This guide uses stock photographs for illustration. It is general planning guidance, not a record of a tested personal project. How these guides are made.
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Sort these by the time you have, not by how they look. Two are on the tree within the hour, two need overnight, and one needs the better part of a week. Every time estimate below is for a first attempt.
One rule applies to all of them: make the hanging hole before the piece dries. Drilling or punching finished salt dough, clay or dried fruit splits it, and that is the single commonest way a batch gets ruined at the last step.
Ready within the hour
Wax-dipped leaves and seed heads. Stand a jug of plain candle wax in a pan of gently simmering water until it melts; direct heat on the jug will scorch it. Wait for the first skin to appear at the surface, then dip and lift in one movement and hang the leaf to set. Two minutes each, and the wax keeps the colour and stiffens the leaf enough to hang. Beech, oak and bay all work; anything already brittle will not.
Twine-wrapped baubles. A plain or tired bauble, a length of garden twine and a glue gun. Start at the cap, run a thin line of glue and wind the twine down in a continuous spiral, pressing as you go. It covers scratched finishes, costs almost nothing, and gives a texture that catches tree lights far better than a flat surface. About ten minutes each once you have the knack.
Cut brass or card shapes. Simple bold outlines — a star, a tree, an arch. Anything thinner than about 3mm visually closes up at a distance, which is the same lesson as cutting paper for lanterns in the Halloween projects guide.
Ready tomorrow
Salt dough. Two parts plain flour, one part fine salt, one part warm water, mixed and kneaded for about five minutes until smooth. Roll to roughly 6mm — thinner warps, thicker never dries through.
Cut the shapes, make the hanging hole now with a drinking straw, and bake at the lowest setting the oven has, around 80 to 100°C, for three to four hours. Turn them once. A normal baking temperature is the reason most salt dough fails: the outside sets, the inside stays wet, and the piece puffs and then cracks.
Leave them overnight before painting or sealing. Unsealed salt dough reabsorbs moisture from the air over a few years, so a coat of matt varnish is what makes them last.
Air-dry clay. Faster to work than salt dough and more forgiving. Roll to about 5mm, stamp or press botanicals into the surface for texture, cut, and make the hole. Air-dry clay shrinks slightly as it sets, so make the hole a little larger than the cord needs.
Leave flat on a wire rack for 24 hours, turning once, so both faces dry at the same rate. Drying one side only is what makes them curl.
Ready in about a week
Dried citrus slices. The best of the lot, and the slowest. Slice oranges to about 4mm — thinner than feels right — and blot both sides hard with kitchen paper.
Lay them on baking paper without overlapping and put them in the oven at its lowest setting with the door propped slightly ajar so moisture can escape. Three to four hours, turning hourly. They are ready when the flesh is translucent and leathery rather than tacky anywhere.
Then leave them somewhere dry and airy for several more days before they go anywhere near a box. Slices cut too thick, or boxed while any moisture remains, go mouldy within the week. Stored in paper they keep for years, and they scent the box they live in.
Keep the batch to one palette
This is what separates a tree that looks made from one that looks like three separate craft afternoons.
Pick a narrow range before you start — natural and brass, or white and bone, or green and twine — and apply it across everything regardless of technique. Wax leaves, clay shapes and dried citrus made to one palette sit together on a tree. The same pieces in assorted colours do not.
The discipline is the same one that holds a mantel together in the three-height method: a base, a middle and one accent, and nothing outside them.
Hanging and storing
Thread before drying, without exception. Garden twine, baker’s string, thin leather cord and florist’s wire all work, and most of them look better than ribbon.
Hang the fragile things high, above where a cat or a small child reaches. Thin glass and dried fruit both break into pieces you will be finding in February.
Store in paper, in a rigid box. Dried citrus in a paper bag, never plastic, which traps the last of the moisture and finishes it. Wrap clay and salt dough separately so edges do not chip against each other.
For where the finished pieces end up, the window guide covers hanging a row of shapes without marking the frame, and the Christmas centrepiece guide covers working them into the table rather than only the tree.
Still wondering
Common questions
Why did my salt dough ornaments puff up and crack?
The oven was too hot. Salt dough wants a very low temperature over several hours — around 80 to 100°C — so the water leaves slowly. At a normal baking temperature the surface sets before the inside dries, which is what makes it puff and then crack.
How do I stop dried orange slices going mouldy?
Slice thinner, to about 4mm, and blot both sides hard before they go in. Thick slices never dry through, and the moisture left in the centre is what goes mouldy a week later. Turn them hourly and store in paper, never plastic.
What can I use instead of a ribbon loop?
Garden twine, baker's string, thin leather cord or florist's wire all work and several look better than ribbon. Thread it through before the piece dries, because making a hole in finished salt dough or clay will split it.
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