Learn how to make some beautiful Christmas decorations perfect for the holiday season or for gifting to your friends and family or even your children’s school teachers.
Made from air dry clay, these decorations offer such a simple but luxurious look and a high quality feel. They can also be personalised with your own choice of ribbons, twine or holiday greeting.
This is a fantastic tutorial for even beginner crafters and is a great project to do with the kids in the run up to Christmas.
I really love the look of simple white Christmas tree ornaments - they offer such an elegant, timeless look and can fit into all kinds of home decor. Air dry clay is also super easy to work with and unlike traditional clay requires no firing process. With air dry clay simply leave your ornament in a warm room for 24 hours and you are good to go!
What makes these ornaments really stand apart however is when you add a few drops of festive essential oils to them. Essential oils are pure oils distilled or pressed from flowers and herbs. They smell wonderful and harness all of the health benefits of the plant that they came from.
One or two drops of essential oil dropped onto the back of your ornament once they are dry will soak into the clay and gently diffuse fragrance around your room or when someone walks past your tree. Essential oils are a fantastic alternative to synthetic fragrances which are present in the majority of shop bought candles and diffusers and which contain many chemicals known to be harmful and toxic in the home.
If you are unsure of which oils to choose, pre-made blends are a great option and many companies such as Neals Yard Remedies Organic offer a seasonal blend taking the time and guess work out of choosing your oils. Otherwise, depending on your preferences, essential oils such as Orange, Clove, Pine, Balsam Fir, Petitgrain make good choices for Christmas-time.
As the nights are drawing in and the weather is getting colder, I am inwardly so excited about the prospect of beginning all of the traditions that we have built up over the years and am really hopeful that little projects such as this one can become cherished childhood memories for our four children.
Christmases at the farm are full of our usual work and routines - animals are still to be fed, milked and given clean bedding but among it all I still love the task of giving our family a warm, festive home that will hopefully invoke memories when they are grown of happy, joyful Christmases at home with Mum and Dad.
EASY DIY CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT TIPS
While white air dry clay is my first choice for these ornaments it is also available in both light grey and terracotta. You could also paint the front of your ornaments if you wanted to fit in with a different colour scheme.
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Materials and Tools you will need:
1 block of air dry clay
Some evergreen plants or twigs
A non stick surface such as a plastic placemat or board.
A rolling pin.
Biscuit or cookie cutters of your choice.
A straw (to place a hole in your ornament for hanging up later on).
Newspaper
Twine, string or ribbon.
Essential Oil of your choice.
Fine grit sandpaper (optional)
How to Make Easy DIY Christmas Ornaments
Take your clay and slice off a medium sized piece. Knead it on your non stick surface for a few minutes with your hand to make it soft and pliable.
Using your rolling pin roll out the clay until it is about ½ centimetre thick.
Lay your plants, twigs or leaves on top of you clay (i used rosemary that we have in our garden) and roll it into the clay with your rolling pin.
Once you have used up all of the space cutting out your shapes gently remove the excess clay from around your ornaments.
Very carefully, transfer the ornaments to some newspaper - you can place the newspaper on a baking tray or similar to keep the ornaments flat.
Allow the ornaments to sit undisturbed for around 72 hrs or until thoroughly dried out.
Once your clay decorations are dry they may have some rough edges. Now is the time when you can sand them gently with some fine grit sandpaper.
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