Salt Dough Ornaments

I'm not exactly made of money, which is why I cry a little inside whenever I think Christmas presents. I wanted something for my aunts/uncles/cousins/neighbors/friends that would be easy, fast and cheap to make, but still looked nice. Salt dough ornaments are all of the above, and the ingredients are in your pantry!

Salt Dough Ornaments

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

1 cup water

Mix flour, salt and water until a dough ball forms (I used a mixer, but you could certainly hand mix). Knead for about 5-10 minutes. I'll admit, I was lazy and only kneaded for 5 minutes, and that was with a mixer!

Throw your dough on some parchment or wax paper if you have it and roll out until about 1/4 inch thick.

 This is an optional step, but if you'd like to add a little texture, put a towel or other fabric over the top of the dough and gently roll over it with your roller.

Cut ornaments into whatever shape you'd like. I used the good ol' fashioned glass method, because I'm boring. Then, take a straw and poke a hole into the top of each one. You can either let them air dry on the counter for about 48 hours if you have the time (not recommended if you live in a humid climate like I do) or you can bake at 250 degrees for about 2-3 hours. I ended up doing a combination of both, because they were not air drying fast enough for my liking. 

Next, paint the ornaments whatever color you'd like. Again, because I'm boring, I went with plain white.

Cut out scrapbook paper, wrapping paper or fabric into whatever design you want (the dinosaurs are for my nephews).

I Mod Podged the designs onto my ornament to give them a nice sheen and hung them with red twine. 

These are very easy and fun to make. You can get creative with shapes and designs. I let my son paint a few and then Mod Podged the dinosaurs onto them. And the great thing is, if you mess up it costs like ten cents to make a new batch!

World Map Splatter Painting

I minored in Art History in college, which is ironic considering I don't have an artistic bone in my body. One thing I liked about the works of "action painters" like Jackson Pollock and James Brooks was they looked an awful lot like children's paintings. I always thought, "hey I could throw some paint on to a canvas too!" So that's exactly what I did...well, kinda.

I didn't want mine to look just like a splatter painting, so I thought I'd add a design to it to add some dimension. My husband is a bit of a map fanatic, so I chose to do a world map design.

First step - what you'll need is a couple of canvases (I got mine with a 50% off coupon at Michael's, so it was about $10 for two), a design template, paint brushes or sponge brushes, and paint. All in all, the supplies cost me $20.

Now this next step you can certainly skip if you want more contrast, but I chose to first splatter on a layer of light cream paint.  

After the paint dries, tape your design onto the canvas. I went waaay too detailed with the map and cut out little islands and stuff like that. You couldn't even really see the small island countries in the finished product, so if you do a world map, skip the detail (sorry, Iceland!). This part definitely took the longest and was the least fun. 

Next, splatter on that paint, baby! You can choose whatever colors you'd like. It was really messy and fun, and I released a lot of pent up frustration. Your kids can even help you with this part. Different brushes leave different marks. Don't be afraid to experiment because there's no way you can mess this up. I got mine on nice and thick in some areas and then added a little water to the paint to get more of a spatter effect and less of a globby effect.

Let the paint dry a little, but not all the way, or else your paper will stick to the canvas when you peel it off. The thicker the layers of paint, the crisper your edges.

So there you have it! So easy a kid could do it (or me, same thing, really), and your friends will be impressed with your custom "Jackson Pollock art".