Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Salt Cookie Christmas Tree Ornaments

 I teach in the pre-school class at my meeting(I'm Quaker) and this year at the Holiday Baazar we're going to make and sell salt cookie Christmas Tree Ornaments. This is a great activity for kids, families, friends everyone who love to get crafty. I got this from  http://crafts.kaboose.com/saltdoughgifttoppers.html



What you'll need:

  • ½ cup salt
  • 1 cup flour
  • ½ cup water
  • Rolling pin
  • Cookie sheet
  • Toothpick
  • Miniature cookie cutters: star and Christmas tree
  • Acrylic paints: green, yellow, and various colors of your choice for tree ornaments
  • Glitter glue or glitter paint
  • ribbon

How to make it:

  1. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.
  2. Mix together, salt, flour, and water until dough is formed.
  3. Knead the dough on a floured surface until the mixture is elastic and smooth. If dough is too sticky, sprinkle with flour, continue to do so until stickiness is gone. Do not add too much flour, this will dry out the dough and will cause it to crack before you get a chance to bake it.
  4. Roll out the dough to about ¼” thick with a rolling pin that has been dusted with flour.
  5. Use cookie cutters to cut out as many trees and stars as you want.
  6. Use a toothpick to make a hole toward the top of the shape. Poke the toothpick into the shape, then holding toothpick straight up and down, make a circular motion as if you were stirring something. Keep circling until the hole is the size you want.
  7. Place all shapes onto an ungreased cookie sheet and place into the preheated oven.
  8. Bake for 2 hours.
  9. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
  10. Paint the trees green and the stars yellow.
  11. Use the handle end of the paint brush to dot on ornaments by dipping into paint then dotting onto ornament.
  12. When paint is dry, use glitter glue (we used green) or glitter paint (we used gold) to put a sparkling cover coat on your ornaments.
  13. When dry, thread ribbon through hole and tie in a knot in the back.
  14. Tie onto package.

Tips:

  • If your toppers are large enough, you can make two holes in each so that you can thread ribbon through like a button, only showing a small amount of ribbon on the front.
  • These make adorable pins to wear to school. Just don’t make a hole. Glue a pin back to the back of the completed ornament instead.
  • Uncooked salt dough doesn’t keep well, so only make enough dough for the ornaments you are going to make. If you are only making a few toppers, halve the ingredients above. The listed amounts will make enough ornaments for a classroom of 20.