Salt Dough Footprint Ornaments - Ideas and Inspiration!

If you've got a little one then you should definitely memorialize her little features with salt dough footprint ornaments. They are only little once, so be sure to capture their print with these cute salt dough footprint ornament ideas.

Salt Dough Footprint Ornaments

A few years ago, I made salt dough ornaments with my son. He was about 18 months old and loved every second of squeezing the dough and pressing his little hands and feet into the shapes I'd cut out. The end results were awesome and those salt dough ornaments are some of my most prized Christmas keepsakes. I encourage all parents and caregivers to try making salt dough ornaments with their little ones. We try to make a batch each year to capture those little hands and feet.

To make these cute little ornaments, you'll need to prepare a batch of dough from our salt dough ornament recipe - it makes enough for several handprints or footprints.

The reindeer on the right was one that I'd made with my son a few years ago, but I made a new one with my daughter this year. The penguin and tree designs are new for us, so I figured I'd show them up close in case you'd like to create your own baby footprint Christmas ornaments this year. And, these aren't just for babies! My 5.5-year-old loved making them too!

For these crafts, you'll just need the dough, acrylic paints, an assortment of brushes, and some ribbon.

Get the supplies for salt dough footprint ornaments:

AmazonBasics Silicone Baking Mat - 2 PackApple Barrel Acrylic Paint Set, 18 PiecePaint Brush Set

Penguin Salt Dough Footprint Ornaments

To make this penguin footprint ornament, you'll need to press your little one's footprint into the dough, then bake it according to the direction in our salt dough ornament recipe post (don't forget to poke a hole at the bottom of the footprint so the print will hand upside down).

Once your ornament is baked and cooled, paint the entire surface white to give it a clean look. Then paint the inside of the footprint black, leaving an oval in the middle for the penguin's belly. Be sure to include little flippers, then paint the toes orange. Once your paint has dried, use your orange paint and a small brush to paint a V shape for the beak. You can then either paint eyes or superglue googly eyes. We used googly eyes because my son gets a kick out of them. That's it! Super easy and cute.

Christmas Tree Salt Dough Footprint Ornaments

For the footprint Christmas tree ornament, I started with my daughter's footprint, then cut out a little circle for the star. I imprinted a star shape from a small silicone mold I had on hand, but you could freehand this, or simply skip this step and just paint a star on the top.

I painted the footprint and toes green and the star yellow. Then, I used several different colors to create a string of lights to zig-zag down the tree. Instead of doing this, you could also use your little one's fingerprints to create lights or bulbs all over the tree. I might do that next year.

If you're looking for other salt dough ornament ideas, you've come to the right place!

Check out our other Salt Dough Ornaments:

Salt Dough Ornament Recipe

Also, check out our Trolls ornaments

Dumbo Salt Dough Handprint Ornament

And, our Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Salt Dough Ornaments too!