Painting Salt Dough (2024)

FAQs

What kind of paint do you use on salt dough? ›

What kind of paint do you use on Salt Dough Ornaments? Acrylic paint is the best for painting on salt dough. It's water based and will wash off your hands easily for quick cleanup. It also rinses out of brushes easily.

Ingredients for Salt Dough Ornaments

You'll only need flour, salt and water to make your ornaments. We do recommend sealing them when they are finished painting. You can seal with either a mod podge or a clear glaze spray.

Paint: Use acrylic paints. Don't mess around with tempera. Acrylic is archival and the ornaments will look beautiful when you take them out year-after-year.

Salt dough is a simple dough made from flour, salt and water. It is hardened by baking in the oven, or microwaving, and then can be used for handprints/footprints, Christmas ornaments and even sculptures. It can be sealed using varnish or polyurethane, painted with acrylic paint or hand dyed using food coloring.

Once you've formed your salt dough, you can cook the creations in the oven to make them set. Once baked, they will harden and can be painted and decorated after they cooled down!

Consider using a bottom paint that is good in both fresh water and salt water. All of Sea Hawk Paints , Blue Water, Pettit or Interlux bottom paints are good for either types of waters and are considered both fresh water bottom paint and salt water bottom paint.

STEP 2: Add glue to outline your shapes. STEP 3: Then add a good amount of salt onto the glue and carefully pour the excess salt off. STEP 4: Let the glue and salt dry. STEP 5: Mix a few tablespoons of water with your choice of food coloring to make your watercolor paint.

Before baking the ornaments, press rubber stamps into the dough with holiday greetings, the year or even the names of loved ones. If you like to pay attention to every little detail, a fine-point marker is the perfect tool for the job (we like to use Sharpie Fine Point Permanent Markers).

How to Preserve Salt Dough Ornaments. To help preserve your finished dried ornaments, you can coat with a layer or two of Mod Podge or spray with a sealer. Either work well. I'd recommend coating or sealing both sides, so do one side and let it dry, and then do the second side.

What kind of paint do you use for raised salt painting? We like liquid watercolors but you could also use watered down food coloring, or watered down tempera paint.

Do you need to varnish salt dough? ›

Modge podge works great as a sealer and you can also buy craft varnish (glossy or mat) to seal dough. On its own will last up for a long time without sealing too, if you handle it properly! Sealing will add a nice look to them though, especially if you want them to be glossy.

The short answer is yes. You can rebake salt dough.

Out of season, store salt dough ornaments as you would store your most prized heirlooms and collectibles: by avoiding heat, humidity, and moisture. If you have multiples, layer them between sheets of wax paper (never tissue, which can stick to them in the heat) and store them in a sturdy box.

If you find that your oven has the lowest temperature of above 150C then I would advise you to air dry your salt dough creations which will take considerably longer but will prevent the puffing up. It may also puff up if you have used self-raising flour instead of plain or all-purpose flour.

The great thing about it is that the salt dough sculptures will harden if you leave them out to dry at room temperature. Depending on the size of the pieces, it will take 2 to 7 days to dry completely. Turn the pieces from time to time for faster drying.

We took a simple salt dough ornament and dipped it in nail polish to create a marble effect. You can easily customize what colors you want to marble your ornaments in as well as the shape of your ornaments by using various cookie cutters.

Acrylic paints form the best kind of waterproof membrane for exterior finishing. They are known to resist all sorts of water and moisture damage and will last the longest.

Salt is corrosive, which means that it, can eat into your paint over time. If it's left unattended, over time, salt could lead to rust on your undercarriage and of course paint damage.

Efflorescence appears as a result of salt being pushed to the surface of masonry. It's a painting issue that's easily overcome by the use of Zinsser Watertite®.

Can You Do Salt Painting With Sugar? Yes, you can use sugar instead of salt to paint. The watercolor will spread out on sugar in different patterns and leave a glossy finish behind. Give it a try to see the difference.

What is the purpose of salt painting? ›

The Science Behind The Salt Painting Science Experiment:

The salt absorbs or soaks up the water through a chemical action. Salt is hygroscopic which means that it can absorb both liquid water and water vapor in the air. This Salt Painting Science Experiment is a fun way to combine art and science together.

Salt is hygroscopic, which means it can absorb both liquid and water vapor in the air. This fun activity is a great way to learn more about absorption. The salt we sprinkle on our glue design in this activity absorbs the water (and paint color) through a chemical reaction.

We've even melted down crayons and made crayon floam dough for a super fun sensory dough. Today, we're sharing our latest crayon experiment: Crayon Salt Dough! This salt dough recipe is a version of our crayon play dough that is tinted with the wax of crayons, giving it a bright and bold hue.

Wrap them in tissue paper or newspapers and store them in a cool, dry place. The most common way for salt dough ornaments not to last – is them getting mouldy, due to storing them incorrectly! You can also add varnishes as finishing touches, which will also help preserve your Salt Dough Ornaments.

Easy Salt Dough Recipe

You can add food colouring to it but I find the white dough cleaner to work with. Food colouring can make it stain surfaces. Plus, you get to paint the salt dough ornaments once dry so it extends the fun. As you can see, Mijka loved the whole process!

