diy reindeer hand print ornaments + 10 other creative salt dough ideas

I remember seeing salt dough ornaments my whole life (those and the cinnamon ones) and for some reason always thought they were so complicated and intimidating. But after making sugar cookies with an almost-three-year-old this week and allowing him to apply the sprinkles, I felt like I could conquer the world. So I did some research on salt dough ornaments and realized that they were actually way less complicated than I thought. Only 3 ingredients! So I suckered my husband into helping on an afternoon he was actually home. 

Let me be clear, just because there are only a few ingredients and the idea of them seems simple, just know that doing ANYTHING with a toddler who doesn't want to cooperate just wont end well. 

ONLY make salt dough ornaments if you're okay with the following: 

- You will temporarily despise your children 

- You WILL argue with your husband

- You will ask yourself why you're doing this

- You will have a huge mess

- You will eventually get your toddler to redo it so many times that he'll temporarily hate you

- Your husband will say, and I quote, "you need to calm down" or "why are we doing this" or "this is stupid" 

However, also make these ornaments if you want the sweetest memory of your kids hands frozen in time that makes you want to cry because its so sweet and little and next year they'll be another year older and you wish you could freeze time. We also did my dog's paw print and I thought to myself how much I'll appreciate having it when she passes, which also made me cry. So salt dough ornaments are more emotional than you'd think. 

Okay, so you decided the memory was worth the pain and decided to make them. Here's how!

WHAT YOU NEED

- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup salt
- 3/4 cup lukewarm water

ADDITIONAL SUPPLIES

- rolling pin
- straw or wooden skewer
- baking sheet
- acrylic paint
- ribbon or twine for hanging
- optional: cookie cutters (if you want to do fun shapes), glitter, stamps, or other embellishments

HOW-TO MAKE SALT DOUGH

Step 1: Preheat oven to 250˚

Step 2: Combine all ingredients in a bowl. You may need to play around with the ingredients a little bit. If its too wet and sticky, add more flour a little at a time. If its too dry, add a little more water. The dough should feel smooth and consistent.

tip: you can store the dough in the refrigerator for 1-2 days, so you can make the dough ahead of time before you're ready to make the ornaments! Just wrap the ball of dough in plastic wrap and place in a ziplock bag or airtight container. 

Step 3: Sprinkle flour onto the counter or surface and add the dough

Step 4: Roll out dough with a rolling pin until its about 1/4" thick

Step 5: Now is when you can get creative! Use cookie cutters for fun shapes like candy canes, Christmas trees, or snowmen. Since this DIY is for handprint reindeer, you'll skip the cookie cutters and just press your child's hand firmly into the dough.

This is the part I wish I had advice for. My only advice would be, if you're child is feeling especially uncooperative, roll the dough up and throw it in the fridge and try another day. Trust me. We had about 40 redos because Kelley just did. not. want. to. cooperate. Eventually (after some bribery and threats) we got him to give us his hand and firmly press it down. I used my hand to push each finger down one by one so that they made an imprint. Just be sure to get their hand up as soon as possible because if they're like my child, they'll end up digging their nails in it or smooshing it a little harder and messier than planned. Maybe I should've added wine to the list of supplies.

After the handprints were finally done, I used a sharp knife to cut around the hand. Another option is to use a small bowl or round cutter to make a circle, then press their hand into the circle for round ornaments. We realized his hand was pretty big (this option would work best for a baby or dog paw) and that the circle would be pretty huge, so we kept it smaller by tracing tightly around the hand.

Use a straw or wooden skewer or dowel to poke a hole wherever you want to hang them from. Its important that you don't skip this step because it can't be done once they're dry. and then you have a salt dough..... plaque instead of an ornament.

Step 6: Bake ornaments for 1.5-2 hours, until the dough is completely dried. If you're a patient person, you can skip the oven and let them air dry for 4-7 days. We opted for the oven and even that took too long. The worst part was realizing that we couldn't cook the frozen pizza we had planned for dinner because they were still in the oven.

pro tip: plan something for dinner other than frozen pizza

Step 6: Paint! I had a few paints on hand so I used what I had. But I'd suggest for the reindeer you get a light brown, a darker brown, red, white, and black.

The light brown is for the fingers and becomes the antlers, the dark brown is the deer's head, some black and white eyes, and a red nose! I thought about adding red glitter to the nose but didn't have any on hand, but that would be a cute addition!

Step 7: Once the paint is dry attach the ribbon or twine to hang

---------------------------

During my salt dough research I saw SO many other cute ideas for different ornaments. If you have some dough left over after your handprints or you decide to go a different route, here are 10 other ideas I found!

We chose to set one aside and paint it 'antique white' and write the year on it so we had a simple and sweet handprint to remember. I love the reindeer and they made such cute gifts but this one is my favorite ornament on our tree!

Salt Dough Santa Ornament

Salt Dough Fingerprint Christmas Tree

Salt Dough Nativity Handprint

Salt Dough Snowman Footprints

Salt Dough Dinosaur Fossils

Salt Dough Paw Print

Salt Dough Mistletoes

Salt Dough Melted Snowman (my favorite!)

Salt Dough Fingerprint Hearts

------------------------

I love homemade keepsakes and homemade gifts are even better. I passed these out to my family members this weekend and they all loved them. But I think they'd be so cute attached to the outside of a gift with some ribbon and a bow.

Did you try a reindeer handprint or one of the ones above? Comment below or tag me on instagram at @katie_kelley!