These salt dough Christmas ornaments are not only super cute, but easy to make. This free Christmas printable works as a template to make the sweetest little bird ornaments to hang on your Christmas tree.

Salt Dough Christmas Ornaments

It’s so easy that preschoolers and kindergarteners can do it! The best part is, even when you’re done making salt dough Christmas ornaments, you can use this Christmas printable as a coloring page.

This is a fun project for the whole family and a great way to make your own salt dough ornaments for Christmas.

Make Christmas Dough Ornaments with Kids

Every Christmas we make a set of ornaments together as a family. It’s one of our “Countdown to Christmas” activities.

This year we used our Sweet Birds Coloring page and made a trio of bird to flutter in our tree.

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Supplies Needed To Make This Salt Dough Christmas Ornament

Supplies you will need to create your Dough Bird Ornaments:

• Batch of Salt Dough or air-dry clay
• Coloring Page of Birds
• Pencil or Pen
• Knife
• Rolling Pin
• Plastic Wrap
• Plastic Drinking Straw
• Ribbon to hang your finished ornament

Download You Free Printable Christmas Ornament Template Here:

This download can be used as a template for your DIY Christmas ornaments or used as a coloring page. You will receive 1 page that has 4 birds on it. You’ll be able to print off as many as you need!

Coloring Page of Birds

How To Make Salt Dough Bird Christmas Ornaments:

Step 1

Cover your dough with plastic wrap and use the rolling pin to flatten the dough until it is between 1/4 and 1/2 an inch thick. We used the plastic wrap to help keep our ornaments looking smooth and it made rolling easier for small hands.

Step 2

Use your coloring page and trace the bird images into the dough. Lift the sheet and then, Mom, retrace the lines with a sharp knife. You should be left with the outlines of your birds.

Step 3

Poke the straw into the dough for the birds “eyes” – the eyes will double as the spot to tie the ribbon onto the ornaments once they are dry.

Step 4

Carefully lift the dough away from the outlines of the birds.

Step 5

 Let the birds air dry for 48 hours, flipping them a couple of times a day, so that they dry fully and evenly.

Step 6

Paint or seal with clear gloss – so they can live to next Christmas!

Notes:

If you are using regular salt dough, you can put them on a baking sheet or cookie sheet at 250F for about 90 minutes. Flip them and bake them for another 90 minutes. It depends on the thickness of your ornaments though. The thicker they are the longer they will take.

If you don’t want to use the hole that you make for their eye, put a small hole at the top of the bird. You’ll only need a little bit of room so it won’t look silly. Then you can thread string or ornament hooks through your homemade salt dough ornaments.

You can also seal these ornaments with mod podge so they won’t get damaged.

Making Homemade Christmas Ornaments Extra Special

Above is the coloring page that we used to create our bird ornaments.

I bet you can use the same concept with numerous other fun coloring pages. You could even paint the birds and make them even more special!

You could paint one to look like a cardinal or a blue jar! Just make sure they are fully dry before you try to paint them. 

You could also mix some essential oils into the dough or just dab some onto your Christmas decorations so that they will smell great!

Christmas Dough Ornaments- Based On A Coloring Page

Print

These simple Christmas dough ornaments are a great holiday craft for kids because they start with a free printable Christmas coloring page!

Materials

• Batch of Salt Dough or air-dry clay
• Coloring Page of Birds
• Pencil or Pen
• Knife
• Rolling Pin
• Plastic Wrap
• Plastic Drinking Straw
• Ribbon to hang your finished ornament

Tools

• Knife
• Rolling Pin

Instructions

1. Cover your dough with plastic wrap and use the rolling pin to flatten the dough until it is between 1/4 and 1/2 an inch thick.   We used the plastic wrap to help keep our ornaments looking smooth and it made rolling easier for small hands.
2. Use your coloring page and trace the bird images into the dough.   Lift the sheet and then, Mom, retrace the lines with a sharp knife.   You should be left with the outlines of your birds.
3. Poke the straw into the dough for the birds “eyes” – the eyes will double as the spot to tie the ribbon onto the ornaments once they are dry.
4. Carefully lift the dough away from the outlines of the birds.
5. Let the birds air dry for 48 hours, flipping them a couple of times a day, so that they dry fully and evenly.
6. Paint or seal with clear gloss – so they can live to next Christmas!

MORE HOMEMADE ORNAMENTS FROM KIDS ACTIVITIES BLOG

There are so many amazing homemade ornaments you can make with your kids this Christmas. If you need even more inspiration try these:

• Make this cute handprint ornament!
• Clear ornament ideas — what to fill those plastic and glass balls!
• Kid-made easy painted clear ornaments art.
• Q-Tip Snowflake Ornaments
• Pipe cleaner Christmas crafts including the cutest ornaments!
• Christmas ornament crafts for kids <–BIG LIST
• Make the coolest natural ornaments with outdoor found objects
• FREE Printable Kids Christmas Ornaments
• Salt dough handprint ornaments you can make – this one is a nativity scene.
• Make your own ugly sweater ornament perfect for your Christmas tree!
• We love these popsicle stick ornaments.

Related: The best Christmas crafts for kids! <–Over 250 to choose from.

Have you tried making these bird salt dough Christmas ornaments yet? Let us know in the comments, we’d love to hear from you.