How to Paint Salt Dough Ornaments- An Efficient way!

My kids and I made salt dough ornaments this weekend for them to sell at their homeschool market day, and when I looked up the most efficient way to paint them, I had a hard time finding any step-by-step instructions, so I thought I better figure out a method and write it down myself! So if you’ve been looking for an easy way too funny paint salt dough ornaments with kids, this is something you might want to try.

A wire hook is perfect for dipping and temporarily hanging the ornaments to dry. We made ours from 14 gauge fence wire from tractor supply.

First show a kiddo how to make wire hooks so you can dip and hang your ornaments efficiently. We cut our wire about 6 inches long and then used pliers to bend one and into a hanging puck and the other end into a smaller J to put through the hole in the ornament. It’s good for a little people to wear gloves for this.

Next you will want to pour some paint onto a paper plate and very gradually mix in water until it is a thin enough consistency to dip your ornaments.

We found this kind of paint worked great! Bought it at Hobby Lobby on sale a couple years ago.

This kind of paint did not work so well. I don’t know if it was because it’s rather old or because of the brand, but the ornaments dried with lots of cracks in them when we used this kind of paint.

Hang them up to dry, and After they are completely dry to the touch you can add details, hang to dry again, and then either use the hooks for hanging on your Christmas tree or tie on some pretty ribbon or string! These make great gifts, add a great personal touch to gift wrap, and of course make great Christmas tree ornaments!

I hung some rope lines between the table legs to make it easy to hang the ornaments.