Easter Crafts for Kids: Easy Salt Dough Decorations

Most kids are home this week for Easter holidays. The suspense is building. The Easter Bunny and his basket filled with chocolate goodies is just days away. Oh, my children’s (more so for my little guy) excitement is clear to see!

What better way to keep them entertained while waiting for their sugar shock on Sunday morning than with some Easter activities?

The other week I guest posted on Skelly Hodge Podge with some fabulous, felt, easy-sew Easter Bunnies, perfect for little hands to create 😉.

If you’re the sewing type yourself, you and your kids could also try sewing these cute Egg Baskets (my kids especially enjoyed helping with choosing the fabrics and trying out various ways of filling and decorating the baskets 😉).

Today’s family-friendly, easy-peasy craft that I would love to share with you, is how to make Easter ornaments out of dough. Yes, dough! Never though about baking playdough? Well, let me show you how!

Here in Germany this dough is called Salzteig, which translates to salt dough, and some just call it plain old playdough 😉.

I have worked with a variety of homemade doughs over the years. Hello! 3 kids + a million home crafts + years of playgroups and kindergartens. I can attest that this recipe was one of the best I have ever tried! With this recipe you can mix up a non-sticky, non-clumpy, perfectly pliable dough for making ornaments with your kids. Or just because you yourself want to add a little Easter colour to the house! And chances are, you already have the ingredients in your kitchen. What’s simpler than that?!?

DIY Easy Salt Dough Decorations

What You’ll Need for the Dough

2 cups of plain flour

1 cup of salt

1 cup of water

1 teaspoon of oil

A little extra flour for your working surface

Cookie cutters / DIY templates

Chopstick, pencil, kebab stick or similar for punching a hole for hanging the ornament (later 😉)

What You’ll Need to Decorate

Fingerpaint

Paintbrushes

Wool, cord, or similar for hanging up the ornaments

Step 1:

Preheat the oven to 140 degrees Celsius.

Step 2:

Add flour, salt, and oil to a large bowl. Slowly add the water while using your hand mixer- with dough hooks- to blend the ingredients. Mix well. If the mix is too sticky, sprinkle in a little extra flour. If it is too dry, a few extra drops of water. The dough shouldn’t stick to your (or your kids’ 😉) hands.

I didn’t have to change anything, I think this salt dough recipe is PERFECT!!

Step 3:

Sprinkle some flour on your working surface and roll the salt dough flat (approximately 5mm thick). A’la Goldilocks: not too thick and not too thin. Just right!

Step 4:

Using your cookie cutters, cut out your dough!

We didn’t have an egg-shaped cookie cutter, so we made a template using a piece of cardboard and cut the dough around that using a butter knife.

Carefully place the dough shapes on lined oven trays.

Using a chopstick / kebab stick / pencil make a small hole in the top of each ornament. (The hole will be used later for hanging the ornament!)

Step 5:

Bake the salt dough shapes for 60 minutes and allow to cool.

Step 6:

Decorating time! Grab the paints and brushes, cover up your working surface to protect it (better yet, get outside in the fresh air and sunshine!) and let the kids go crazy with decorating! Trust me, it’s fun to see what they come up with. When my kids start painting, anything goes! 😉