Hello! I am sorry to have kept everyone waiting for my handmade ornament post. It has been so busy around here, I still havent even gotten the newsletters out yet. Hopefully in the next couple of days. :)
So.... here is what I whipped up using a very simple salt and flour recipe.
Recipe and text courtesy of Sunday school idea's website
Ingredients
- 1 c. salt
- 1 c. warm water
- 2 c. flour
Note: use only plain all-purpose flour – don’t use bread flour or self-rising flour
Preparation
Combine flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Slowly add ½ the water while stirring with a fork. Slowly add more water, spoonful at a time and continuing to mix with fork, until it creates a ball of dough that is firm and just soft enough to knead. (The exact amount of water will depend on the moisture content of the flour as well as the general humidity in your home as you prepare the recipe.) Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth.
If used for play, dough will keep indefinitely if stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. However, if you want to create hard-baked designs, remember that the dough will begin to lose its ability to hold fine detail after about an hour. Detailed designs, such as ornaments made for sale, are best modeled right after the dough has been kneaded.
Note: Although all the ingredients are edible, this dough is not food. The salt content is very high, and young children should be strongly discouraged from eating it. Also, keep out of reach of pets: I've read online that dogs that ate the stuff have gotten sick, even died, due to the high salt content of home-made play dough. .
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Be sure and check out this link. There are quite a few other helpful ideas on their website.
we (my sister in-law and I) used a star cookie cutter, and I ended up free handing the birds, candy canes, and a few hearts. I cut the dough with a knife. :) We used acrylic paints, and the foam brushes really worked well to get a base white coat on each ornament. Oh- one other important thing to remember. Poke holes before you bake. We used a straw.
A few of the stars Shaela (my sister in law) painted. I thought they turned out great with the silver.
Here are the birds after painting...
and some hearts. It is amazing how the red and white theme seemed to take on different styles. The stars and stripes reminded me of the fourth of july... and I didnt really want that effect. :)
Here is the tree and a peak at the star garland I created with paper.
another angle...
and a close up of my favorite star. :) These really were fun to make, and it kept us busy allll day. We started early in the day and were still painting into the evening. Of course we had a few "baby Journey" interruptions but nothing too extensive. :)
The star garland was easy, and I still have quite a few stars cut out that need to be strung. I also painted my first holiday sign on wood, and am planning to paint another sign for a family member. Similar... but different then mine. I'll be sure and share when I feel like I can. ;) Well, I am making gifts for my nieces this year and I had best get back to it. I wanted to make time to get this post in. Hopefully it will inspire you to make some of your own handmade ornaments. I have some really good memories of my mom making ornaments when I was younger. Although at the time she was making them because we couldnt afford otherwise. :) She made snowmen out of socks and felt, angels out of scrap material and halos out of tin foil. Several years later she came across the salt dough recipe and we all had another batch of handmade ornaments. This next set were made with cookie cutters and we decorated them with fabric paint. The kind in the little tubes that allow you to make a dot super easy? :) hmmm.... such good memories.
