Eco-friendly Christmas decorations you can make at home
By 9Honey Living|
Christmas is one of the most wonderful times of the year.
But of course there are always special things you can do to amp up the festive cheer. A great environmentally-conscious project is making your own decorations using salt dough.
Salt dough decorations originated in ancient Egypt, and are still a traditional craft in Germany and other parts of Europe.?
READ MORE: 5 DIY homewares you can decorate the house with for Christmas using a Cricut machine?
Created from simple pantry staples กช flour, water and salt กช these decorations are light but strong, and are the kind of simple decoration that can be altered to suit any style.
Plus, they're compostable at the end of the season กช how many Christmas decorations can you say that for?
They also store well in most climates, if you're too attached to them and want to use them again next year. It's also a pretty good activity to keep little ones busy if you're running out of festive ideas.
Here's the east method for making them:
Salt dough Christmas decorations
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup salt
- 2 cups plain flour
- A splash of cooking oil
- Juice of one lemon (optional กช?this makes the finished decorations harder)
Mix everything up in a bowl and adjust the flour and water if necessary until you have a firm dough mix that is not sticky.
Turn out onto a board and knead for a minute or so, then roll out to 5-10mm thickness.
Now comes the fun part กช use whatever cookie cutters or shapes you like to cut out your decorations. Once cut out, use a drinking straw to make a hole in each for your hanging ribbon to go through.
Once everything is cut out, you have two options for hardening your decorations กช?your oven, or air drying.
If using your oven, make sure you place them on a lightly greased tray and bake them long and slow, or they may puff up. 100?C for 3-4 hours is a good idea กช check when they're dry and remove to cool.
If air drying, place decorations on a tray somewhere airy (on top of your cupboards is often perfect) for four days, remembering to flip them over at two days so both sides dry well.
They will end up hard and looking rather tasty กช feel free to nibble one if you like, but they're so salty you won't do it twice!
The saltiness of the dough is, of course, a good thing กช it keeps the decorations dry and prevents them being attractive to critters and insects.
Now it's time to decorate. Some folks leave them plain, some paint them with water colours, some with bright acrylics. Anything goes กช it's up to you.
You can also use these as extra decorations on your presents if you want to up your wrapping game that bit more.
However you decide to display them, salt dough decorations are a beautiful and simple addition to any festive household.
