DIY Cinnamon Ornaments for your tree, wreath and garland!

Hello!

This week we're continuing with some fun Christmas prep by experimenting with cinnamon ornaments. If you can remember way back, you may have made these in an elementary school class.  Now you can make a big batch for yourself and use them to decorate your home and create the best aromatherapy for anyone lucky enough to visit you! :)

I started with a recipe for the dough from Martha Stewart's Handmade Holiday Crafts, then decorated the ornaments with some gold paint.  You can use the technique to make ornaments for trees and smaller ornaments to decorate wreaths and garlands.

So, here we go!

What you'll need:
-Ground cinnamon (1 cup)
-Applesauce (1/4 cup)
-Craft glue (~1/2 cup)
-Rolling pin
-Cookie cutters, X-acto knife
-Wire cooling rack, paper towels
-Skewer or straw to make holes for hanging
-Ribbon or twine for hanging
-Paint/paintbrushes for decorating (optional)

This is a great project to make with friends or the kids in your life... get your supplies and have fun!



Step 1: In a large mixing bowl, mix the cinnamon and apple sauce using a rubber spatula.*  This is more about proportions than exact measurements, so work with the amounts of applesauce and cinnamon until you get a play-dough-like consistency. (I used about 2 cups of cinnamon and a little over 1/2 cup of applesauce.) I added the glue once I was mostly satisfied with the consistency, and I didn't add quite as much as was called for in the recipe. 
*NOTE: It will more than likely be easier for you to combine the ingredients with your hands.  Just know that the cinnamon can irritate/burn your hands, so wash your hands frequently!  I would also suggest, if you're making this with kids, that you be the one to mix and manipulate the dough. 

Learn from my mistake.  Start with a BIG mixing bowl.  This little blue bowl didn't cut it. :) 

Add more applesauce as needed.

The dough is starting to come together.... and my hands are feeling the burn.

Craft glue added!

Step 2: Once you're happy with the dough, roll it out (1/4 to 1/2 of the dough at a time) on a very clean surface.  If the dough is too sticky, sprinkle more cinnamon on the dough or on your surface.  Roll it out to ~1/4" thick.

Step 3: Use cookie cutters or an X-acto knife and template of your choosing to cut out your ornaments.  Make sure to use a straw or skewer to make a hole for hanging.  I cut several different shapes, but decided to use a small holly leaf-shaped cutter for the majority of the ornaments.  (I used those for a garland and wreath embellishment.)

Step 4: I used an off-set spatula to take the ornaments off of the counter and place them on a wire cooling rack lined with paper towels.  Let them air dry for ~24 hours.  The wire rack is important for air circulation.  I left mine on a baking sheet overnight, and they didn't dry at all; so, take a lesson from my mistake! :)
After air drying the ornaments, I did read you could bake these at 200 degrees for about two hours, flipping them after one hour.  So try whatever works for you! 

The ornaments will lighten in color as they dry.  If you look at that skewer, you can see that the edges are drying on that ornament, but the center is still wet.  This is when patience would be helpful for me. :)

Step 5: Decorate!  You guys probably know I'm a fan of gold, so this should be no surprise to you.  I used my favorite "Antique Gold" acrylic paint and some fine brushes to do a little embellishing.

Step 6: When your pieces are decorated to your satisfaction, it's time for hanging!  I used a yarn needle and some butcher's twine to make the hanging a little easier.  If you made a big enough hole for hanging, this should be an easy step.  

For Christmas tree ornaments: Hang each ornament separately and decorate your tree, or give them as gifts!

For a garland: Use butcher's twine to string up as many ornaments as you'd like!  I used this holly leaf ornament garland over a faux-greenery garland to add some color and aroma to the stairs. :)  I just wrapped the twine around the little branches of the greenery.  This would be so pretty on a mantle! (or anywhere a garland can go!) ;)

For a wreath: I used ornament hangers, (you could use any wire or paper clips), to hold the small ornaments and secure them to a wreath.  This is a wreath I already had in the attic, but you could take this idea and run with it for any wreath!  If you make enough small ornaments, maybe you could make an entire wreath with them, using a wire or styrofoam wreath form!  Go crazy. :)

Wouldn't it be nice to smell cinnamon each time you opened the door? :)

Ok, that's it for this week!  Go buy some cinnamon in bulk, and have fun!

Clay Ornaments-- 2 Ways

Hello lovely people!

I've had a busy but wonderful October, and am now officially ready to settle into my FAVORITE time of year!

I can hear my husband saying, "Too soon." But hey, is it ever too soon to celebrate Jesus' birth? I think not. ;)

I've been dreaming of turkey, stuffing and sweet potato casserole for weeks. :)  Mmmmmm.

In addition to my festive food dreams, this is also the time of year that I try to get started on brainstorming ideas for Christmas crafting. :)

This month, we're going to ease into the Christmas season by making ornaments!  I'm going to try to work on a different kind of ornament each week.  Making and/or gifting an ornament is one of my favorite ways to celebrate something that happened that year.  They also make great gifts for teachers, co-workers and friends. :)

This week I made ornaments using polymer clay and used Sharpies and paint pens to decorate pre-made, plain, ceramic ornaments from the craft store.

