salt dough ornaments 2022 | Christmas crafts | Miss Mustard Seed (2024)

FAQs

Why are my salt dough ornaments puffy? ›

Make sure your oven is set to 150°f. This is SUPER IMPORTANT. I have seen others use hotter temperatures but I haven't been able to do so without getting puffiness. So, plain all-purpose flour, 150ºf oven and 1/4 inch thickness = no puffy ornaments.

How Long Do Salt Dough Ornaments Last? If you seal the salt dough ornaments properly with craft varnish, they'll last for decades! If you don't, expect them to start crumbling after a year or two.

PVA Glue (for the glaze - this both seals the dough and makes it sparkle!)

Ingredients for Salt Dough Ornaments

All Purpose Flour - all purpose white flour gives a smooth texture and white color to the ornaments. Salt - table salt works best for salt dough. Food coloring (optional) - you can use either gel or liquid food coloring for this.

Why is my salt dough puffing up? If you mistakenly use self-rising flour, they may puff. And sometimes it happens randomly. Keep the oven temperature low and if it happens consistently, you can try baking at an even lower temperature for a slightly longer amount of time.

Salt dough is a great material for making basic sculptures and three dimensional craft projects. It is an all-natural alternative to commercial play dough and homemade air-dry clay. Your finished salt dough sculptures can either be air-dried or oven-dried to set.

How do I preserve and store these Salt Dough Ornaments? In order to keep your ornaments and use them for several years, it is best to seal them. Painting them with acrylic paint, if you choose to, will begin the process. But a coat of Mod Podge or Acrylic sealer that is applied like a spray paint will be needed.

If you overcook them, they tend to bubble up.

Bake the dough at 250 degrees F or about 2 hours. You want to bake them until they're hardened. They will harden a little more once you remove them from the oven and let them cool but you want them to have a good hard texture before you remove them from the oven.

Use Mod Podge (in matte) to seal the dough and give them a more finished look.

What do you spray on salt dough? ›

Decorate your baked and cooled salt dough shapes with paint, then preserve them with a craft sealer (such as Mod Podge) or spray sealant coating. Allow the sealant to dry completely before storage.

You can choose to seal or paint the ornament if you like. Sealing is quite easy, simple dilute Elmer's glue with a little water and brush on.

Sealing your salt dough ornaments prevents them from becoming moldy and or cracking/crumbling. Any environment can cause salt dough to mold, even when extra precautions are taken. Once sealed, they are guaranteed to last a lifetime. This way, you can continue to enjoy your families memories, year after year.

Typically there are two things that cause salt dough to get puffy: either your oven is too hot or you used self-rising flour. The first reason that your salt dough ornaments might be puffing is the temperature you bake at. You want your oven to be pretty low.

You could use acrylic paint, or even markers to decorate these ornaments. If you want your ornaments to last years and years, coat them with 3-4 very thin coats of polyurethane gloss varnish. Make sure to cover every exposed surface.

If you overcook them, they tend to bubble up. As everyone's dough will be mixed differently and microwaves have different levels of power, please keep an eye on your creations when they are cooking. Take them out to check their dryness – CAREFUL - THEY WILL BE HOT!

You can microwave salt dough, but you need to be careful and only microwave it for about 10 seconds each time. This is how you can avoid to get bubbles in the dough.

However, if you want them relatively flat, bake them at 200 Fahrenheit, or use a flat weighted sheet pan on top to keep them flat if you bake them at 225 F to 325 F. Keep in mind the dough turn a darker color if baked at these temperatures.

If the percentage of salt added to a dough becomes too high, excessive dehydration will eventually kill the yeast and bacteria. Most scientists believe that at 2% of the flour weight or less, salt alone does not significantly alter either the yeast's gassing power or the bacteria's acid production.