Salt Dough Decorations Recipe

We love making things with salt dough all year round, not just for Christmas, but as the season draws near, it is a cheap activity that all children will enjoy doing.

All you need is salt, water and plain four. I have specified plain because once we only had self-raising flour and the decorations were on the large side shall we say.

So today we kept it simple. I did hearts and Boo did Christmas trees.

You put the ingredients together in a bowl (one part salt, one part water and two parts flour) knead them together until smooth and roll out.

*Note if it is too dry add water (sparingly) and if it’s too wet add more flour.

We had great fun rolling and shaping. It can get messy so I always use plastic sheets-I get mine for £1 from the pound shop. Also make sure you put a hole in the shapes if you want to hang them. I find a crayon is the best option for this.

Then there are three ways of drying them out: air drying which can take up to a couple of days, oven drying which takes 6-8 hours on the lowest oven setting or in the microwave.

I’ve done the air and oven before so tried the microwave this time. I did it for six minutes in total but in two-minute bursts. I’d say after that they still weren’t totally hard so I left them to air dry too.

When they’re dry and hard, you can paint them any way you choose.

I think we’re going to go for classic red and green with some added sparkle. You can never have enough glitter in my book but at Christmas it is mandatory.

If you want to use them again next year, a coat of clear varnish, but as you will see from a previous post, (http://farmerswifeandmummy.wordpress.com/2013/11/26/merry-christmouse/) small animals will still like a nibble so make sure you store them in a tin.

Please be aware with children under three, I always keep on eye on my Boo as I’m sure given half the chance, she would try and have a nibble too and I think this recipe contains someone’s lifetime quota of salt.