Free and Easy Last Minute Gift Ornaments
Free and easy gift ornaments to make with items you already have at home, last minute.
When you are on a tight budget at Christmas time, it can be hard to think of free and easy gifts that you can give to others that they might actually enjoy…especially when it is last minute. Christmas is in a few days, and I still needed a present to round out my gift for my “secret Santa”. Since there are so many in our extended family at Christmas time, we each draw numbers and are tasked with just getting one person a present, rather than a gift for everyone.
Making the Dough
So, I decided to make salt dough ornaments for the first time, because it was free and easy. You only need two ingredients: salt, and flour…and water. Pretty much everyone has those ingredients already in their pantry, making these ornaments be easy and free.
I combined 3 cups of flour to 1.5 cups salt. I then added water as needed. If you roll it, and it feels too flaky, keep adding a small around of water until it feels like play dough.
Roll into a ball and knead until it is the right texture onto a slightly floured surface. Go ahead and preheat the oven to 300F. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface and find the cookie cutters you want to use.
Stamping the Dough
To make these ornaments we first went outside and gathered greenery to use as a natural stamp. I made sure to choose greenery that has a stiff spine, as it will stamp into the dough better. To stamp it in, place it into the dough before using your cookie cutter. Then, get the rolling pin and roll the greenery deeper into the dough, making the dough about 1/8th of an inch thickish. Then, take out your greenery stamp carefully. Find a straw to poke a hole into it and use your cookie cutter last to keep the best shape, and remove any extra dough.
Once finished, place on a cookie tray and bake for 1 hour, or until hard and dry.
Painting the Dough
No, you can either leave them as is, or paint them. To get more of an effect, I decided to lightly paint mine with random paint I already had on hand. I just lightly painted the stamp. This was very easy, and can be done with very limited painting skills, just a steady hand is needed. Make sure to add some string or ribbon 🙂
