Christmas Crafts, Part I

Call me crazy, but I have a lot of crafting on my schedule this month.  To kick off the season, the kids and I made Santa handprint ornaments last week.  My sister-in-law, Karen, posted the idea on Facebook, and I thought it was adorable.  What a great way to add personalized ornaments to our family tree, while remembering how teeny-tiny their little hands were!

You can find the instructions on many websites, but here's what I did.  I mixed up a simple dough of one cup flour and one cup salt, then added water by small increments until it was a thick cookie-dough consistency.  I broke it into three balls, one for each child.  I rolled out one of the balls for CC's print, about 1/4th inch thick because I wanted the ornaments to be sturdy.

With a little help, CC made a nice print.  We made sure to press each finger separately to make sure we had a nice imprint in the dough. Then I used a knife to cut carefully around the print, and used my fingers to make sure the edges were smooth.

I did prints for Little Man and Sweet Pea, and we cooked them in the oven at 200 degrees for 5 hours, then flipped them over and cooked them overnight.  You really don't need to cook them at all -- you can let them air dry for, like, a month.  But I was too impatient, so we sped up the process with a warm oven.

Once they were done, I painted them all white (CC helped), then added red caps, pink cheeks, and a few black lines for emphasis.  I sprayed the front and back liberally with a polyurethane sealant (4 coats) to preserve them for years to come.  I also wrote each child's name and age, and the date, on the back.

Can't wait to see them on our tree every year!