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 Everlasting
Gingerbread!
If you need some last minute ornament or gift ideas...you've found them! We made a bunch of ornaments using brown polymer clay, beads and some three-dimensional paint in record time! It's so easy to create these cute creations that even your kids can join in! Get ready for some last minute holiday fun! Materials:
Directions: The first thing you need to do, is knead your polymer clay so it's soft and can be rolled out to about 1/4" thickness. Rather than trying to roll out a large sheet, we simply rolled out sheets big enough to cut out two shapes at a time. Once your clay is rolled out, you need to cut out your "cookie" shapes.
We used very inexpensive plastic cookie cutters in three different shapes
that were about 2" tall.
For more of a frosting effect, after you have baked your polymer
pieces, try using three dimensional paint! Most importantly, have fun and enjoy your new ornaments! |
| Cinnamon Dough Christmas
Ornaments
This is a great craft to do with kids or without them. Your house will smell like cinnamon for days. Since you will need a large amount of cinnamon, I recommend going to your local bakery. Sometimes they will sell it to you by the pound. I paid $4 per pound at my local bakery. ¼ pound is equal to about one cup of cinnamon. That adds up to two cups of dough and 15-25 ornaments (depending on the size you make them). These ornaments will keep their scent for years, if you are careful with them. They will break, so wrap them carefully and store them in plastic bags to keep the smell. Materials 1) One cup of cinnamon 2) One cup of applesauce (I use unsweetened) 3) Wax paper (freezer paper or parchment paper will also work) 4) Rolling pin 5) Cookie Cutters in assorted shapes and sizes 6) Spray paint and Acrylic paint (optional) 7) Paintbrush (if you use acrylic paint) 8) ¼ inch satin ribbon Step By Step
Step 1: Mix cinnamon and apple sauce in a bowl. I would leave a little of each ingredient on the side so you can add applesauce if the mixture is too dry and cinnamon if it is too wet. If it crumbles easily, you need more applesauce. If it sticks to your hands, you need more cinnamon. Step 2: Once you get the dough to a consistency you are comfortable working with, place the dough onto a sheet of wax paper. Roll it out to at least ¼ inch thickness. Step 3: Use the cookie cutters to cut out your ornaments. Step 4: If the dough starts to become dry while you are working with it simply wet your hands and knead the dough a little. This should help. Step 5: Use the tip of a pencil to poke holes in the tops of the ornaments. Make sure the hole goes all the way through and is big enough for your ribbon. Step 6: If you have made all the ornaments, but still have some dough left over; place it in a zip lock plastic bag with a couple of drops of water. Get as much air out of the bag as possible and seal it tight. This must be stored in the refrigerator. The applesauce in the dough will cause it to mold after a few days (this doesn't happen to the ornaments because they are allowed to dry in the open air, not kept in a moist container). Step 7: Leave the ornaments out to dry. This can take a couple of days, or a week, depending on their thickness and the humidity where you live. It may help to turn them over after the top has dried. When dry, the ornaments change to a much lighter color. Step 8: When they are
dry, you can spray paint them if you wish. The ornament absorbs the paint
and changes the color, if you start out with bright red, it changes to
a lovely brick red. If you use bright green, it turns a dark forest green.
The paint smell will fade after a couple of days, but the
Step 9: Thread a 3"
piece of ribbon through the hole. Tie a knot at the top and the ornaments
are ready to go on the tree.
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Now comes
the fun part...beads! In the image to the left, we simply outlined
the cut out polymer shapes with seed beads, but you can get much more creative
with them! The trick is being able to control where the beads go.
Try using a tweezers or toothpick to pick up and place the seed beads in
the spot you want and push them into the clay so they don't pop off when
they are baked. The seed beads in all our pictures are 11/0 Czech
seed beads from 
The image on the right has a pattern of opaque red and white, plus a few
of our 
You can combine beads with three-dimensional paint like we did in our above
gingerbread house, or use the three-dimensional paint all by itself as
shown to the left! For those of you who want a more complex challenge,
try creating clothing with seed beads, larger beads and paint! 
Our last little pair to the right took the most time of all, but they were
well worth the work!