DIY Christmas Ornaments out of homemade white clay (recipe!)

Each year I try to find time to make some DIY white clay ornaments together with my kids. It’s a kind of tradition. Once we made ornaments out of citrus fruits, but mostly, we make DIY Christmas Ornaments out of clay. But I really didn’t like the salt dough most people recommend. The shapes would not be clean and the colors weren’t what I wanted. So, I tried a white clay, which only needed three ingredients and they really turned out amazing! Exactly like I wanted them to. Here is how we made them…

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For the DIY Christmas Ornaments out of white clay you will need:

– white clay (you can find my recipe further down r buy some hobby clay)

– ribbon (I used a red one with white dots)

– snowflake cookie cutter (or whatever shape you like more)

– plastic straw for making the holes

– baking paper

– sealer (optional, I used a spray sealer)

To make the white clay you will need these easy to find ingredients:

– half cup cornstarch

– one cup baking soda

– 3/4 cup water<

– 1/3 cup glitter (or more if you want)- optional

– damp paper or fabric towel

How to make the DIY white clay ornaments dough:

• To make the clay, just take a pot and mix the cornstarch with the baking soda and the glitter. Now, add the water and stir the mixture until you will have a smooth but still runny cream. Take the pot and put it on your stove on low to medium heat and stir all of the time. As you stir and time passes, the mixture will start to get thicker.
• As soon as it resembles a dough consistency (more like mashed potatoes) take the pot from the heat and cover it with a damp fabric or paper towel.
• Wait for 10 to 20 minutes (or more) until it has cooled down. When it has cooled you can take the dough and knead it until it becomes a smooth, soft dough. Now you can roll it out (I lined some baking paper on my working surface) and cut out your snowflakes (or whichever shape you chose).

• Don’t roll it out too thin or your DIY Christmas ornaments will break easily, but don’t make them too thick either, since they will take longer to dry and they could also break easier because of that. 1/4′ thick should be good.
• Make holes using the straw. Transfer the snowflake ornaments to a pan which lined with some baking paper.
• Now it’s time for drying. You can either let them overnight air dry (as I did) or maybe you could try drying them in the oven at low temperature for a couple of hours (didn’t try this, so I don’t know for sure!). As they dry, you will need to carefully turn them over from time to time.

Some more tips

Once they are dried you can use fine sanding paper to smooth out the edges and you and your kids can paint them, stamp them or leave them white as they are like I did and you can add a sealer to make them more resistant.

Add the ribbon you like and there you have your very own Christmas ornaments!

If you don’t have time to make your own clay, but still want to make DIY ornaments, you can buy white or colored air drying clay from any craft store.

My kids painted them and added their own ribbons and used theirs as gift tags for their Christmas presents, as well as for decorating their cookie treat bags we would leave out for Santa!

As I love red and white Christmas decorations, I bought some red and white Christmas balls for our tree and these white snowflake ornaments with the red ribbon are just perfect. The white snowflakes with the red ribbon make a great contrast and they look great on the tree!! I think this year, after making these wonderful foam glitter photo ornaments, I will make some of the other ideas I found on Pinterest as well, using the same clay recipe, like angel ornaments!

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