Homemade Clay Ornaments: Easy, Quick & Embossed

For the last few years, I’ve lived in a small apartment that doesn’t have much room for a Christmas tree. Does this deter me from making ornaments every year? Definitely not. Making ornaments is one of my favorite Christmas traditions! Today I have a great homemade clay ornaments project that is easy enough for kids but can also be customized for experienced artists.

The main part of this tutorial is creating these embossed ornaments. But as you see below, you can also use these homemade clay ornaments as a blank canvas for painting.

Supplies needed to make your own homemade clay ornaments:

• Model Magic Clay.
• Cookie cutter (or a cup, anything that can form a circle).
• Embossing Folders (my favorite is the woodgrain!).
• Acrylic Paint.
• Paintbrushes.
• Mod Podge (optional).
• Clay Press (this isn’t absolutely necessary, you can just roll the clay out. However, for uniform and professional-looking ornaments, I highly recommend the press!).

Step 1: Roll out the clay. If you are using the clay press, set it to the last or next-to-last setting for a thicker ornament.Step 2: Eyeball how much clay you will need for an ornament and cut that piece off.

Step 3: Place the clay inside an embossing folder. Press down consistently across embossing folder, to be sure the image is evenly distributed into the clay.Step 5: Use a cookie cutter or the top of a glass cup to cut a circle out of the embossed clay. At this point, I also cut out some plain circles so I could paint them later.I chose a few different embossing folders to try and seeing the results was so fun!

Step 6: With a paintbrush, gently brush acrylic paint across the embossed design. Be careful to let some of the white clay show through, to really let the embossed design show up.

I also hand painted some designs onto the non-embossed circles. Both the embossing and the hand painting were very fun. I recommend trying both!Step 7: Use a sharp object to poke a hole in the top of the homemade clay ornaments. I used a plastic needle.

Step 8: There was no specific dry time on the ornaments so I let them dry overnight.

Step 9: If you want to permanently seal your paint, use a paintbrush to coat the ornaments in Mod Podge.

Step 10: Use string, ribbon or embroidery floss to hang the homemade clay ornaments.  See? Easy breezy! Wouldn’t it be so cute to have kids paint designs on these homemade clay ornaments? Or use cookie cutters in fun shapes? The possibilities are endless because this clay is so easy to work with!

What kind of handmade clay ornaments would you make?

Katie

Katie is the creative mind behind lemonjitters.com, a blog dedicated to all things crafty. Her interests are ever-changing and currently include: kitschy kitchen timers, digital design, eating lots of chocolate and paper crafting.