Susan DeBruin: Christmas Crafts: Dough Ornaments

Between school, work, and health issues I've had a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. We only just got our decorations up this past weekend, and even though Christmas is next week I haven't even started on my homemade gifts yet (except Ryan's - his I've been working on since this summer).

So, in an effort to jump start my holiday cheer, I'm going to post some of my favorite Christmas crafts from season's past.

Here is an adapted dough ornament recipe:

Dough Ornament Recipe
4 Cups all-purpose flour
1 Cup salt
1 1/2 Cups cold water
cookie cutters
Ribbons for hangers

In mixing bowl add flour and salt together. Slowly add water while stirring with a fork until soft dough forms. Turn out on lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, adding a small amount of water or flour, if needed. Roll dough on a floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters. Place ornaments 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheet. With a drinking straw, poke holes in the top for hanging. Bake in a preheated 300 degree oven for 30 to 45 minutes. Allow to cool completely. You can paint ornaments or leave as is.

The original can be found at: http://www.kids-cooking-activities.com/dough-ornament-recipes.html

You can make several little changes to 'spice' up the ornaments. For example, you can add cinnamon to the dough to make a scented ornament. While I haven't actually done this yet myself, I've been thinking it would be fun to make these ornaments with different spices and/or essential oils to use as air fresheners around the house.

Some of you may know that Derek has pretty extreme allergies, so we cannot use traditional air fresheners or anything with perfume in it (even your typical house-hold cleaners and detergents will aggravate his allergies). However, cooking spices and the scents caused by them do not bother his nose at all. I think this will be a fun way to add Christmas smells and other scents back into our home :)

Here are some pictures of different flour ornaments to get some creative ideas going. All of these photos are stolen from the internet (google image search).