Handprint ornaments

I really dropped the ball on Christmas this year. Normally, I'm ahead of the curve and have all my shopping done several weeks before. This year, I had hardly even thought about what I was going to do before the term of teaching ended. Based on some helpful posts in facebook groups I belong to, I came up with the ideas to make salt dough handprint ornaments. I looked at several different websites to find a recipe and inspiration.

This is the recipe I used for the first batch. I can't find the original website I used, but it said that the ornaments could be microwaved to harden them. I tried that (because I was short on time at that point) and discovered that microwaving them did indeed cook them and cause them to harden, but that they bubble a ton even if you poke lots of holes in them with a fork. The next day, I tried again. I ran out of regular salt, so I used Kosher salt. It works, but the dough is grainier than would be ideal. One blog I looked at recommended a 150 degree oven for an hour. 6 hours later, they still weren't dry. I turned the oven up to 200, then to 250. They did eventually dry out and they weren't discolored and didn't bubble, but it was a little inconvenient cooking them for the entire day. Next time, I think I'll cook them at 250 for a couple of hours, then turn them up to 350 to finish.

I painted the first set (the bubbly, microwaved ones). It emphasized the handprint that way, which was good because it was sort of hard to see on some of them because of the way it had bubbled. The second set were better, but I didn't have time to paint and shellac them before Christmas.

They were well received by the grandparents (and great grandparents). I think I'm going to make handprint ornaments a holiday tradition.