Click to read Disney CARS Ornaments made with salt dough on In Lieu of Preschool
Luke has been a huge fan of Disney Cars for a few years now. When I saw Rainy Day Mum’s Quickest Ever Salt Dough recipe and remembered I had William Sonoma’s Cars 2 cookie cutters in my kitchen drawer, I knew it was a match made in heaven that would make my son’s face light up with joy! I couldn’t wait to get started making Disney Cars ornaments for him!
How to Make Disney Cars Ornaments
This project was so simple, yet turned out even cuter than I expected! All I had to do was whip up a batch of Rainy Day Mum’s microwave salt dough using three simple ingredients — flour, salt, and water, quickly knead and roll out the dough, and then use my Cars cookie cutters to make my cars shapes: Lightning McQueen, Mater the Tow Truck, Finn McMissile, and Francesco Bernoulli. We made Jesse Tree ornaments and other gift tags and ornaments at the same time.
I love how, unlike regular cookie cutters, these press details into the dough. I used a skewer to make a hole near the top of the dough shape for later hanging, and dried them in the microwave. This was my second batch of Quickest Ever salt dough and I had to modify the directions of the recipe to work with my microwave. Be sure to read my notes in this post before you begin so that your microwave salt dough doesn’t bubble and burn!!
Once the Cars salt dough had sufficiently hardened and didn’t feel wet anymore, I left them out to cool for a few minutes. Meanwhile, I gathered up my paints. I used acrylic craft paint in just a few colors and mixed the paints to make all the colors I needed. It was fun playing artist during a little “Mommy craft time” of my own. I actually used some of Luke’s real toy CARS cars as models for my painting!
The paint dries pretty quickly — for me, it only took a few minutes per ornament. When they were dry, I coated them with Modge Podge to seal them, which dries in 15-20 minutes (or less). If the hole designed for hanging becomes sealed with paint or Modge Podge, it’s simple to just poke through with a toothpick or push pin.
I laced fishing line through my ornaments and hung them on the Christmas tree with ornament hooks. You could also use these as gift tags by running a ribbon through the hole, and attaching these to Christmas presents or birthday gifts.
My son’s face when he saw the ornaments was priceless. I just love that I could do something for him that he thought was really special!! I’ve told him that he can have the set of ornaments to keep when he is older, and he is very excited about it.
I also made some extra CARS salt dough shapes for the kids to paint to make into ornaments and gift tags.
This was such a fun, cheap, and easy project to do that really turned out spectacular! Definitely keep this in mind for Christmas ornaments and gift tags, as well as for birthday present tags. My son would be happy just playing with them as toys if I’d let him. Perhaps we’ll make another set just for that purpose! 
Update: These Disney Cars ornaments are on their 5th Christmas and still look as good as when I made them! I’ve been so pleased with how they turned out! And BONUS, I have a 2 year old little boy who has become quite the Cars fan over the past few months, so I can’t wait until he gets the chance to see big brother’s ornaments on our Christmas tree this year!
I hope you have enjoyed our Disney Cars Ornaments! Merry Christmas!
Disclosure: I am not affiliated or associated in any way with Williams Sonoma or Disney, nor was I paid to write this post. All the materials used in this post were purchased by me. I only review products on my blog that interest me, my family, and that I think would truly interest and benefit you, my readers. All posts on this blog reflect my personal opinions. Amazon affiliate links are included for your convenience.
Originally published on Dec 5, 2012
The post Disney CARS Ornaments made with salt dough appeared first on In Lieu of Preschool.
