Cinnamon Salt Dough Ornaments - Easy, Kid-Friendly DIY Christmas Craft

 

I posted a few days ago about some Christmas crafts I want to do with my preschooler this year. We've since been derailed by a terrible cold that has struck my entire family and just refuses to go away. We have managed to do a couple of the simple ones anyway. Hey, as long as we're stuck in the house sneezing and sniffling, we might as well get some crafting done.

 

The first one I decided to tackle was the No Cook Cinnamon Ornaments. I used the website in the link as my inspiration. The recipe is basically salt dough with cinnamon added.

 

 

-1 cup flour

-1/2 cup salt

-1/2 cup cinnamon (I actually didn't have enough so I used about 3/8 cup cinnamon and 3/8 cup nutmeg)

-3/4 c warm water

 

You just mix that all together. I mixed the dry ingredients first, then added the water and stirred until I got tired of stirring and then finished mixing with my hands. It's pretty sticky and messy at first, but it turns into dough pretty quickly.

 

Once it was well mixed, I broke out the cookie cutters and brought in my daughter. I rolled the dough out onto the table (actually I rolled the dough out onto a cutting sheet because my table is tiled) and I let my daughter pick cookie cutters and push them down into the dough.

Please excuse the blurry pic - I was working with a hyper, wiggly 3-year-old. What we do with cookie cutters is push them all into the dough, then pull them all out and remove the cut out pieces.

I removed the cut out pieces and put them on wax paper, then kneaded the remainder of the dough back into a ball, rolled it out again and let her cut more.  Repeat until you're out of dough. If you're going to be using them as ornaments, remember to put a hole for stringing. I used a toothpick and pushed it though to the widest part, then turned the ornament over and did it again through the same hole but in the other direction. If you only do it one way and not the other, the hole can be kind of closed off on one side. Doing it both ways makes it cleaner.

The inspiration website says they take 24 hours to dry. Ours took a lot closer to a week! Granted, my house is pretty humid but these things were nowhere near dry after 24 hours. Be sure you have a place to set them for a few days.

After they're dry, you can paint them or coat them in mod podge, but I decided to leave ours au natural. They smell cinnamon-and-nutmeg-y, but only when your within about a foot of the tree, so it's not overwhelming. Also, mine are a bit fragile. I think I rolled them out too thin. They should probably be at least a whole 1/4 inch thick.

Overall, I really love them. They are so pretty and rustic.

 

I love the little reindeer. My daughter's favorites are the snowmen and the "socks," otherwise known as stockings. She was so proud to hang them on the tree and tell everyone she made them.

 

If you try these, let me know how it goes! Especially if you have any tips to share. I'd also love to see your pics, here or on our Facebook page. Looking forward to the rest of our Christmas crafting!