The Best Salt Dough Recipes for Ornaments and Decorations (2024)

ByCerys ParkerPublished onDecember 5, 2019October 5, 2023

If I had to pick a favourite material for rainy day kids crafts it would be Salt Dough. This easy to make homemade clay is ideal with just 3 basic ingredients it takes minutes to do. We’ve been making it with the kids since they were toddlers and some of our favourite Christmas Ornaments and Decorations on the tree that are handmade were made with it. Although there is a basic recipe to make it at home we’ve switched it around changed it a bit and created some fun Salt Dough Recipes for you and the kids to use.

Ingredients for Making Salt Dough

The 3 basic ingredients are the same for salt dough – plain (all-purpose) flour, salt and water.

However, the combination of these and the extra’s means that you have some recipes that are easier to use for say making handprint and footprint ornaments with the kids or gift tags.

It’s really easy to paint after it’s dry but you can make it colourful beforehand.

Because of these variations we’ve put together our Best Recipes for Salt Dough below that you can make at home.

If you have any questions about salt dough like how long do salt dough ornaments last then head over to our Salt Dough Questions and Answers.

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The Best Salt Dough Recipes

Here are our favourite recipes.

#1 Classic Salt Dough

This is a traditional recipe for homemade clay. It’s best dried in the oven or in the air and can then be painted with acrylic paints and sealed with mod podge or similar.

#2 Microwave Salt Dough

Little kids can’t wait for Salt dough to dry in the oven they want to start painting it straight away so this Microwave Salt Dough is ready in just 3 minutes.

#3 Bright White Salt Dough

One of the biggest questions we have been asked about Salt Dough is how to make it white. So we experimented and came up with a recipe that turns your classic to bright white.

#4 Salt Dough Hand and Footprints

When making handprint or footprint ornaments out of the clay you need something that is a little more squishy so you can have the perfect impression especially if these are baby’s first Christmas keepsakes. The best recipe is the one below and we’ve used it time and time again.

#5 Christmas Salt Dough

Did you know that you can make the salt dough scented? That’s right adding in spices, flavourings or essential oil means that your classic or microwave recipe can smell amazing and once dried stays that way as well. Check out this recipe for Christmas Scented Salt Dough.

#6 Gingerbread Salt Dough

The Christmas one above is great – but how about if you could make gingerbread ornaments with coloured and scented dough that still has colour and smell when dried! Then you need to try out our Gingerbread Salt Dough Recipe.

#7 Lavender Salt Dough

Sleepy salt dough ornaments or scented hanging hearts for the closet. Our Lavender Salt Dough Recipe is great for creating crafts throughout the year and still smells months and even years later.

#8 Bakers Clay

An alternative to the salt dough that doesn’t use salt and is gluten-free is our Baker’s Clay. This homemade clay uses cornflour/cornstarch and produces a glittery white clay that can then be oven-dried.

Some Salt Dough Decorations to Make

Once you’ve made your salt dough what can make with it check out some of these decorations below for just a few craft ideas.

• Paw Print Ornament
• Scented Gingerbread Men Decorations
• Nutcracker Keepsake Ornament for the Tree