Salt Dough Ornament Bowls Craft Project

Project Summary:

This salt dough ornament bowl craft project is a fantastic craft idea for children of all ages, but particularly for young children as you can introduce them to the concept of clay modelling using a simple salt dough recipe! Furthermore, the finished product is a beautiful bowl that children can use to store items in at their bedside locker or as a vibrant salt dough jewellery dish on a tabletop.

Project Details: Salt Dough Ornament Bowls Craft Project

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Step 1 – Prepare the salt dough

If you choose to make your own salt dough it can be easily prepared with a simple recipe of 4 cups of plain flour, 1 cup of salt and approximately 1 cup of water. Mix the ingredients together and knead the mixture to form a soft dough.

Step 2 – Roll out the salt dough

Using a breadboard, roll the dough out until it is smooth and has reached a medium thickness, ensuring that the size of the rolled dough will be enough to cover the small bowl that you have chosen.

Step 3 – Mold the salt dough to the shape of the bowl

Gently use your hands to cover the small bowl with the salt dough and start to pat the dough around the bowl in order to mold the salt dough to the shape of the small bowl. Once the salt dough has covered the small bowl you can use a knife to carefully cut away any excess salt dough from the rim of the bowl.

Step 4 – Create designs and imprints within the salt dough

Children will love to create their own designs within the salt dough. They can use a variety of clay modelling tools, or alternatively they can use simple items from the kitchen such as a knife or fork. Another idea is to find items from the garden such as leaves, cones or foliage from evergreen trees; by pressing these items firmly against the salt dough, beautiful patterns will form!

Step 5 – Separate the salt dough from the bowl and leave to dry

This step requires assistance from an adult as you need to use a knife to gently separate the outer salt dough from the bowl. This step can be a bit tricky as the salt dough may stretch a little when trying to separate the bowl and the salt dough, therefore an adult may have to assist to carefully reshape the salt dough to resemble the same shape as the bowl.

When this is complete the salt dough must dry before it can be painted. It could be placed in a cooker, but we chose to leave our bowls to air dry for a few days before starting to paint them.

Step 6 – Paint the bowls

When the salt dough has dried out (which may take a few days depending on the thickness), they are ready to paint. Children can create their very own designs and colour schemes using a selection of acrylic paints and standard paint brushes. If they wish, glitter can be sprinkled onto the wet paint to achieve a sparkly finish.

Step 7 – Apply a coat of gloss varnish

This step is optional, however if you have gloss varnish for acrylic paint, it can be applied as a final step after the paint has dried and will give a beautiful gloss sheen to the finished product.

Step 8 – Use the salt dough ornament bowls to store small items

The salt dough ornament bowls are the perfect accessory to any table top and can be used to store small items such as jewellery or small stationary items, and the children can be proud that they have created a functional item using their own clay modelling design skills!