Herbal Salt Dough Ornaments

I just love being able to combine my love of DIY crafting projects and my love of herbs. My goal this year is to have a homemade, rustic, bring Nature indoors kind of holiday season (my family celebrates Christmas eve, Christmas day and Yule… lucky us!). Also having an inquisitive toddler in the house has made me rethink having breakable glass ornaments on my tree for obvious reasons.

When I was growing up my mom made salt dough ornaments all the time. Making salt dough is a child-friendly, homemade and simple activity that everyone in your family can participate in. And you don’t need a lot of ingredients if you want to make plain salt dough decorations! And while plain salt dough is awesome, I wanted to find a way to give this old tradition a herbal twist.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup of salt
  • 2 cups of all purpose white flour
  • 1 cup of water

For Herbal Salt Dough

  • 1 tbsp lavender flowers
  • 1 tbsp of calendula petals
  • 1 tsp of turmeric
  • 1 tsp of cinnamon

Instructions

  • In a large bowl mix your salt and flour
  • You can grind your salt finer if you have kids with texture issues
  • Add in about 3/4 of water
  • Mix well and add as much additional water as you need for it to forms a nice doughy consistency
  • If you add too much water it will be gooey (just add extra flour if needed)
  • Kneed the dough for at least 5 minutes. The longer you kneed the smoother the dough will be.
  • Divide your dough into the number of sections you need
  • I made four different types of herbal ornaments (so four pieces)
  • Add in your herbal ingredients
  • If you are using dried flowers or petals you will need about 1 tbsp
  • If you are using a powder (like cinnamon or turmeric) you will need 1 tsp
  • Mix in the herbs and continue to kneed the dough until you have the desired look
  • The longer you kneed with the powdered herbs the more uniform the colour of your dough will be
  • Using a rolling pin, roll out your dough to the desired thickness
  • Thick salt dough will take longer in the oven
  • Thinner salt dough will require a shorter bake time but are more fragile
  • Using cookie cutters, bowls, cups, basically anything that can cut out a shape, cut out your salt dough ornaments
  • Using a needle, straw or something circular poke a hole in your salt dough
  • This is where you will thread with twine, fishing line or string of choice
  • Line them on a cookie sheet (lined with parchment paper)
  • Place in a preheated oven (200 F)
  • Thin ornaments can take a little as 45-60 minutes
  • Thicker ornaments can take up to 4 hours
  • If your dough starts to rise (like cookies), the temperature of your oven is too high
  • Once the dough is dried all the way through they are done!
  • If you plan to keep these for a few years it’s a good idea to use mod podge to seal them as they will dry out, crack and even mold over time!

I hope you and your family enjoy this herbal inspired holiday activity as much as we did!

Happiest of Holidays,

P.S. Please pin for future reference and to share in the herbal love 😉