Salt Dough Christmas Ornaments

We have a new kitty in our house.  Meet Ike.

Ike likes to climb Christmas trees!

SO.... I decided not to put any breakable ornaments on the tree this year in case the fishing line my husband used to secure the tree doesn't actually work and the entire thing comes toppling down.  Tell me this hasn't happened to some of you out there!

I decided to try some salt dough ornaments.  At garage sales, I always pick up cookie cutters and I even still have some of my grandmother's and mother's, so I have a bin full of cool shapes.

Had to try glittering one!

I found numerous recipes on the Internet.  Here's the one I used.

4 cups flour 

1 cup table salt

1 1/2 cups warm water

Mix it together and roll it out. Realistically, I think you have about 15 minutes or so to roll the dough without having to add some water to your hands and kneed it in to soften.

I put them in the oven at 250 degrees for a couple of hours and added a dish of water to keep the shapes from curling or bubbling.  I read if you don't use self-rising flour you have less puffing.  I found that if I used a higher temp I got more puffing and curling.

Of course, I added glitter immediately just to see how they looked.  I also painted a few with gesso to lessen the cracks and make them look crisper.  

I brought the batch of ornaments and paint pens to our Christmas gatherings.  Everyone decorated one for Grandma's tree and added their name and the year on the back.   Below are a few of the hard working elves.