Jon and Cat's Adventures: Special Holiday Ornament

This year I was bound and determined to make some ornaments with Beau’s hand and footprints on them. I have always been a big Pinterest fan and about a year ago I found a recipe for Salt Dough Ornaments that I could not wait to make with my child. So last week I got back on Pinterest and found the recipe that I was going to make and made my shopping list for Hobby Lobby. I was so excited about my holiday project. I gathered everything I needed and took it all down to Daphne with me so mom could help me make the special ornaments. I figured it would take two people to hold Beau and place Beau’s hand or foot in the correct spot on the dough. We mixed all the ingredients up, cut out our circles, put Beaus hand/foot prints on them, got flour everywhere and all over us, baked them on 350 for 40 minutes and of course a disaster had to happen on our first attempt. Like I said earlier, I love Pinterest but some of their recipes and craft projects do not turn out the way the picture says that they will. Our poor little circles puffed up, turned brown and there was no sign of a hand or footprint anywhere. We were bummed that our project failed but I was determined to make it work another time. A week later I decided it was time for round 2! This time I did a little research online on how to make these ornaments and there are about 100 recipes on how to make them and none are the same. I decided to put my cooking skills to the test and mix the recipes together and make my own. I was all by myself this time so I had to really plan out each step and make sure Beau was happily fed before starting the process. I put Beau next to me in his high chair.

I mixed up the dough, rolled it out with a rolling pin, cut out each circle and then it was time for the hand/foot printing. I had no idea how Beau would react but he surprised me! He loved having his hand print and foot print taken! The circles came out perfect! I decided to put them in the oven on 200 for 20 minutes to get the process started and then let them air dry for the rest of time until they were hard. This has worked like a charm!

Recipe if you are interested:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup salt

1 ½ cup water *pour slowly and a little at a time b/c it might take more or less

Mix the ingredients together and add water slowly in a big bowl. Once combined, flour your surface and knead the dough together until smooth. Take a rolling pin and roll out the dough until it is around 1/8 inch thickness. Cut out the desired shape with cookie cutters and then place on baking sheet. Use a straw to poke a hole for the string. Bake on 200 degrees for 20 minutes and then allow to air dry on the baking sheet until hard. Pain with acrylic paint and you can also write on the back with a permanent marker if desired. Coat the entire ornament with polyurethane to seal. Tie a string or ribbon through the hold and hang on the tree.