Instead of acrylics or puffy paint, try decorating baked and cooled shapes with watercolors. The trick with watercolor paints is to use just a tiny bit of water and lots of paint, so that you don't soak the salt dough. Watercolor paint gives these ornaments a lovely, muted look.

After baking our salt dough stars in the oven for a few hours at a low temperature we painted them using gold acrylic paint. Once dry we added a layer of mod podge sealer. We printed out some small photographs and glued them to the back of the star frames.

Salt Dough with Glitter

So many salt dough recipes call for food coloring, but I was not interested in getting fingers (and who knows what else) stained with food coloring during this craft. Instead of food coloring, I opted for glitter in our salt dough recipe. It was the perfect addition!

I used watered down washable paint, but regular water color is very good as well. I had the kids use eye droppers to put the water on the salt because I wanted them to pinch. They did get a little carried away with the water.

While Sea Salt paint is green, often it can look rather blue, depending on the lighting. This tends to happen when the room faces the West. It's also the case in North-facing rooms where the sunlight is more diffuse. Even in those cases, it remains a blue green paint color.

What does adding water to acrylic paint do? ›

Water breaks down the binder in acrylic, thinning the paint so that it looks like watercolor and allows it to sink into the surface, resulting in a matte finish. Acrylic medium minimizes the need for the addition of water and allows the paint to sit on top of the surface, maintaining a rich, glossy appearance.

If an acid like vinegar was poured onto wet acrylic the pH would be altered and there most likely would be acrylic shock that occurs. This may granulate the paint and would definitely weaken the physical properties causing less resistance to water, and solvents in the future.

Says adding a spoonful of sugar to the painting water will extend the drying time and prevents hard edges and irregularities in un-derpaintings, flat washes, and gradations.

The dough will last for a long time in an airtight container kept in the fridge. Mix the salt and flour together, and gradually add the water until the dough becomes elastic, then add the vegetable oil. If the mixture is too sticky, add more flour, if it's too dry, add more water.

The great thing about it is that the salt dough sculptures will harden if you leave them out to dry at room temperature. Depending on the size of the pieces, it will take 2 to 7 days to dry completely. Turn the pieces from time to time for faster drying.

Salt dough ornaments should also be stored properly in a dry and well-ventilated area. They could become moldy if left in contact with moisture for a long time, for example, if hung on a cold, damp wall.

Once ornaments are dry you get to seal them with a clear coat of spray paint and add the ribbon!

You don't want to let the dough get dried out before you've had a chance to roll it! This works best when left naturally colored or colored with food coloring. I don't recommend making it ahead of time if adding acrylic paint.

How Long do Salt Dough Ornaments Last? If you preserve your ornaments properly, salt dough can last for years. I have some dough ornaments from my childhood, so they would be at least 35 years old. They are still in great condition and there's been no disintegration whatsoever!

You also can reuse excess dough up to two times. Simply knead excess together, re-roll the dough and cut cookies.

Does salt dough attract bugs? ›

That said, make sure your ornaments are thoroughly dry before storing them to help prevent mold or any other degradation of your completed craft. And store in a dry place. Do salt dough ornaments attract bugs? Over many years of making DIY salt dough ornaments, I've never experienced these attracting bugs of any kind.

What kind of paint do you use on Salt Dough Ornaments? Acrylic paint is the best for painting on salt dough. It's water based and will wash off your hands easily for quick cleanup. It also rinses out of brushes easily.

Salt Dough Ornaments are always fun to make, but CINNAMON SALT DOUGH ORNAMENTS are even better!! They're my favorite DIY Christmas craft. In addition to smelling AMAZING, Cinnamon Ornaments have a beautiful, natural, rustic look that doesn't even need to be decorated or altered in any way.

Let cool fully before painting. If you want to paint the background of a handprint ornament, do that before you paint the inside of the hand. Let dry before adding a second color. Use regular acrylic paint for older kids who can be trusted with paint and washable tempera paint with younger toddlers.

If the paint is too wet it seeps through the paper and makes drying very difficult. – Gently tap the salt with the paintbrush, this will allow it to spread and prevent the salt from coming off onto the brush. – Let the salt paint dry for at least 2 nights.

So, when baking soda is combined with paint it immediately creates a really cool reaction. Your paint starts to rise and fluff up and becomes more textured than it was before. The more baking powder you use, the more fluffy your paint becomes.

Mix Your Paint

Begin by mixing eight ounces of flat paint in your desired base color, one tablespoon kosher salt and three tablespoons plaster of Paris. The end result should be a thick but workable consistency. Once mixed, use water to thin as needed.

If you find that your oven has the lowest temperature of above 150C then I would advise you to air dry your salt dough creations which will take considerably longer but will prevent the puffing up. It may also puff up if you have used self-raising flour instead of plain or all-purpose flour.

Modge podge works great as a sealer and you can also buy craft varnish (glossy or mat) to seal dough. On its own will last up for a long time without sealing too, if you handle it properly! Sealing will add a nice look to them though, especially if you want them to be glossy.

We found that acrylic paint works best, but you could also colour them with felt-tip pens, glitter or festive stickers. Leave to dry. To finish, loop the ribbon through the hole and tie at the top, ready to hang on the tree.