Tis the season to make things from clay! This recipe is super easy, quick and you can make loads of simple (and cheap) personalised ornaments. Winning. A few years ago a bought some white clay ornaments on Etsy, which say things like ‘Jingle Bells’ and ‘Let It Snow’ – not ideal for a hot Aussie Christmas. So here’s my interpretation…
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Simple Christmas Ornament Dough
1 cup bicarbonate of soda
1/2 cup cornflour
3/4 cup warm water
Mix together the dry ingredients in a pot, then pour in the warm water, stirring it all together. Heat over a medium heat (herein lies my problem, my stove is either on full bore or nothing!) until the mixture starts to come together. It might happen quite quickly (or that could just be my hot stove…) so keep mixing. When it has absorbed all the liquid set it aside to cool.
You can now knead the dough into a ball, it’s a bit like play dough with a lovely soft texture. Roll it out, as thick or as thin as you’d like your ornaments, and get cutting out with some Christmas cookie cutters or just a glass for round ornaments. My Christmas cookie cutters unfortunately aren’t that big, I usually use them for shortbread.
I have this nifty cookie letter press set, I bought mine on eBay but you can get them at kitchenware shops. I can press all sorts of words and phrases onto baked goods. So I got pressing, with Christmas words which mean something to us: joy, faith, believe. I used the end of a paintbrush to poke a hole through so I can attach some ribbon or string and hang the ornaments on the tree.
You can air dry the dough, it will take about a day just at room temperature, or pop them in the oven at about 100 degrees Celsius for an hour. You might have to turn them over half way through.
My mum called me this morning with the usual Christmas job for crafty me: name tags for the Christmas lunch table. Last year I did kraft card gift tags, red baking twine and my vintage alphabet stamp, this year I think I’ll make some more dough ornaments and put all my family’s names on them. They can then keep them as tree ornaments too!
Are you making any Christmas crafts in your house?
George says
Thanks for this great tutorial! I just made a heap of these tags and had lots of fun doing it π
Emma says
No worries – glad you enjoyed making them π
Kim says
Oh gorgeous! These are so lovely! I’ve been making things out of das to sell at the markets – hangy things like yours and some little teeny houses. I wanted to do something similar for our Xmas table – little houses with each person’s name on it. Can’t wait to try the recipe here as the das gets expensive and there’s a limit to it:) Thanks heaps for sharing:) x
Katie says
I was just talking to my husband about how it seems really strange to celebrate Christmas without snow! Like, what about snowflakes, Christmas trees, sled rides – things that are so ubiquitous in the Northern Hemisphere. I know, such a close minded world view!
I made some orange peel garland this week, punched out shapes with metal cookie cutters and strung on some kitchen twine. Simple, shabby chic for in the kitchen.
Emma says
Yes our Christmas is all about summer, seafood, cricket on the beach. Although at my mum’s it can still get quite cold and we’ve been known to have the fire going on Christmas day! And we still do a traditional hot roast lunch. Things like snowflakes and wintery decorations do seem a little out of place though!
Kathy says
I also read that you can get a straw and poke the hole in the top so that it’s a nice neat circle. Depending upon your size of your piece the hole could be too big but just a suggestion I read. Regards Kathy A, Brisbane, Australia
Emma says
Yes I’ve thought that too, didn’t have any straws on hand, but would definitely do that for bigger ones, these are quite small.
Kathy says
We will be making these next week………..I did have some clay as well but this is good for kids. I think the clay tags for lunch are a great idea. I’m keen to get a hold of the letter press thingy. Regards Kathy Aylward, Brisbane, Australia
sharon says
do you get many to that 1 batch of recipe shown above? I’ve got some clay stuff unopened bought from spotlight I was thinking of doing this very thing, and digging out an old doily to press into the clay to make a lovely pattern.
Do these keep permanently? ie do they last or do you toss after a year or two, or after the tree is taken down?
Emma says
I got about ten of these ornaments out of this batch. I had that sculpy clay stuff too that I made the necklace with but this stuff was way better to work with. I’m not sure how well they keep sorry? I’ll get back to you in a few years! They dry fairly hard from the oven. I was going to do the doily thing too, do it π
sharon says
I was in town today, I will need more bi carb if I am going to try this one! Just googling for a slightly different recipe to try out with the kids with the ingredients I might have enough of! thanks!!
Emma says
I thought I’d need more bicarb too but was surprised how much a cup was, volume perception really my forte lol!
Sharyn says
I love them, what a clever idea.