1. Gather the ingredients and supplies you will need.
For the ornaments:
- 4 cups flour, plus a little more for rolling out the dough
- 1 cup salt
- 1 1/2-2 cups water
Other supplies:
- Cookie cutters
- Toothpick
- Acrylic or tempera paint (I highly recommend acrylic over tempera paint, but I also advocate for using what you have on hand! The tempera paint requires more coats of paint (which my paint-loving kids didn’t seem to mind) and has a more powdery, cracked finish. Since these are kid creations, it did not matter to us, but the acrylic paints we had on hand delivered a much more “finished” look)
- Any other decoration tools, such as glitter, that you might want to use (optional)
- Clear nail polish/shellac (also optional, but this gives a more finished look and seals in the paint for longer use)
- Twine, string, or whatever you want to hang your ornaments with
2. Make the dough.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt and mix well. Gradually add the water and mix until it has a putty-like consistency. I needed closer to 2 cups of water for this (if it gets a little watery, you can always add a few tablespoons of flour). Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, until it is smooth and well-combined. The dough will be pretty firm, so you and your kids can roll it out together! Roll the dough to about 1/4 inch in thickness on a lightly floured surface.
3. Cut out the shapes.
Cut out shapes using whatever cookie cutters you like and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. You can also create holiday keepsakes by imprinting your children’s hands or thumbprints in the dough. Remind your kids not to try to eat the cookies since they are super salty.
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