Make an adorable handprint and photo keepsake ornament with your kiddo for your Christmas tree this year or as gifts to family.
Each year I want to add a photo to our Christmas tree ornaments AND a keepsake too, so this year I combined the two: making a handprint AND photo keepsake ornament!
*UPDATE*
7 years later and the handprint keepsakes are still doing fine, no cracking or crumbling!
I used salt dough(after a failed attempt at white baking soda clay, rather don’t ask!) One can use air drying clay too, but I like the texture of salt dough- not to mention it is the frugal option as well!
That is equal amounts of salt and flour(all-purpose) with half the amount of water. For instance: 1 cup of salt PLUS one cup of flour mixed with half a cup of water. Do pour in water bit by bit while mixing, and stop when it becomes dough-like. This was enough dough for these two ornaments and we had leftovers too.
OR, just get this set, follow my instructions and paint it afterward!
We added some red glitter to the dough, although we could have added more. You can also color the dough with food coloring. Add the food coloring to the water before mixing it with flour and salt for even coloring.
The dough was rolled out to 1cm thickness. Then we did the following:
- Press the handprint so it shows clearly.
- Cut around the hand in the shape of a mitten, using a knife.
- Add a cookie cutter shape, we used a star.
- Remove the excess dough.
- Add names and dates, use cookie letter stamp for a neater version.
- Remember to make holes for the string.
Use these letter cookie stamps to add the name and date:
The keepsakes were baked for 3 hours on low heat. You can leave it to air dry, but it will take a few days. I added the photo at the back, by simply gluing it to the back. Add a piece of cardboard to secure the photo and to round it off neatly.
Lastly, a string/ribbon was added to make this keepsake ready to be used as an ornament.
A cute keepsake ornament! We will be hanging ours on the tree, but it will look equally pretty on the wall! Keepsakes make a great gift too! See this Football Keepsake and Heart Keepsake we made as Mother’s Day and Father’s Day gifts! Also, see our keepsake collection with more ideas for all occasions!
Handprint & Photo Heart Keepsake
Salt dough keepsake in the shape of a heart to be used as a photo frame!
Materials
- 1 cup of flour(all-purpose)
- 1 cup of salt(fine)
- 1/2 cup of water
- Glitter(optional)
- pink/red food coloring
Tools
- Childs hand
- Heart cookie cutter
- Knife
- Cookie letter stamps
- Photo
- String
Instructions
- Mix the flour and the salt.
- Add the water and mix well.
- Add the food coloring. If you want to add glitter, do it now.
- Roll dough out, 1 cm thick.
- Use the cookie cutter to cut the heart shape for the photo.
- Press the hands into the dough, around the heart cut-out to make a clear imprint.
- Add the names and date, using cookie stamps to make it more clear .
- Remember to make holes for the string.
- Bake the keepsake for 3 hours at 80'C/160'F.
- Leave overnight to cool off.
- Attach the string and photo to finish it off.
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I did, however, see with another project that damp weather softened the frame so I would recommend spraying your salt dough project with a Clear Varnish to protect it.
Be sure to grab a copy of this Color-in Your Christmas ebook.
You must see our photo ornaments of last year and an explanation of all our decorations!
More cute Christmas ideas to make with the kids:
This is so cute and creative! What a fantastic gift idea as a keepsake.
How do you get the photo tp stay in the middle of the star? Recipe for the salt dough.
Post Updated!
glue it with glue stick gun
I love the idea of a keepsake handprint photo for Christmas. I have actually used salt dough before with red or green food coloring and it turned out great except now they are cracking only a year later. How do you preserve them for so long or are they not supposed to last that long? My son loves to see how his hand has grown over the past few years.
You have to have equal amount of salt to the dough for it to not crack and to keep forever
Is this amount of ingredients make only one ornament?
Nope, two and we had left over
Also, use modge podge to seal it and it will never crumble over time.
Hi ! I have tried this recipe before with all purpose flour and I couldn’t get it to be smooth. It was very grainy no matter what I tried. Am I using the correct dough ? How long did you knead the dough ? Thank you for sharing recipe and reading my comment.
You need to use fine salt. Perhaps give it a whizz in a food processor to make it extra fine.
you need to spray gloss on them to keep forever !!
Do you bake this and put the picture in afterwards or do you let it harden with the picture in it ?
Yes, bake for 3 hours low heat and stick photo on the back afterwards
Thank you
How thin should u role out the dough for the handprint picture christmas ordament
How thin should the salt dough be rolled out for best results and hoe long should we back it for and havr u found a recipe that works good i have a recipie but am unsure how think it should be n how i keep the hand print from bubbling up
The dough should be no thinner than 1 cm. it won’t bubble up.
What is a low temperature?
100’C
Wjay is temp for ovem
100’C
The flour is it self rising or all purpose?
All purpose
How many ornaments would 1 cup of ingredients make?
These 2 were made from one cup, and there was some left over for other small ornaments too!
Does the glitter flake off after baking? Alos, do you grease/spray the pan before baking?
We did not use lots of glitter and it did not flake off. Use a baking sheet, greased side up, on you pan
Mine is too sticky to roll. What did i do wrong?
Add more flour and salt, little by little but equal amounts, until it’s better. Probably too much water
Warm water or cold water
Normal tap water
My mom made salt dough ornaments when I was a baby, 40+ years ago. After fully drying she dipped each one in varnish/shellac. They were kept in tissue paper in cardboard boxes to they could breath.
I never started this with my kids but I am starting it with my grandkids, Thanks you for reminding me of them.
what is the usa conversion of 100 degree Celsius to Fahrenheit please? Also I’m a teacher and would like to do this as a parent gift. If I wanted to do enough ornaments for 25 kids, do you think if I quadrupled the recipe, would the left over dough be enough to make 25? Original one cup recipe said 2 ornaments with leftover dough.
Rather do 8 cups of salt and flour, 4 cups water. Fahrenheit is almost double Celcius, so 200’F I suppose…
Apologies for not answering quicker(I thought I did)
Did you come right?
BEWARE-
if you have pets, someone’s dog ate this and died. It is by coincidence that I noticed their post today about losing a dog who ate this ornament and then a few hours later saw this article.
Please be careful with your pets.
Good point!
I just made these to give as gifts to grandparents! They have turned out great. I would prefer not to paint them, but to use glue to add glitter around the handprint. Have you used anything to preserve these ornaments? I’m wondering if there is a sealant I can spray over the ornament.
Apologies for answering only now.(was offline for a few days) I did not use a sealant, and a year later it is still fine;)
I need to make 12 ornaments. Could I bake more than 2 at a time or a at different temperature?
Apologies, I’ve been offline for a few days. Did you come right? You can bake as many that will fit in the oven;)
Can I use a cinnamon salt dough recipe with this?
Yes, I suppose so
I wanted to know if I can make the dough a day before ?
You can. Just keep it in a ziploc bag.