So, here we go!

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Sharpie-Decorated Ceramic Ornaments

First, let's look at decorating ceramic ornaments.  You've probably seen ceramic mugs on Pinterest that people have decorated and baked to make the ink permanent.

See?

I love this idea.  The bonus with making a Sharpie ornament rather than a mug is that  your final product should have no trouble standing the test of time, since you'll never need to put it in the dishwasher. :)

What you'll need:

-Store-bought ceramic ornaments 

**(Bonus, EVERYTHING Christmas-related is 50% off at Hobby Lobby right now.)**

-Sharpies and paint pens

-Twine or ribbon for hanging

Ok, this is as easy as it sounds!

Start by cutting the plastic ribbon/tag off of your ceramic ornament.

Time to decorate!

Now, the details here are absolutely up to you.  You can look at examples of patterns or designs you like, and just get started with your Sharpies and paint pens.  For this angel ornament, I used a stamp and traced over the stamped design with a paint pen to make it more substantial.

Then I used a Sharpie to make a vine pattern around the edges.

The sky is the limit here, and don't forget to use the sides and back of your ornament!

Here are some other examples:

See what I mean about commemorating special events in friends' lives? (And no,  I did not make this for myself.) :)

FRONT

SIDES

BACK

***For some other great 

ornament decorating ideas, 

check out

this post by "Eyeballs By Day, Crafts By Night" blog.

Now comes the scary part.  Baking. :)

Note: Baking the ceramic pieces sets the ink and makes the work permanent, but if you're nervous about it, I actually think you could skip it.  If you're not tough on your Christmas ornaments, I'm pretty sure they would be fine!  You could also just spray them with a clear acrylic spray to protect your work. :)

I decided to give the baking a try.  I placed each ornament on a rimmed baking sheet and propped it up on the rim to avoid direct heat on either the front or the back.  I'm not sure if this was completely necessary, but I was playing it safe. :)

 BAKE AT 350 FOR 30 MINUTES

After biting my fingernails for 30 minutes,  here they are!

The ornaments look exactly as they did when I put them in the oven! I know the picture is blurry, but the color of the ceramic did not darken at all after baking.  The only downside to baking these was that some of the white ink I used faded.  Otherwise, everything looked fine!

After the ornament cooled, I touched up the white polka dots a little bit. :)

Make sure you give them plenty of time to cool before you touch anything. :)

All you need now is festive ribbon or string, and your ornaments are done!

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DIY Polymer Clay Ornaments

Now, let's look at how to make your own ornaments with polymer clay!

What you'll need:

-Polymer clay (I used white "Sculpey" clay from the craft store.)

-Something to roll out the clay (I used a marker.) ;)

-Cookie cutters or exacto knife for cutting out shapes

-Stamps, if desired, for making impressions into the ornaments

-Baking sheet

-Acrylic paint, if desired, for decorating finished ornaments

-String/ribbon for hanging

First, check out the baking instructions on your clay wrapper, in case they differ from the brand I used.

Make sure you have a clean work surface*, then roll out your dough to your desired thickness.  (Baking time will increase for each additional 1/4" of thickness.)

*Note: If there is anything on your hands or on your surface, it will stick to your clay.  Hopefully you don't have to learn the hard way, like I did. ;)

Once your dough is ready, use a cookie cutter to cut out your shapes.  You could also use a template of a shape you like, and use an exacto knife to cut it out.   (You can also branch out from ornaments and make cute Christmas gift tags with the same process!)

Carefully place the clay shapes on a baking sheet.

Now, this is the part I like about making your own ornament with clay.  You can make impressions with stamps to "engrave" words or create patterns.  You could also use fabric, lace or anything to create a neat texture on the clay.  Have fun!

I used stamps to write the year or "Merry Christmas," but you would write any message! After a few failures with this round, I have some ideas for things to try in the future.  :)  (I think the best ideas come from trial and error.) :)

"Our First Christmas"... wedding gift idea!

Use a straw, skewer, crochet hook or something in that family to cut out a hole for hanging.

Once you have your ornaments ready on your baking sheet, bake them according to the directions on your packaging.  For this clay, I baked it @275 for about 30 minutes.  Most of my ornaments were more than 1/4" thick.

When you take the clay out of the oven, it will still be somewhat pliable.  Give it time to cool completely; once it is cool, the ornaments will be firm.

Now, if you're happy with your ornaments, you can add string and be done!

Since my workstation was not completely clean, some of the clay had strange spots or marks from projects of Christmas-past.  ... Not super attractive.

So, I decided to use some festive acrylic paint to cover the white clay.  This also helped the "engravings" to stand out from the rest of the ornament.  (I cut squares from a new kitchen sponge and used them to apply the paint.)

Don't forget to paint the sides and backs of your ornaments!

Add the string or ribbon for hanging, and they're all done!

I love these ornaments--- they're completely inexpensive to make, but they're personal, made with love and as festive as any store-bought ornament! I can't think of anyone who wouldn't love to receive an ornament you made for him/her!

Have fun, and don't be afraid to get festive a little early this year!

Thanks for reading!! :) Have a wonderful weekend!