Salt Dough Hand Prints`

Living away from family, we're always looking for ways to make sure everyone feels loved and knows how special they are to us during the holiday season. This year we decided to make a homemade Salt Dough Hand Print Ornanament after a friend, Joy, posted a great tutorial on her facebook wall. It was super easy and Aviel and I had a great time. We put on our play clothes and made a fun floury mess!

Here's the ingredients/materials as found on the link:

4 cups of flour
1 cup salt
Food coloring
Large Mixing Bowl
Water to moisten
cookie sheet
just a tad of oil
a small rolling pin or wooden dowel
a drinking straw
ribbon
a plate for a guide
paint *if desired


First, I measured out the flour and salt and gave Aviel the grand job of dumping them into a mixing bowl. He was delighted to help. Next, Aviel stirred with a wooden spoon while I slowly added the water. After that, came the fun part. We did a little hand kneading...






And we experimented with the wooden spoon and a rolling pin!





Aviel wanted to "Taste! Taste!" the very salty dough! He played for a few minutes before I took the giant lump and separated it into six balls. The author of the original post only made three, but I was able to get a few more with the same measurements. I guess its just a matter of how big and thick you want each one to be!



I flattened the balls into what Aviel called, "Pie!" and prepared them for Aviel's little hands. This is the only time he became a little impatient. He wanted to continue to play, but this part took a certain amount of precision. We talked it over, then he let me press his hands into the dough. He seemed pretty satisfied after the first one and the rest went smoothly. I then poked holes for the ribbon, placed them on the lightly oiled cookie tray, and into the oven at 150F or about 65C for one hour.

Here's the final product...



All six, ribboned and ready to go!




And the nice glow.



The ornaments that I was happiest with were the ones where I made sure to really press the hand deeply into the dough, with special attention to each finger and the heal of the palm. The dough dries with a nice translucency in the light, so a deep hand print helps with the contrast.

We had such a blessed time making these together, and the sweet little hand print will be a keepsake for years to come! Let me know how yours turn out!

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Comments

  1. I love these! I'm pretty sure we made them when we were kids. I will have to do them with the girls; thanks for a wonderful how-to post. :)

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  2. i like your table!! :) and it sounds like yall need to make some play dough next. homemade play dough was always my favorite compared to the store bought kind.

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  3. These look great, Callie! I had one of these hanging on my wall in my bedroom when I was a kid, but it was of the back of my hand (I guess the dough had been laid over my hand, instead of my hand pressed into the dough). Any idea if you could paint these?

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  4. You can paint them, but I haven't tried!

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