One of the holiday projects we worked on included these clay ornament tags. I’ve been using them as decorative touches to gifts as well as gifts themselves. K, my mom and I spent an evening cutting them out using cookie cutters and then painted them a couple of days later when the clay pieces had thoroughly dried.
We used this brand of air dry clay, and initially it looks dull, like dirty snow. But as it dries, the clay turns bright white, just the way I like them. One of the things I hadn’t expected was that the clay would curl a bit as it dried, so many of them don’t lay totally flat. Ah well, it adds that homemade charm, I say.
I used whatever paint I had on hand. The Dala horse was done with copper gouache, and the others are a mixture of acrylic, watercolor, gouache and calligraphy ink. K added beads (which actually fell out after it dried, so we had to glue them on later). A fun and easy project perfect for kids!
I love these clay ornament tags so much, I may make other non-holiday themed shapes for future gifting use.
I’m signing off for Christmas for some merry-making, and will be away from here for a couple of days. I hope you and all your loved ones have a peaceful and joyous day, my lovely friends. Happy Holidays!
The ornaments are beautiful! Maybe to avoid curling, dry on a rack (not on paper) as the paper holds the moisture and they dry on top first. Or flip them halfway?
Good advice! In our frenzy of making them, I didn’t even think to use racks, and that completely makes sense. Thank you, Alana!
Those are beautiful! Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Happy Holidays to you, Kristi!!
love these! I made something similar last Christmas using Das clay. I, too, was alarmed initially by the grayish tinge but happy when they dried white. Love the black one with lettering especially:)
Merry Christmas to you as well! Glad you’re taking a blog break to enjoy time with family and friends. May these next days be filled with much joy and wonderful memories.
Oh, I bet your ornaments were gorgeous and didn’t curl like mine, Lucinda
Here’s to joyous and wondrous memory-filled holidays!
Nadolig Llawen x
And the same to you, Catrin — I have a Welsh friend who lives here in Seattle and I love the sound of the language!
We have a saying here in Wales
“I’m no angel……but I speak the language of heaven!”
What a great saying! It really is a beautiful language
Happy Christmas. the ornaments look lovely and if ever a Christmas tree were to look tasteful I imagine yours does!
Ha, well, I tried my best but I don’t know if I would use the word tasteful to describe our tree. Thanks though, and I hope you had a jolly Xmas!
Hope you had a wonderful Christmas! The ornaments turned out beautiful. I made similar ones last week with the kids (a pic is on my blog), with glitter instead of paint, very easy to make and cute tree-fillers!
The glitter is a lovey touch! I’ve really been enjoying using the clay tags are part of gift-wrapping, and have a few left over for next year too, so this was a great project!