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Cinnamon Salt Dough Leaf Ornaments

October 13, 2014 by Anna Ranson

Make some salt dough leaf ornaments using Autumn spice scented  salt dough and leaf cutters. A lovely activity for kids to make into decorations for Autumn and which smell lovely for ages!

Salt dough leaves

We recently made this lovely Autumn Spice Salt Dough recipe to match the colours of some leaves we had collected (click link to read those full instructions.) Autumn spices salt dough recipe

We set it out with rolling pins and leaf cutters to create some salt dough leaf ornaments to decorate the house.

I found the leaf cutters here.

Invitation to create leaf models with autumn spice salt dough

They rolled and cut lots of different shaped leaves, using the three colours of salt dough and began to mix some of them together, which created beautiful results too.

We used a small straw to poke a hole in the top of each one before heating,  so that we could hang them up later.Cinnamon salt dough leaf

We popped them onto a flat baking sheet and heated them in the oven for 3 hours at around 120 degrees Celcius (that’s approx 240 degrees F). I don’t have a fan oven so you could reduce this a little more if you do too.

The idea for salt dough to harden is that the oven dries it out, not cooks it. You need to keep the models thin (1 cm and under is best) and the oven on a warm but not hot temperature, so that they don’t rise.

If they are still doughy in the middle after the allotted time, simply turn them over and heat again for another hour or so.

Cinnamon salt dough leaf models

Once dry and hard we threaded some embroidery silk through the holes and hung them on our little tree branch that we use for decorating. The leaves smell wonderful and each one is different!

You can paint the finished models or add a layer of varnish/ mod-podge to seal them if you want to, but it isn’t vital.Cinnamon salt dough autumn leaves

 What they are learning while they play:

creativity: using materials to create 3-D models, mixing colours

science: combining dry materials and turning them into something new, observing materials turn from soft to hard due to heat

Search the full Autumn archives here!

And find my Autumn Play and Learning Board here on Pinterest for great ideas found around the web!

Follow Anna @ The Imagination Tree’s board Autumn Play and Learning on Pinterest.

[This post contains an Amazon affiliate link for your convenience.]

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  • Autumn Leaf CollageAutumn Leaf Collage

Filed Under: Age, Art, Art, Art and Craft, Craft, Create, Creativity, Fall, Learn, Leaves, Make, Model Making, Ornaments, Play Recipes, Preschooler, Salt Dough, Scented Play, School Age Tagged With: Autumn, Fall, Play Recipes

« Autumn Leaves and Gems Colour Sorting Activity
Top 15 Fine Motor Toys and Resources »

Comments

  1. Jessica says

    October 14, 2014 at 8:17 pm

    These are gorgeous! Perfect solution for finishing off our autumnal tree. Thanks for sharing.

  2. Amanda Ralph says

    October 15, 2014 at 9:27 am

    Lovely ideas! We made our leaves with ordinary play dough, pushed them gently into baking tins (muffin tins) to make a deep leaf shape and then painted them once baked and dry. Make lovely little candle holders! Link with photos at http://earlyyearsinsider.tumblr.com/post/99048320197/autumn-leaf-craft

Trackbacks

  1. Autumn Salt Dough Leaves | Little Star and Me says:
    October 23, 2014 at 8:04 am

    […] various bits and pieces for it. Last weekend we made some cinnamon salt dough leaves using this tutorial from The Imagination Tree. We made up the dough together and Seren helped by mixing the dry ingredients. I told her we were […]

  2. Deliciously Smelling DIY Cinnamon Salt Dough Leaf Ornaments | Kidsomania says:
    October 23, 2014 at 6:27 pm

    […] If you love the smell of cinnamon as much as I do, you gonna love this fall craft, too! It’s a great activity for kids and as a result fall decorations, which smell lovely for ages. To make autumn salt dough you’ll need 1 cup plain flour, 1 cup salt, 1 cup warm water, food coloring in yellow, orange and red, 1 tsp nutmeg, 1 tbsp cinnamon. In a nutshell, you need to make different balls of dough, add in the cinnamon, roll out the balls and cut leaf shapes. To hang them up later you also need to poke a hole before heating. Read the full instructions at theimaginationtree.com. […]

  3. Sunday Smorgasbord 10/26/2014 - Kiki(verde) Handmade says:
    October 26, 2014 at 2:03 pm

    […] Must gather leaves and paint them. Or just make some leaf ornaments out of autumn-scented salt dough. […]

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About The Imagination Tree Hello and welcome! I'm Anna, Mama of 4, early years teacher and play enthusiast from the UK! Click here to read more about me.

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