christmas crafting

We got home Tuesday from our grand little vacation and hit the ground running.  Wednesday we made 3 recipes of salt dough ornaments [2 plain and 1 cinnamon].  After we mixed up 4c. flour, 1 c. salt and 1½ c. water with the bread hook of my mixer...



...we rolled it out.  It was definitely a group effort.

Then we dug out all our Christmas cookie cutters and put them to good use...



[Before baking, I used a straw for the bigger ornaments and a bamboo skewer for the baby ornaments to poke a hole in the top]

Next we baked them for 2 hours in a 200° oven....



[above are our Cinnamon Salt Dough ornaments - we decreased the flour to 2 cups and added 5 T. of cinnamon and a little nutmeg]

After the 2 hours bake, we turned the oven off and let them sit in the oven for an additional hour.

Then we gathered up all our paints and paint pens and went to town...



Even Jody channeled his creative side and decorated a few.

After the paint dried, I sprayed them with a clear coat...



We picked out a few special ones for gifts for everyone in the family.  We sprinkled them around our gingerbread house creations for a festive tablescape...



...and we strung a few on ribbons and created a garland for our fireplace...



We had a blast with this super easy craft project!  They can't wait until next year for another round!