Easter ornies

As promised, I am going to give a short lesson called Salt Dough 101.  These are easy and fun to make and your kids will love doing them.  The recipe for the dough is very simple:  1 cup salt, 2 cups flour, one cup water.  You may have another recipe and if so and it works for you, then of course use it.



Roll the dough, just like you would sugar cookies, till its about 1/4 inch thick.  You may want it thicker or thinner, its up to you.  I usually roll out about half at once.  You can reuse dough once, but after that, its best to toss it or it will crack.  Use cookie cutters or whatever you have to cut out the pieces.  Or, if you are pretty talented, go ahead and do some freeform.  I wanted to make Easter eggs but only had large cutters, so I used a plastic egg that opened oblong:

Put them on a cookie sheet and bake at 200-250 degrees for an hour or so.  This depends on how large the pieces are and how thick you choose to make the ornie.  I usually line the cookie sheet with foil so if I want to paint from here I can.  Make sure that you keep the pieces approximately the same size or like cookies, some will get too done, some will not get done enough.

Before putting in the oven, decide if you want to use as ornaments.  For these eggs, I used a small skewer to poke holes in them. You can also bake wire hangers right into them.

Once the ornies are done baking, you might want to sand them a little.  I used a sanding block on these, but even a nail file will work.

Then paint!  I picked out several pastel shades for these eggs, painting one side then when dry, flip them over and paint the other side.  Don't forget the sides!   I just use acrylic craft paint but you can use what you have. 

Then decorate however you want.  I mix designs, colors, etc.  On these ornies, I only decorated one side, but you can do both if you want.

When the paint is dry on both sides, spray generously with an acrylic sealer.  I like a matte finish, but if you like gloss, use that



Let them dry thoroughly.  Now is the time to either antique or age them, or you can add a little sparkle.

  



I use a spray-on glue for glitter and sprinkle some very fine glitter while the spray is still wet.  Add wire, string, ribbon or whatever kind of ribbon that you choose

Then they are ready to display!

Hope you have a great time making your salt dough ornaments!