For my craft project, I decided I wanted to do
a handprint ornament since it was Cameron's first Christmas. Starting
out, I was only going to make one for our tree, but after some thought, I
decided to do some more for some other family members.
I
found an example somewhere on the internet of how to make these, but
now I can't remember where it is at. It's neither here nor there since I
pretty much winged it anyway. :) So here is what you will need for this
project...
- Crayola air-dry clay
- Paint (I used Making Memories "Daiquiri" and some regular white craft paint)
- Paint sponges and brushes
- A paper plate
- A sheet or two of foil
- A sharpie and ink pen
- Ribbon
- A super cute little assistant
Ok, so first thing you are going to want to do is take some of
your clay out and put it on a sheet of foil. The first time I did this, I
did it on my craft mat. It worked ok and was easy to clean, but it was
hard to peel the clay off once I cut out my shapes. I used foil the
second time around and it worked awesome!
Since I don't
have a circle cookie cutter, I used a mug to make my circular shapes.
Now, I will warn you this was almost too small of a circle for my six
month old son's hand, so if you have an older child, I would recommend
using a bowl and making a plaque instead. Still cute, and the
grandparents could keep it out all year 'round.
After
you get your ornaments cut out, you'll need to lasso your assistant and
get his/her handprint embedded into that circle. I went ahead and peeled
off my circles before I got Cam's handprint. To actually get his
handprint I held the clay in my hand while I pressed his chubby little
hand down onto the clay. If you have older kids, it will probably be
easier. Cameron and I had it out on this part. He did NOT want to have
his hand print put into this clay.
Here
is what our ornaments looked like after we were done hand-printing
them. Notice I put them on paper plates to dry. I also used plastic
sandwich baggies. They worked equally as well. Ideally, you would use
wax paper, but I didn't have any of that so I improvised. :) Also, I
used the head of an ink pen to make the little holes that I put the
ribbon through.
Cute, huh?! :) The clay container says
to let it dry at least 24 hours, but I think I waited 2 or 3 days. They
were nice and hard once I started to paint them. I used a sponge brush
(is that what you call it? I'm not artsy...) to paint my base blue color
on. After it dried, I decided the hand print just didn't stand out
enough so I went and bought some white paint and filled in the handprint
with that. Looked so much better!
I
just die every time I see it. SO CUTE! (Even if I do say so myself!)
And it really was THAT easy, I swear! It just took a little bit of time
for them to dry.
I
put the ribbon through the hole and then added Cameron's details on the
back so we (and our parents and grandparents) don't forget! This is
where my sharpie came into the picture. :)
If you have any questions for me, leave them for me in the
comments or send me an email and I will answer!
Originally posted to my Cameron Crazy Mom blog. Brought here courtesy of me. :)
