Clay Embellished Ornaments

This is a way to fancy up those shiny coloured ornaments.  I used a cold porcelain dough, some plain and some tinted green to cut out leaves to add to the ornaments.  This was a craft we made at Creative Crafting.  Thanks to the instructor, Gail, for making the clay and sharing it with us and providing us with the recipe so we could make more at home.

The clay was easy to manipulate and cut out easily with left cutters.  Mine came from Michaels with a 50% off coupon which made them a really good deal.  You roll a small amount of clay out between pieces of waxed paper and then use the cutters to cut out some leaf shapes.

A small line of glue was used to fasten the leaves to the ornament.  Using something sharp (toothpick, point of knife etc) you can add the veins into the leaves.  The ornament with the white leaves was made at the craft session and the one with the green leaves was made at home after colouring the clay.

I added some green food colouring to the piece of clay I bought home.  It was a bit messy to mix in the colour but after kneading it for awhile it turned a light shade of green.  If it isn’t messy, it isn’t fun.  That is a saying I used when teaching and as long as you had an apron on and your sleeves pushed well up, hands and arms can always be washed off.

I rolled little bits of clay into balls to add to the top of the gold coloured ornament.  They just need a bit more red paint to make them look like berries.  I used a dotting tool to add the red dots to the silver ornament.  It is best to let the clay leaves dry overnight before adding the paint.

Cold porcelain clay recipe – 1 cup of corn starch, 1 cup white glue, 2 tablespoons lemon juice or vinegar, 2 tablespoons oil, 1 teaspoon white acrylic paint, 1 tablespoon of vaseline or body cream,

In a non stick pan, mix cornstarch and glue together until there are no lumps.  Add oil and lemon juice.  Mix until smooth.  Add paint.  Cook over a low heat stirring constantly.  When your dough leaves the sides of the pan, turn off stove but continue to mix/beat for another 5 minutes.  Turn out onto a waxed surface that has 1 tablespoon of vaseline or body cream speed over it.  Knead for another 10 – 5 minutes.  Place dough in plastic bag and seal.  Place sealed bag of dough into a plastic container.  Take off pieces as required to make your decoration.

There are numerous recipes for cold porcelain dough if you search for them.  This is the one shared with us at the craft session.

More ornaments:

Christmas ornament ideas:

• beaded ornaments
• bird feeder ornaments
• clay embellished ornaments
• crochet snowflakes
• felt snowflakes
• Merry Christmas embroidery
• mini wreath
• ornaments for the knit and crochet lover
• plastic canvas snowflakes small
• plastic canvas snowflakes big
• tuckered out reindeer