Have you ever wondered how to make salt dough ornaments? You can make so many cool things but one of my favourites is crafting Easter decorations. I thought I’d share my foolproof guide. They’re so easy to make, and you can bring them out year after year.
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DIY Easter Decorations
Creating DIY Easter decorations is great fun. Over the years I’ve made a DIY spring wreath using faux tulips. And created a sweet Easter bunny garland, complete with pom pom tails.
Not to mention the DIY Easter chocolate bark — studded with foam eggs and mini eggs — YUM.
But one of the simplest activities, by far, is making salt dough ornaments.
Salt dough can be moulded into all kinds of shapes — you can go freestyle or use cookie cutters. And, if it’s cooked well enough and painted, it seals the dough and will last for years and years.
Salt Dough Ornaments
You can make your salt dough ornaments as simple — or as complicated — as you like. Even the children can get involved! It’s such a fun craft and something that the whole family will enjoy. Here are some ideas to make with your salt dough.
Easter Egg Easter Decorations
Roll out the salt dough and use egg-shaped cookie cutters to create ornaments resembling Easter eggs. You can then decorate them with paint, markers, or even glitter to make them colourful and pretty.
They make fantastic Easter tree decorations.
Bunny Salt Dough Ornaments
Use a bunny-shaped cookie cutter or mould the dough into bunny shapes by hand. Add details like eyes, a nose, and whiskers before baking. Once baked and cooled, you can paint the bunnies in various colours and add a ribbon for hanging.
Chicks
Mould small balls of dough into chick shapes, or used a cookie cutter as I have done here, adding details like beaks and wings before baking. Once cooled, paint the chicks yellow and add eyes and feet using paint or markers.
Crosses
Roll out the dough and cut it into cross shapes using a knife or cookie cutter. After baking and cooling, paint the crosses in pastel colours and add decorative touches like patterns or flowers.
You could even use dried flowers to decorate your Easter decorations.
Flowers
Create flower shapes by cutting the dough into circles and making indentations around the edges to resemble petals. Roll a little ball of dough, and press in the middle, for the flower’s center. Once baked, paint the flowers in vibrant colours and add details like stems and leaves.
Butterflies and Bee Salt Dough Ornaments
Mould the dough into butterfly and bee shapes, making sure to create distinct wings. After baking and cooling, paint your bees and butterflies in bright colours and add details like antennae and patterns on the wings.
Easter Baskets
Make little baskets out of your salt dough. Create the vessel first, then create a handle by twisting (or plaiting) strips of dough together. Once baked and cooled, paint the baskets brown then add details like handles and decorative patterns. You can even fill the baskets with tiny salt dough eggs or — even better — with foil wrapped mini eggs.
Easter Wreaths
I’ve created DIY flower wreaths before but you could also use salt dough to create a cool Easter wreath. Create a ring shape with the dough and decorate it with small Easter-themed shapes like eggs, bunnies, chicks, and flowers. After baking and cooling, paint the wreath in pastel colours and add a ribbon for hanging.
How To Make Salt Dough Ornaments for Easter
Take one cup of plain flour, one cup of salt and as much water as you need to make a pastry like dough. Some recipes suggest a whole cup but I probably used three quarters.
Just use your discretion; if the mix starts to look too sticky, just add more flour.
Roll out your dough and start to cut out your shapes.
I have some little egg and chick cutters but you could use bunnies, flowers whatever takes your fancy!
If you’re going to hang your decorations, remember to make a hole in each one. I used the end of a drinking straw, to make mine.
Then lay then shapes on a baking sheet and pop in the oven on a low heat. I cook ours at 100 degrees for 1 hour then turn them over and cook for another hour.
After 2 hours, I turn the oven off but leave the salt dough shapes in there, so they carry on baking with the residual heat.
Decorating Your Salt Dough Ornaments for Easter
When your salt dough ornaments are totally hardened and cool, you can begin to paint the shapes. This is the fun part!
I use a mix of emulsion, acrylic and poster paints, topped off with some glitter glaze I had left over from decorating a little girl’s bedroom.
I leave some of the shapes in a plain colour and paint patterns on others to mix things up a little. Then leave them alone for a couple of hours and — when the paint has totally dried — I thread ribbon through the holes.
I am so pleased with how these turned out! They make fantastic Easter tree decorations.
We bought this little wire tree, especially for the Christmas decorations the boys made at the nursery. I thought it would be a lovely thing to bring out, year after year — and a great way to display the things that they’d made — but having another use for it is brilliant.
Plus it makes Easter into more of an occasion. When the boys see the little tree — and the salt dough Easter decorations being brought out — they’ll know we’ve got four days of loveliness coming up!
Do you have any Easter traditions?
Caro Davies is a former art-director turned writer and content-creator, and editor behind UK lifestyle blog The Listed Home. She writes about home-related topics, from interiors and DIY to food and craft. The Listed Home has been featured in various publications, including Ideal Home, Grazia, and Homes & Antiques magazines.
