Are you looking for an easy, fun and great looking Christmas craft you can make with your children or Sunday school class?  Then look no further, I have the answer.
It’s the old fashion bread dough ornaments. Dough ornaments make unique gifts and tree decorations.
Dough creations are easy to make by using common household items such as flour, water, salt, white glue and shampoo. Alabama Cooperative Extension System Nutritionist, Barbara Struempler, warns consumers that the ornaments are strictly for decoration.
“Sometimes children see the finished ornaments and think that because they are called dough decorations they are edible. It is important that everyone understands that the decorations are not edible,”she said.
For all recipes, roll out dough on waxed paper until about one fourth inch thick. Use a nail or drinking straw to make a hole in the top of the ornaments. Ornaments can be made three dimensional by forming small pieces of dough into various shapes and attaching them together before baking or air drying.
Moisten each piece before attaching. Squeeze dough through garlic press to make hair, fur, etc.
If you want to tint dough, tint or paint ornaments with food coloring mixed with a little water before baking or air drying.  Acrylic paints can be used after the ornaments are baked or dried.
To finish each ornament, paint it with a coat of clear varnish, polyurethane or clear nail polish. This coating will protect the dough from moisture.
After Christmas, wrap each ornament with tissue paper and place in a zippered plastic bag and stack lightly in an appropriate-size box lined with tissue paper.
Now, you have started a family tradition with your ornaments. Remember to write the date you made the ornament on the back, wrap and store your ornaments.
Then next year pull them out and showcase them on the tree.
Following this step will help protect the ornaments from damage or bugs while in storage.
Following are the recipes for making dough ornaments:
Bread Dough
1 cup salt
2 cups flour
1 cup water
Food coloring (if desired)
Mix flour and salt in a bowl. Add water a little at a time. Knead dough 7 to 10 minutes until smooth and pliable. Tint after kneading if desired. Shape and bake ornaments at 325° for 30 minutes or until hard.
Glue Dough
3/ 4 cup flour
1/ 4 cup white glue
1/ 4 cup shampoo
Mix and knead well. Shape desired ornaments. Let ornaments air dry.