Salt Dough Crafts for Fall

Dear users, dear authors,
Do you make fall decorations with salt dough?

I used to do a lot of salt dough crafts with the kids, and we had a lot of fun doing it. Unfortunately, it’s a bit tricky to preserve these creations long-term—if you try to store them, they often get soft (I’ve even tried storing them with dry rice) and start to mold. When I was a child, I once made two hanging figures for my grandma; they hung in her kitchen for a long time, but were never taken down and put into storage.

It’s been a loooong time since I last used salt dough, but I didn’t put the items away either—they were year-round decorations in the kitchen. And everything ended up getting rock-hard; maybe you shouldn’t pack it away while it’s still too fresh?

More than 30 years ago, I made Christmas gift tags out of salt dough with my kids.
We painted them and then brushed them with clear varnish. We still have them, and we reuse them every year. This year I’d like to make a few new ones, since some have already broken. But they’ve never gotten soft.