About Clay Christmas Ornaments

Making clay Christmas ornaments provides family entertainment and inexpensive keepsakes. These simple to make ornaments allow individuals to showcase their crafty talents, while creating personalized ornaments. Clay Christmas ornaments make ideal projects for school classrooms or Girl Scout troops, and the perfect gift for teachers and friends. Plus, most of the supplies needed for this project can be found around the house.

Types

When preparing to make clay Christmas ornaments, there are two types of dough that can be used. Flour-based dough combines mostly flour, with salt, water and desired food coloring to create a dough mixture. This dough should be stored in a refrigerator to prevent spoilage and dries quickly. Salt dough combines a more evenly based mixture of flour, salt and water to create a workable dough. This dough can be stored in the refrigerator for about a week.
After the dough is prepared, form it into shapes. Cookies cutters can create some desired shapes. It's a good idea to prepare a list of the shapes or figures you plan to make. A few suggestions include: basketballs, cats, dogs, flowers, golf clubs, letters, stockings and Christmas trees. Determine the purpose of the ornaments beforehand. Are they for a themed Christmas tree, for gifts or just for fun? This helps generate ideas for ornament shapes.

Benefits

One benefit of making clay Christmas ornaments is they last for several years. You don't need to buy new Christmas ornaments every year. Instead, you can inexpensively add to their collection of ornaments year after year. As mentioned above, clay Christmas ornaments are relatively inexpensive to make. Most people can gather arts and craft supplies from around the house to use, purchasing only a few items here and there.
Another benefit is that these ornaments can be made at any point during the year and stored. There is no need to feel the holiday rush when you can create Christmas ornaments in the summer. This provides a great activity for a summer day or a rainy day when the kids can't go outside and play. Creating clay Christmas ornaments offers a great family tradition and gets the children involved with the holidays. It provides quality family time and creates a keepsake for years.

Considerations

When making clay Christmas ornaments, consider personalizing them. This is a great way to show someone you care by giving them a personalized, handmade Christmas ornament. The personalization can be as simple as writing their name and the year, or it can be as detailed as creating an ornament that symbolizes them. For example, perhaps your friend is an expert gardener, consider creating a watering can or their favorite flower as an ornament.
Consider giving clay Christmas ornaments as teacher gifts or gifts for friends. They can also be a nice accompaniment to other gifts. The process of creating ornaments makes a great activity for school classes, Girl Scout troops and other groups. The children can give these ornaments to their parents as Christmas gifts.

Warning

Before beginning to decorate the clay Christmas ornaments, check that the dough is firm and dry. Try drying the ornament shapes in the oven for about 10 minutes on a very low heat. Salt dough ornaments can be placed on a bed of rice to remove excess moisture.
Don't forget to make the hole to hang the ornament. This must be done before drying. Put a wire or paper clip through the top of the ornament or punch a hole with a straw for ribbon to be threaded through.

Expert Insight

Perhaps the most fun of making clay Christmas ornaments is the decoration. Before starting to decorate, make sure to write the year on the back of the ornament. This serves as a nice reminder of when an individual made each ornament. On the front, individuals can use a pencil to sketch an outline of what they'd like to paint. This prevents most mistakes. A few items that can be used to decorate clay Christmas ornaments include acrylic paints, glitter, watercolors, felt-tipped pens, poster paints, ribbon and buttons. Another idea for decorating ornaments includes using a garlic press with some of the dough to create strands for hair, beards or garland for Christmas trees.