Salt Dough Halloween Ornaments: Recipe and Ideas
Salt dough is a wonderful, inexpensive craft material that most families can make from ingredients already in the kitchen cupboard. Rolled out, cut into pumpkins, bats and ghosts, baked hard and painted, it turns into charming salt dough Halloween ornaments you can hang on a Halloween tree, string into a garland or keep as handmade keepsakes for years.
This guide covers a simple salt dough recipe, how to shape and dry your ornaments, how to paint and seal them so they last, and plenty of spooky design ideas.
Basic Salt Dough Recipe
You only need three ingredients. This quantity makes roughly 15 to 25 ornaments, depending on the size of your cutters.
- 2 cups (about 250 g) plain all-purpose flour
- 1 cup (about 270 g) fine table salt
- About 3/4 cup (180 ml) warm water
Tip: fine salt gives a smoother finish than coarse salt. Add the water gradually, as different flours absorb different amounts.
How to Make Salt Dough Ornaments: Step by Step
Step 1: Mix the Dough
Stir the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Add the warm water a little at a time, mixing with a spoon and then your hands, until the dough comes together into a ball. It should feel firm and smooth, like play dough. If it is sticky, add a spoonful of flour; if it crumbles, add a few drops of water.
Step 2: Knead
Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for five to ten minutes until it is smooth and elastic. Kneading helps prevent cracks later on.
Step 3: Roll and Cut
Roll the dough to an even thickness of about 5 mm (1/4 inch). Thinner ornaments dry faster but break more easily; thicker ones take much longer to dry. Cut out shapes with Halloween cookie cutters such as pumpkins, bats, ghosts, cats, moons and witches' hats. If you do not have cutters, draw a shape on card, lay it on the dough and cut around it with a blunt knife.
Step 4: Make a Hanging Hole
Use a drinking straw or skewer to make a hole near the top of each shape. Make it slightly larger than you think you need, as the dough shrinks a little as it dries.
Step 5: Add Texture (Optional)
Before drying, press details into the dough with a toothpick or fork: pumpkin ridges, cat whiskers, bat wing lines or a stitched mouth on a ghost. You can also stamp letters to make name tags.
Drying Your Ornaments
Salt dough must be completely dry all the way through before you paint it, otherwise it can crack or go moldy later. There are two ways to dry it.
Oven Drying
Place the shapes on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake at a low temperature, around 120°C (250°F, or a low gas mark), for about two to three hours for 5 mm thick pieces, turning them over halfway through. Thicker pieces will need longer. The ornaments are ready when they feel hard and sound hollow when tapped. A low temperature is important: too much heat makes salt dough puff up and turn brown.
Air Drying
Lay the ornaments on a wire rack in a warm, dry room and turn them over once or twice a day. Air drying usually takes two to four days, depending on thickness and humidity. This method uses no energy but needs patience.
Painting and Sealing
Once cool and completely dry, paint your ornaments with acrylic craft paints. Paint one side, let it dry, then paint the other side and the edges. Paint pens and fine permanent markers are great for faces and details.
Sealing is the most important step for making ornaments last. Salt draws moisture from the air, so an unsealed ornament can soften over time. Brush on two coats of decoupage medium, clear acrylic varnish or a clear spray sealer, covering every surface including the edges and the inside of the hanging hole.
Spooky Salt Dough Halloween Ornament Ideas
- Jack-o'-lantern pumpkins: paint them orange with black faces and a green stalk.
- Handprint ghosts: press a child's hand into the dough, cut around it, and once dried turn it upside down. The fingers become the wavy bottom of a ghost; add two black eyes and a mouth. It makes a lovely keepsake with the child's name and the year on the back.
- Glittery bats: paint bats black and add a touch of silver glitter to the wings while the varnish is still wet.
- Candy corn: cut triangles and paint them in yellow, orange and white stripes.
- Skulls: paint white skulls and decorate them in bright sugar skull colors. Our sugar skull Perler bead pattern is useful for design inspiration.
- Gift tags: stamp a name into each shape and tie it to a treat bag or party favor.
Ways to Display Them
Hang your ornaments from a bare branch in a vase to create a Halloween tree, thread them along ribbon to make a garland, or tie them to cabinet handles and door knobs. They also look great hung alongside our paper fan decorations or the coffee filter ghosts craft.
Troubleshooting
- Ornaments puffed up: the oven was too hot. Lower the temperature and dry them for longer.
- Cracks appeared: the dough was too dry or not kneaded enough, or it dried too quickly. Small cracks can be filled with a paste of flour and water before painting.
- Soft or bendy ornaments: they are not fully dry. Return them to a low oven or leave them to air dry longer.
- Paint looks patchy: apply a white base coat first, then add colors on top.
Safety and Storage
Salt dough looks like cookie dough but it is not edible, and the very high salt content can be harmful to pets, so keep dough and finished ornaments out of reach of dogs and cats. Supervise children when using the oven. Store sealed ornaments wrapped in tissue paper in an airtight box with a sachet of silica gel if you have one, and keep them somewhere dry until next Halloween.
Salt Dough FAQs
Can I dry salt dough in the microwave?
Some crafters do, but microwaving often causes bubbles and uneven drying, so oven drying at a low temperature or air drying is more reliable for ornaments you want to keep.
Can I add color to the dough itself?
Yes. Knead in a few drops of food coloring or a little powder paint before rolling. Colored dough is handy for younger children who find painting fiddly, although the colors will look softer once dried.
A Keepsake Craft for Every Year
Salt dough Halloween ornaments are cheap to make, fun for all ages and can be brought out year after year. Try making a few new designs each October and you will soon have a whole collection. For more hands-on projects, explore our hanging Halloween decorations and crafts for kids.
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