How to make handprint ornaments for baby's first Christmas using air dry clay, fabric, glitter and paint. Quick and easy to make.

Handprint ornaments - baby's first Christmas

I searched and searched and searched.

It had to match, it couldn't be too tacky and it had to be personalised.

I'm talking about the ornament I wanted to commemorate my eldest's first Christmas.

Despite weeks of hunting, I still hadn't found what I was looking for (you have to sing that line).

They were too expensive, too ugly, too boring or just not right so I set about making my own.

Plan A (inspired by 84th & 3rd) was to make the round of air dry clay and have him press his hand into it then I was going to paint the indent.

If you've ever tried getting a lion to stick their paw in a bit of clay then you'll know how that one went down.

I also had the slight problem that my 10 month old has the hands of a 4 year old. I had to use my biggest round cookie cutter to fit his hand.

Making it years later for my 3rd bubba and her delicate little 10 month old hands were smaller than my middle child's 3 month hands!

To plan B I went (which I made up on the spot) and traced around his hand on craft paper to make a template.

The original hand was seriously wonky and required some high-tech manoeuvres to hold him still for the 5 seconds it took me to trace his hand but I tidied it up while referencing my own hand for where fingers should start.

Then I got really crafty.

For the first one, I cut the hand shape out in fabric to match my red, white and silver tree and used Mod Podge to stick it on and glaze the ornament.

I was pretty happy with the result.

Note how tight a squeeze it was to get his hand on there!

For ornament number two I traced around his hand then filled it in with glue and covered it with silver glitter.

I didn't think this one would be too pretty but it just might be my favourite twinkling away on the tree.

I do like the last one - simply painted with silver acrylic - but I would like it more if the 'metallic' paint was actually metallic.

The craft didn't stop there.

It became a bit of a challenge to think of as many ways of decorating them as I could.

You can write straight on the wet clay to make cute little gift tags or use icing tools to make indents (these look really cook if you spray paint the finished ornament).

You can also imprint them with stamps or I used an embroidered handkerchief to make myself a personalised one - it does take a bit of thinking to get it the right way round though.

The glitter won this battle too though. I just sprinkled some on the clay as I rolled it out and left them to dry.

I think they blend in quite nicely with the rest of my decorations don't you?

You might also like Salt dough gift tags and ornaments

What about you? Have you made ornaments before?

These are now my absolute favourite decorations on our tree.

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