Salt Dough

Salt dough is very simple to make and can be used to make Christmas tree decorations, hand and foot print keepsakes, pots, etc. You can mould the clay into whatever form you like or use cookie cutters to make specific shapes. The clay can then be baked in the oven until hard and then painted. Alternatively you can add food colouring to the recipe when making the dough so you have coloured dough.

One other option is to add a scent to your dough – for Christmas one year we added cinnamon when making salt dough decorations for the Christmas tree and they smelled divine!

Recipe:

2 cups plain flour

1 cup salt

1 cup cold water

Mix the ingredients together to form a dough. The dough shouldn’t be too sticky or too dry and crumbly. Add a little more flour if it’s too sticky or a little more water if it’s too dry. You should be able to knead the dough in your hands easily. You can then use a rolling pin to roll it out – not too thin or it will break but not too thick either. Then use cookie cutters to create shapes or get your child to make an impression of their hand or foot as a keepsake. You could use the end of a paintbrush or skewer to write the date or the child’s name in the salt dough too. Alternatively, let your child create their own object from the clay, for example a pot like in the photo below.

When you’re ready bake the clay in the oven at 120 degrees Celsius for 2 hours. Take it out and allow to cool and then, if you wish, allow your child to paint their creations.