Salt And Glue Christmas Ornaments

When it comes to Christmas crafts, making homemade Christmas ornaments is my absolute favourite.

I loved making homemade ornaments as a child and I still have many of them. Every year, I like to encourage my boys to make at least one homemade ornament for the Christmas tree.

These glue and salt ornaments are easy to make, but encourage lots of creativity and fine motor practice.

You Will Need:

• clear plastic ornaments (you can find these at craft stores and sometimes dollar stores)
• white glue
• table salt
• spoon
• paintbrushes (optional)
• liquid watercolors (optional)
• small plastic cups (recycle individual applesauce containers for crafts like this!)
• ribbon

Instructions:

I put a small amount of glue in a plastic cup and gave my son a paintbrush to "paint" his design onto the plastic ornament.

You could encourage your child to squeeze the glue onto the clear plastic ornaments, but painting is easier—it allows kids to hold the ornament steady with their free hand while decorating.

Four-year old K made two of these ornaments. For the first one, he wanted to make a K for his name. He painted the letter K on the ornament with glue.

Next, he scooped and sprinkled the table salt onto the glue. Make sure to cover up all the glue!

Shake off any excess salt to reveal a snow-like design. 

You'll Also Love: Art + Science = Salt Glue Watercolour Experiment

The ornaments look beautiful at this point, but I asked K if he wanted to paint his letter K as well. He said yes and requested his favorite color: black.

Paint the glue and salt design with liquid watercolors. The salt will absorb the colors and make the design really pop!

Tip: use the recycled applesauce containers to hold the ornaments still while drying—they fit perfectly!

For K's second ornament, he tried to paint one side with a happy face. Then he started giggling and said, "It looks like a monkey!" He scribbled some lines on the reverse side, so here's his monkey scribble ornament. I think it's lovely!