holiday clay ornaments

I know that many of you are just as addicted to Pinterest as I am. I have endless ideas and inspiration pinned so that I can go back and make it all someday. Here's one project that I put into action - type "clay ornaments" into the search on Pinterest and so many examples pop up. I pulled out some oven bake clay, stamps, and some shimmer paint and took the afternoon to make up some ornaments perfect for hanging on the tree or attaching to gifts for the season...

Some of the supplies that you are going to need for this project include: oven bake clay (I used Sculpey, but there are other brands out there. You might even consider using an air dry clay as well), a round cookie cutter, stamps, a small rolling pin (I used a marker for this), a straw, some shimmer paint & brush (optional.)

The first thing that you need to do is work or condition the clay. Sculpey is pretty firm and so expect this to take just a bit. You want the clay to be pliable and smooth.

Then roll the clay out evenly. This is where I used a marker from my girls craft supplies as my rolling pin. Turn the clay over periodically as you roll it out.

Use the cookie cutter to cut out your shape for the ornament.

Next, stamp your desired images into the clay. I used acrylic stamps and one thing I found was that to keep the clay from sticking to the stamp, dampen the surface of the stamp just a bit with a damp cloth. Remember that if you mess up, you can just roll your clay out again and redo it!

One package of Sculpey clay, which costs about $2.49, gave me about 3 ornaments that are about 2 1/2" in diameter.

I used the straw to add a hole to the top of the ornament.

Next, bake the ornaments in the oven on a cookie sheet lined with foil. Follow the instructions for baking temperature and time for the particular clay that you choose to use.

After the ornaments were baked and cooled, I painted them with a shimmer paint. You could experiment here with a pigment powder or glitter too. You also might consider using a spray finish of some sort over the top to seal everything up.

I added some ribbon and a button to finish my ornaments.

And they are now ready for hanging from the tree or attaching to a gift for the holidays! A project like this is one that is easy enough to do with your friends and family, so make sure you add a crafting night into your schedule to enjoy crafting with friends and family!

Supplies:

Stamped Clay Christmas Ornaments

stamps: Peace be Still, Snowfall (Papertrey Ink)

other: Pure Poppy grosgrain ribbon, Scarlett Jewel button, Rustic Jute button twine, white Sculpey clay (Polyform Products), frost white shimmer paint (Tsukineko), cookie cutter (my kitchen)