Salt dough is quickly becoming one of my favorite craft materials to work with. Salt dough needs only basic kitchen ingredients: salt, all purpose flour, warm water, and a little oil.They are a great crafting option for family crafts or in the classroom!
For this project I designed a salt dough heart garland that can be displayed for Valentine's Day or year round in a little one's room. Part of the craft uses a cookie stamp from World Market that stamps the salt dough round shapes with the words: "Home Made." If you don't have the cookie stamp--no worries, you can modify and make other shapes! Salt dough has a wonderful, rustic texture that hardens quite well and when treated well can be displayed for years.
Scroll down for step by step directions and ingredients!
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Salt Dough Heart Garland
makes 10-12 medium salt dough shapes
Supplies
2 cups all purpose bleached flour
1 cup salt
1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon olive oil
Parchment paper
Heart cookie cutter
Mason jar or cup
Cookie stamp
Plastic straw
Acrylic paint with small paint brush
Plastic Craft Cording
Step 1:
Gather supplies. For the dough you simply need 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 1 cup warm water, and 1 tablespoon oil (optional) if the dough feels sticky. Mix ingredients together into a ball.
Step 2:
Roll out dough onto parchment paper with rolling pin, then cut out heart and circle shapes with heart cookie cutter and glass jar.
Step 3:
Use cookie stamp to press firmly on top of each dough circle. If dough sticks, add a bit of flour to cookie stamp before pressing.
Step 4:
Use a plastic straw to create holes. After baking you will thread cording through the holes for the garland.
Step 5:
Gently place dough on parchment paper and cookie sheet. Repeat steps 2-4 with any remaining dough.
Step 6:
Bake in preheated oven at 200 degrees F for 2 hours, flipping every 30 minutes to prevent browning. If dough still looks a little damp, bake an extra 30 minutes.
Step 7:
Decorate salt dough shapes with acrylic paint of your choice! Air dry for 30 minutes.
Step 8:
Thread plastic craft cording through back of each salt dough "ornament" in an alternating pattern (heart-circle-heart-circle). Hang and enjoy!
This tutorial could easily be modified to create Valentine's ornaments (place your hole more toward the center of each shape), or magnets (skip the hole, hot glue magnet to the back after baking).
Enjoy your salt dough garland! And let me know if you decide to make one. I'd love to see how it turns out!
