I promise I won’t go all Christmas decoration crazy this month, even though I posted my decoration inspiration post only yesterday and I’m posting a Christmas tutorial today. I’m going to show you how to make your own Christmas ornaments!

Materials needed

Making the Christmas ornaments doesn’t take a lot of tools or time. All you need is:

• paper clay or white clay
• crochet doilies
• cookie cutter
• sandpaper
• twine

Making the Christmas ornaments

I struggled a bit with my paper clay, as it had been open for a long time. I soaked it in a bit of water for a while and it was fine afterwards! Making the ornaments doesn’t take any time at all. First you have to roll out the clay and press the crochet doilies hard in the clay. Then you use the cookie cutters and cut out the shapes in the clay. I’ve also added eye holes with a piece of a ballpoint pen.

Put the ornaments somewhere to dry. I’ve placed them next to the heater for a couple of days until they were dry. Maybe it’s because I’ve put them next to the heater or maybe this always happens when drying paper clay, but they started curling a bit. I’ve placed a stack of books on top after I noticed this and they dried flat afterwards.

When the ornaments where dry I’ve sanded them a bit. It made the smooth surfaces look smoother and whither. I also sanded the textured parts a bit, cleaning them up.

Afterwards you only have to put the twine on the Christmas ornaments and you’re done!

I tried taking photos of the ornaments in my “Christmas tree” (we don’t have one yet), but the lighting wasn’t helping at all. So I made some extra on my desk. And then I couldn’t chose which one to put on the blog, because the ornaments look so pretty…

So, that’s it! A lovely bunch of handmade (and sturdy, I’ve dropped them already a couple of times and they survived each fall) Christmas ornaments! Are you making your own ornaments this year?

Project costs: paper clay, €6 – burlap twine, €2