Snowball Ornament

     Are you all done Christmas Shopping? I just finished yesterday! The Hubster actually finished yesterday too which is AMAZING because he is usually out Christmas Eve rushing around trying to get his shopping done! Since I'm finished and I have a little down time (how it that possible?) I decided to get a little crafty. It's kind of a mini craft, only made one thing and its small.

     Have you seen the Ornaments that are filled with candy? I’ve bought a few over the years, and I always save them thinking, one of these years I’ll make something with them! Well finally I am with at least one of them. I’ve seen lots of different things made with Epsom salts. It makes things look like snow, I’ve seen them covering Styrofoam balls and they look just like snowballs. So I thought I would cover my old ornament with the Epsom salts and see what it would look like. I love that this craft is basically free for me to do, in that I didn’t have to go out and purchase anything new to make it!

I wasn't going to use spray paint when I first started this project!

Here’s what you’ll need:

Empty candy ornament

Spray paint

Modge Podge

 Epsom salts

 

 

Here’s how you make it:

Place newspaper down on your work surface. Cover the ornament with white spray paint. (I used the kind with Primer included) Let dry. I placed them on tooth picks so that they wouldn't stick to the paper. Then cover with spray paint in your choice of color, I used silver because I wanted it to have a little shimmer to it. You can leave it white if you want it to have a traditional snowball look, if you leave it white you will probably want to give it another coat of spray paint. After the paint dries coat both sides with Modge Podge. Then Sprinkle the Epsom salts over the entire ornament. Let dry and you have a great new ornament!

ENJOY & Merry Christmas!

Christmas Clay Ornaments

Every Christmas season we buy a new ornament for our Tree. They are different every year and the best part is taking them out the next year and all the memories of Christmases past that come with them. We have ornaments from our First Christmas when we were just engaged that My Hubbies Mom bought us (that was the first time I met his family Christmas 1998)We have the first Christmas we were married, the first Christmas our son was born and all the Christmases since. That’s 15 years of Christmases we’ve celebrated as a family, and 15 years of memories on our tree! Actually maybe a few more, my Mom gave me a few of my ornaments from when I was little ;) This year I thought maybe we should make our ornament, and in doing that we could also make some for gifts to the rest of our families! I looked at all different ones and decided I liked the cornstarch/baking soda ornaments better than the salt dough ones.

Here’s what you’ll need:

½ cup Cornstarch

1 cup Baking Soda

¾ cup water

Here’s how you make it:

 

In a medium sauce pan combine all the ingredients and stir over medium low heat. Keep stirring until it thickens up, the recipe I used said it’s a like smooth mashed potatoes when it’s ready, I think maybe a thick frosting is also a good comparison. This does take a little bit of time so be patient and keep stirring. When it’s thickened scoop it out into a bowl and cover with a damp towel until cooled. When it has cooled kneed it until smooth, adding more cornstarch if it’s a little sticky. Roll out to ¼ inch thickness and cut out the shapes you want. With a straw poke a hole in the top so that you have a place to string the ribbon to attach it to your tree or presents. For the smaller ornaments use a bamboo skewer to poke a hole in the ornaments. Preheat oven to 175 degrees then bake for about an hour, turning over half way through.Keep an eye on them notice how mine are a little brown? I lost track of time and they got a little done;) Let cool and then leave them as they are or paint them for that little extra touch! Tie a ribbon through the hole and TA DA you have a great ornament for years to come!

ENJOY!