I am in love with this Easter tradition, I have never heard of this, just brilliant! #Twinkly Tuesday
Thanks Mac! I’m not sure it really is an Easter tradition?! But it will be, in our house, from this year on!! :)
Lovely and effective. I love salt dough, it’s great that the kids can have a nibble if they really feel the need but also that the taste puts them off pretty quickly :-)
#twinklytuesday
It’s fab isn’t it? We’re definitely going to be making salt dough Christmas decorations this year, there’s no doubt about that! :)
they looks lovely i love making salt dough ornaments so simple isn’t it! the tree is great too can i be nosey and ask where you go it? x
Thanks Amy — I can’t believe how lovely they look! And so simple too. The little tree was from Hobbycraft at Christmas! It has tiny lights on the end of the branches and look gorgeous lit up at night! x
I know… I did think that yesterday!! What a shame I’m posting this after the event! Not to worry! Will definitely make some more at Christmas!! :)
These are really cute! I love using salt dough!
Me too! Such a fun thing to do — and cheap too! :)
II have never been ab;e tp get salt dough right, maybe I haven’t been cooking it long enough! Pinning to give it another go as these look so good!! #twinklytuwsday x
It took AGES to cook Laura — you’ve just got to be really patient with it! Even after 3 hours it was still a bit soggy! I cooked it for 5 hours but then left it overnight too, to harden x
Such a cute idea! Lizzy will be able to enjoy these kind of craft activities soon and I can’t wait to do them with her! #twinklytuesday
I’m going to do some more at Christmas with the boys! Such a fun thing to do! :)
what a great idea! will be bookmarking the post!
Thanks so much Victoria x
What great decorations, it amazes me that Easter is becoming more and more decorated, when I was little it was all about bunnies and egg hunts, these days that is only part, it is like a spring Christmas with all the decorations etc :) I love it.
Thanks Ashley — it was really fun making them :) I think people love an excuse to decorate the house don’t they? I know I do! :) x
These are so cute, love them!!! :-) #twinklytuesday
Thanks Sophie :) x
Caro they are so lovely and your photos are beautiful. Do you know I have never made salt dough, but when the boys were little they had every colour in play doh imaginable xx
Thanks so much Sarah! :) My mum banned Play-Doh when I was little!! She said it used to all end up in the carpet!! x
I love that tree!! I would never think of making decorations for Easter. I totally failed this year and so next year is going to look like the Easter bunny has exploded all over the house! Ha! Thanks for hosting xx
Aaah — just give me an excuse to decorate the house Kate — in any capacity — and I’m there with bells on!! I love an excuse for a bit of home styling!
Oh my, such a lovely post! Your photography is lovely, and the decorations are gorgeous. :) Last time I made salt dough it was a little bubbly and not so great. I am hoping to make some more soon and hopefully things will be a bit better this time! Ray xx @ lukeosaurusandme.blogspot.co.uk #twinklytuesday
Try again using this recipe! Honestly, it was so easy! Just make sure you use plain — and not self-raising — flour! :)
I love the idea of an Easter tree and these decorations are just stunning, even just laying in the bowl! A I right in thinking I can spy a doggy pawprint on one of those eggs? #TwinklyTuesday
HA! Not a doggy pawprint Katie! A kitten pawprint!! That’s what happens when you leave rolled out pastry/salt-dough on the kitchen unattended for a couple of minutes!! ;) Good spot! ;) x
They look great! You could do so many different variations too!
Thanks so much Rachel! The possibilities are endless aren’t they? x
These look fab you are so clever. I am terrible, my kids despair.
I promise you — it was easy! The hardest thing was being patient enough to wait for the blooming things to cook! They took hours!! x
Wow, they look fantastic! I wish I could be a bit more creative with my hands, I’m so rubbish at practical things, but I shall have to attempt these with A as I think he’d love making them! #sharewithme
I think they look a lot more — and complicated — than they really are!! It was such a simple thing to do. A lovely thing to do with little ones too x
These look amazing, I will do this with the kids #TwinklyTuesday
I highly recommend it Michelle — just factor in the cooking time! 5 hours makes it quite a long, drawn out activity! ;) Nice to split it across 2 days — making the dough and cutting the shapes on one day — painting the shapes on the next!
I love this! Will definitely try this and do something that is not season dependent for my son! I am so excited! #sharewithme
Aaah that’s so lovely that you’re excited about making some! I’m sure your boy will LOVE it Merlinda! x
Salt dough is so much fun isn’t it! And how adorable are your decorations you guys! Love it. We’ve never had an Easter tree but I think Annabelle will be old enough next year to help decorate it rather than destroy! lol x
I think it’s a lovely, fun, thing to do with kids! :) And I’m really happy about having an Easter Tree tradition too! It makes me smile to think that the boys will get all excited when they see the little box of salt dough decorations being brought down from the attic! :)
Oh this is brilliant I am pinning right now for next year as I have a white tree we decorate for what ever holiday it is and this year I just bought plastic eggs so the kids could decorate it and this would be so much more fun. What a great idea. Thank you so much for linking up to Share With Me. Hope you are having a lovely weekend. #sharewithme
Aaah that’s great! So happy to have inspired :)