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On the third day of Christmas fun…
We’re making gift toppers or tree ornaments. Again, I like things that aren’t all day projects. So here’s a couple of ideas…
Using salt dough, in probably an hour or less you can turn out a batch of really cute ornaments to either hang on your tree or attach to the tags of presents. It really adds a nice touch to use them on your gifts. Just tie them on with your bow or tag.
To make the dough mix 2 cups flour, ¾ cups of water and ½ cup salt. We usually air dry them overnight. Or you can bake them at 225 checking every 30 minutes or so till dry. The cookie cutter type won’t take very long the fatter ones like the snowman below could take 1 ½ or 2 hours.
For this heart (or any shape you have a cookie cutter for) simply roll out your salt dough with a rolling pin. When my kids were little they had little ones from their Tupperware sets they used. By the way, I like to roll out on wax paper, it saves a big mess. Use flour if you need to just like rolling out pie crust or anything else. Just press out your basic shapes.
Next we made the flowers. To do those you’ll need to color a little bit of your dough pink and green (or whatever colors you chose) with food coloring. Just mix it in a separate bowl. Roll out a small amount of the pink. Take a butter knife and cut out long skinny (about ¼ inch) strips. Start at one end and roll till you get the size you want. Pinch one edge of the roll which makes the other edge “fan” out slightly to form your “bud”. For the green leaves simply make a strip like you did for the bud and then cut the size piece out that you want. Use the knife to make a point on one end for the leaf. Just place them among your buds tucking the blunt ends down and somewhat under the buds so they look like they are attached to a stem. Don’t forget to poke a hole with a straw for hanging or attaching to a gift!
To finish it off we painted the heart (after it dries) with a pearlescent white paint and glued gold cording around the edge. We used some ribbon I had in the sewing stuff for the hanger.
Another cute one to do with salt dough is a snowman. For this once instead of cookie cutters you just roll balls of dough. We did two for the body, large for the bottom and smaller for the head (maybe 1 inch for body and ¾ inch for head?) Once you make the balls squish them slightly flat. Next make the hat and arms. For the arms make small oval s to connect and squish on each side. For the hat make a small round ball for the top of the head but as you squish it square it by place your finger or a knife blade at the top so it squishes flat on the top edge. Use your fingers to mold a little into more of a rectangle. For the hat band and thumbs roll a skinny “snake” and cute to fit for the hat band and thumbs. Finish by painting as desired (after it dries of course.) Oh, and don’t forget to insert a wire hanger it the top of his head. Just take a small piece of wire, twist to make a loop and insert the ends up to where you twisted in the top of the hat.
The cinnamon applesauce ornaments also make cute present toppers. This one is so easy and makes your house smell wonderful. For the dough mix ¾ cup cinnamon and ½ cup applesauce. You want to roll them out ¼ inch thick between two sheets of wax paper. If you need flour for stickiness, use cinnamon instead. Cut out the “cookies” with cutters. Again don’t forget to poke with a straw to make a hole for attaching. They just turn out looking brown but make a great accent for a country type tree or a gift wrapped in rustic type paper. Even brown craft paper!
If making dough isn’t your thing try these fans. This one is quick and easy too. Just take 4 or 5 inch wide flat lace and make it into a fan. Cut it in about 10-15 inch pieces (more or less and you like) and cute out a piece of wax paper approximately the same size. Lay the lace on the wax paper and start folder (fold wax paper and lace) accordion style back and forth about every ½ inch. Pinch at the bottom and slide the wax paper part up from where you’re pinching about ½ inch. Glue generously the lace you’ve exposed at the bottom. Take a little scrap of wax paper and put it over the outside of that section. Put a paper clip over that the hold it secure till it dries.
Now, slightly fan out the top part and spray with fabric stiffener (found at craft stores, or you could use spray starch). You can spray several times depending on how “stiff” you want your creases. Let the glue and stiffener dry. To finish hot glue any ribbon or trim to the bottom where your fan is gathered. These would look cute on a “fancy” wrapped present or we lay them on branches to fill in our tree. You could attach a ribbon to hand with through the lace if you wished as well.
So there you go. I hope you’ll plan a day to spend quality time with your kids, making memories and creating!
Gina
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