Easy Salt Dough Ornaments for Valentine’s Day + 3 Ingredient Salt Dough Recipe

Salt dough ornaments are an easy and extremely versatile craft activity for toddlers and preschoolers alike.  These heart shaped salt dough ornaments are the perfect Valentine’s Day activity for kids!  Keep reading to learn how to make your very own salt dough with just 3 simple ingredients! 

This post contains affiliate links.  That means if you click through and make purchases through those links, I will earn a commission at no extra cost to you. You may see disclosure for more information. 

We don’t decorate for all the seasons and little holidays around here, but I cannot get enough hearts when it comes to Valentine’s Day.

Last week, we shared our beaded heart ornaments that are hanging in our kitchen and today we’re sharing another fun and simple Valentine’s activity that the boys and I did – heart shaped salt dough ornaments. 

Salt dough ornaments are perfect for little hands since the dough is so easy to make and roll out.  Kids of all ages can easily help with the whole process, which made it a really fun morning activity to do with both my toddler and preschooler.  

And now, I can’t wait to make even more salt dough keepsake ornaments for our Christmas tree this year…

If you’ve never made salt dough ornaments before, you are in for a treat.  They really are so easy to make and the kids LOVED feeling like they were both cooking and making a craft.  (Although to be fair, the littlest did let me know how similar they looked to cookies and requested to eat them more than once after they came out of the oven.  He’s a boy after his mama’s heart, what can I say?)

Easy Salt Dough Recipe

The basic, salt dough recipe that we’ll be using for our ornaments is below.

Supplies

• 2 cups of plain flour
• 1 cup of salt (yes, a whole cup)
• 1/2 – 3/4 cups of warm water, but add it slowly to make sure your dough doesn’t get runny.  You can add more later, if you need to. 
• Parchment paper
• Rolling pin
• Straw

Directions

• Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
• Mix your flour and salt in a large bowl. 
• Add water slowly and mix with a whisk or mixing spoon. 
• Knead the dough with your hands until smooth. 
  • Note – it should not be sticky or wet.  You want it to be dry-ish and easy to work with. 
  • Bonus tip: if you’re making salt dough with more than one child, give each child a bit of dough on a plate to knead themselves.  This is WAY easier than taking turns in the big bowl and they can give their dough to be added together once they are finished. 
• Once the dough is smooth, roll it to about 1/4 inch thick on parchment paper. 
• Use cookie cutters to shape into desired shapes. 
• If you plan to hang your ornaments, use a straw to poke holes in each one before baking. 
• Bake for 2-3 hours, or until dough is thoroughly dried out.  
• Use paint (we used acrylic paint) to decorate your ornaments as you wish.

And that’s it.  That’s all you need to make salt dough ornaments!

Easy enough, right? 

RELATED: EASY FOAM HEART GARLAND

Heart Shaped Salt Dough Ornaments for Valentine’s Day

Now that you know the basics to making salt dough ornaments, here are all the details for our heart shaped ornaments for Valentine’s Day.  

Supplies

• All supplies listed above for salt dough
  • • 2 cups plain flour
    • 1 cup salt
    • 1/2 – 3/4 cups warm water
    • parchment paper
    • rolling pin
    • straw
• Heart shaped cookie cutter
• Twine or ribbon
• Acrylic paint 
• Mod podge, optional

Directions

• Make your salt dough, per recipe above.
• Once you’ve rolled out your dough about 1/4 inches thick, use your heart shaped cookie cutter to cut heart shapes. 
  • We ended up with several hearts using this recipe and may or may not have snuck a few other shapes in for good measure while we were at it.  
• Use a straw to poke holes in the top of each heart before baking. 
• Bake at 200 degrees F for 2-3 hours or until thoroughly dried through. 
• Once ornaments are fully cooled, decorate using acrylic paint. 
  • We waited until the next day to be sure they were dried out all the way. 

• If you want to seal your ornaments to be sure they are more easily preserved, paint over with mod podge after paint has dried.  
  • Make sure to seal all sides to prevent moisture from getting into your ornaments.  
• Tie a ribbon or twine through the hole and hang your ornaments. 

Easy peasy.  

We ended up tying all of our hearts together with twine to create a fun garland for our mantel.  I’m not sure if we’ll keep them together for next year or not, but they are fun and festive on the mantel now and the boys are proud of their work!

PIN IT: 

Don’t forget to check out our other Valentine’s Day crafts and activities here!