet pan.

Step-by-Step: How to Make Salt Dough Ornaments

How to Make Salt Dough Ornaments: Mix the Dough

Warm your water first, which cuts kneading time in half. Stir the flour and salt together in a bowl, then pour the water in gradually and mix with a spoon until no dry flour remains at the bottom.

Turn it out onto a floured surface and knead for two to three minutes. The dough is ready when it feels smooth and slightly firm, closer to playdough than biscuit dough. If it cracks as you knead, add a teaspoon of water. If it sticks to your palms, dust in a little more flour.

Wrap it and let it sit for 15 minutes if you have time. The rest lets the flour hydrate fully, so the dough rolls out without springing back and fights you less.

Roll and Cut the Ornament Shapes

Roll between two sheets of parchment to an even thickness. For cutouts, aim for a quarter inch. For handprints and footprints, a half inch is better because thin dough cracks when you press into it and thick pieces hold up to the pressure of a palm.

Press cutters straight down rather than twisting, and rock the cutter slightly at the end to free it. If you want a hole for hanging, press the straw through the dough before it leaves the baking sheet, where the piece is still held flat by the paper.

For a handprint, roll a ball of dough, flatten it into a circle about half an inch thick, and have the child press straight down with fingers together. A kabob stick or a pen barrel is the classic tool for tracing a thin outline around the print afterward, which makes the line read clearly once painted.

Add Details Before Drying

Everything decorative goes on while the dough is still soft. Press cookie stamps, letter stamps or pinecone halves into the surface. Roll a thin coil of dough for a scarf, a hat brim or a hat band, and lay it across the shape. Add a tiny cone for a gnome hat, or press a circle for a head on a footprint penguin.

Scrape off the excess dough around a handprint with a craft knife or the back of a spoon, then smooth the edges with a damp finger. A clean outline is the difference between an ornament that looks handmade on purpose and one that looks like a lump.

For hangers, thread a paper clip or a short piece of metal floral wire into the wet dough at the top before it dries. Baked-in hardware is far more secure than tying string to a hole after the fact, and a metal straw rolled over the top edge makes a neat loop.

Dry the Ornaments Thoroughly

Bake on the lowest usable temperature, between 200 and 225°F, for two to three hours depending on thickness. Half-inch pieces take closer to the long end. Turn each piece over and rotate the tray every 30 to 60 minutes so both sides dry evenly and the edges do not curl up.

They are done when they feel hard and cool to the touch, with no soft spot in the thickest area. Take one off the tray and let it cool; warmth fools you into thinking a piece is drier than it is.

A food dehydrator at 150 to 185°F gives an even gentler result for fragile moulded pieces. Air drying works too, taking four to seven days, and it is the one method I would not choose in a humid climate.

Paint and Decorate the Finished Ornaments

Acrylic paint is the easiest route and the cheapest to buy in small bottles. Paint pens are better for detail work and for small hands, and they need no brushes. Fingerprints work fine as a snowman, a fish or a penguin rather than trying for realism.

Let each coat dry before adding the next. For glitter, press it on while the paint is still tacky. If you want a hardened, wipeable surface, brush on a coat of Mod Podge first, let it dry, then add paint and a final sealer.

Thread ribbon, twine or a leather cord through the hole, or tie a small jingle bell on with a knot. Let the whole thing sit for several hours, preferably overnight, before it goes on a tree.

Common Mistakes

Puffing up into pillows. The oven was too hot or the dough was too thick. Keep the temperature at 225°F or under, roll to a quarter inch, and press a fork into the surface in a few places to let steam escape.

Cracking while baking or drying. The dough dried out, either from too little water or from a long slow air dry. Knead in a little more water, and cover loosely with plastic while air drying so the edges do not dry before the middle.

Edges curling. Uneven or too-fast drying. Flip and rotate often, and press the edges flat with a fork before baking.

Sticky dough that clings to the mat. Too much water. Add a tablespoon of flour at a time until it rolls without grabbing.

Shallow handprints. The dough was too thin. Use a half-inch pad and have the child press with the whole hand, not fingertips.

Faded, uneven paint. Layers applied too thick and too soon. Thin coats, full drying time between each, and a sealer only after the last coat is dry.

Breaking after a year or two. The ornament was sealed while still warm, trapping moisture. Let pieces cool completely, then seal, and store in an airtight container with a desiccant packet if you live somewhere damp.

Tips for Kid-Friendly Salt Dough Ornaments

Set out a tablecloth, a damp cloth for hands and a tray of finished pieces going somewhere safe. Flour on a dark tablecloth shows every time, and it washes out of hair more easily the sooner you catch it.

Give the dough a rest before anyone handles it. Thirty seconds of squishing between small fingers beats kneading, and kids rarely notice the difference in the result.

Stick to non-toxic supplies. Acrylic paint labelled for craft use, water-based Mod Podge, and glue dots for attaching bells are all reasonable with small children.

Keep raw dough in an airtight container in the fridge for a few days if you run out of time. Let it come back to room temperature before rolling, or it will crack.

For a classroom of thirty, multiply the classic ratio by ten and mix it in three batches. Dough that sits mixed too long dries out in the bowl, and by the third batch the first children are already finished.

Unpainted ornaments want two coats of sealer. Painted ones are fine with one.

Label the back of each piece with a pencil and the year before decorating. In a decade, that pencil mark is the only thing telling you which hands those were.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Start by mixing one cup of flour, half a cup of salt and half a cup of warm water, then roll out a single quarter-inch circle and push a child’s handprint into it. One test piece tells you everything you need about the dough texture, the thickness and how long your oven takes.

Mix it, shape it, dry it low and slow, then paint and seal. Once the first test ornament survives a week on the tree, make the full batch.