Salt-Dough Ornaments

I'd seen recipes for salt dough on Pinterest several times, and this past year (summer, I think) decided to try it out. I made Christmas ornaments - three cookie cutter shapes and four stamped words. They didn't turn out anything like the flawless creations pictured on the internet, but their raw feel and brave effort at Christmas cheer tugged at my heartstrings, and instead of adding them to the soil in the garden, I put them in a small plastic tub in my closet to wait for a burst of inspiration.

A few weeks ago, the 'inspiration' (simple as it turned out to be) came, and this morning I grabbed the box of ornaments, Trissy, my craft paints, Dad's brushes, a cup of water, and some newspapers, and we spread out on the kitchen table.

Of the nine ornaments (three of each shape), we ended up painting one for each of Uncle Alvin's oldest daughter's eight kids. We'd wanted to give them a small craft-type Christmas gift, and these turned out so well that we decided these were 'it'. We painted each one a different bright color (except for the two that both ended up being blue); then when the paint dried, I used a tiny brush and painted in the indented words, and Trissy used a silver sharpie (so glad I gave her that job - her handwriting is excellent!) to write each child's name and the year on the back of the ornaments. I strung twine through each of the holes, and they were done! Very raw and simple and sort of rustic. And, in my humble opinion, they turned out very nice!