Last-Minute Grandma Gift: Kids’ Handmade Clay Ornament

If you’re looking for a project to keep your kids busy these last few days before Christmas, or if the Grandma in your family is like my mom and expects something handmade (works for me!) – we made this sweet ornament yesterday as a last-minute gift.  There are lots of options to personalize it, but we added the kids’ fingerprints, and a little message that Grandma is like no other.

I’m not going to go into a huge amount of detail for this tutorial, because there are really SO many ways to make it your own!  I will give you a few tips and show you what we did, though!

I got the polymer clay and rubber stamps out, and also a cookie cutter that’s been appropriated to the craft room.  Polymer clay is not food-safe, so while kitchen utensils work awesome with it, be sure that you’re not putting them back in the kitchen after you use them!

I used one bar each of a silver and copper colored clay, with a little bit leftover after rolling it out about 1/8″ thick.  I cut one silver snowflake, then one circle, and then cut a snowflake out of the center of it.

I swapped out the copper snowflake for the silver one, smoothed out the seams, and stamped a message and a few extra snowflakes.  The kids pressed their fingerprints into the end of each arm of the snowflakes – just to make it that much more personal!

I made sure to poke a hole to add a hanger, and then I baked the clay according to the package directions.

After it was baked, I brushed on a little brown acrylic paint, wiping off the excess with a damp paper towel.  Then, I brushed it with some glaze, and sprinkled it with a little bit of fine glitter.  The fingerprints are a little hard to see, but the paint helps!

A bit of hemp twine turned this into a proper ornament, and we wrapped it up for Grandma!  My daughter is so proud that we made something special – I’m just hoping she can keep a secret for three more days.  Haha.

Are you making any last-minute gifts this week?  Anything that the kids are helping with now that school is out?