Homemade Christmas Ornaments

I made one with my son when he was about 4 months old at a paint your own pottery place. We put his footprint on the round ornament. It is one of our most prized possession!! There are places in Alexandria, Ashburn and Manassas. I am sure that there are more.

My daughter's preschool took the kids hands and dipped in washable white finger paint. They placed their hands close with their thumbs touching. When the paint dried they inverted the paper and it looks like angel wings. It is really very touching to see oncce you realize what made the wings. There a statement something to the effect of ..."From our angel" something like it. When I picked her up at school the day they were finished, it brought a tear to my eye. Just an idea. Stephanie

When my first daughter was a baby, I used her footprints and handprints to make Christmas cards; just painted them with red and green paint and made a print! It was messy but fun.

You can also get little ornament photo frames and put a photo of your son in them; grandparents will treasure this!

One thing I did when I worked in day care, was to make wreaths out of the childrens hand prints and foot prints. What I did to accomplish this was to take their hands and use white paint to cover them with a light coating. Then I pressed their hands onto red and green paper. I think I used a total of three hands on each color (but you could do more if needed). Then I took Popsicle sticks and made a square out of those with hot glue so that it would dry quickly. I then took the hand prints or foot prints and placed them around the square of Popsicle sticks. To add something personal to each one (and so I would know who's was who's) I used puff paints and wrote the child's name and the year on white paper and glued that to the back of the square to cover the middle of the wreath. You could also use a picture of your little man in the middle to commemorate the holidays. The parents loved them because it was something that they could save and display each year.

You can transfer his handprint to Christmas fabric, cut two pieces, stuff with a little batting, stitch or glue the edges while putting a string at the top by which people can hang the "ornament" on the tree.

cut out a handprint, glue it to the butt of a fat pinecone, add some eyeballs, festoon with paint and glitter, and you've got a festive christmas turkey!
:) khairete
S.

You can buy sisal door mats at Ikea pretty cheap. Then slather hands and/or feet with paint to make reindeer, angels, butterflies, etc. We made some Spring and Winter ones and then I used fabric pain to write Happy Spring or some other greeting. These were very well received by family.

Another thing we do each year...I have a tree skirt that was rather plain on top. Each hear I alternate red or green fabric paint and I put my daughter's handprint on it. In the other color paint I put the year above the print. THen I took some gold glitter paint and brushed that over the handprint to give it a sparkle. This has turned into a great tradition and keepsake for me.

Sombody I know made shrinky dink ornaments out of a handprint. Don't know how they did it but it was cute.

Another year I used Shutterfly to make magnets and playing cards with a picture of her. Those were appreciated too.

They have clay projects I believe that they sell in walmart for that sort of thing, where you push their hand or foot into it. We made a card we gave out one year, using the girls' thumbprint...turned the thumbprints into little reindeers with a few details...it was cute and everyone loved it. Not to mention the girls had a lot of fun making them.

Hey, I have 3 boys and one year my kids made a neat christmas ornament in art class...Take one pine cone and roll it in peanut butter, then roll it in glitter and other neat shiny stuff...then use yarn to make the hanger for it. It makes a really pretty ornament that lasts forever! And your little one will love playing in the glitter.
Your Friend,
K. Murphy
PS if you have any questions call me ###-###-####

I take my children every year to a pottery store. We have one in Manassas called Claytime and they have ornaments that you can put there handprints on or as they get bigger you can use there fingerprint!! I just did mine there last weekend. They do run between $7 -$15 per ornamnent, so a little on the expensive side, so I am not sure if that is a issue.
Good luck!

I received Christmas ornaments that were made of sugar cookie dough that had a hook inserted in it. They were baked and then coated with acrylic (not sure of the spelling) for shine. I had bells, snow men and women, gingerbread man and santa, stockings, etc. I still have them today after 20 years!

Hello! I did something like that for our 1st son's first Christmas (he's 5 now!). I found porcelain ornaments at Michael's, painted them and with the date, glued our family picture on from walmart portrait studios and then sealed it w/a spray. You could find either the porcelain (I am not 100% sure they still carry them) or the wooden ornaments (like a snowflake might be big enough) and paint it a lighter solid color and then paint your son's hand/foot in another color and make his footprint. Add the date w/a paint marker and if you seal it, it will last longer. I use the PLAID Clear acrylic sealer...they have it in gloss (shiny) or matte (dull). It would be w/the paints in the craft store. JoAnns may have the same things...ornaments, etc. I have never known a craft store to NOT carry the Plaid brand. The paint brand doesn't matter, I use both Apple Barrel and Plaid...any acrylic craft paint will do. It washes off the kids easily too, I used it to paint faces at my son's Halloween party at school! Which is another reason you want to seal it! Just make sure you do it outside. I also use an old cardboard box/lid to set the items I'm spraying on, so that it doesn't get on everything. Let it dry 24 hours and then flip it and do the other side. You could do a hand on one side and a foot on the other! Good luck, and email me if you have any questions!

I think with a 9 month old you might have better luck with a footprint than getting all 5 fingers out at the same time. I did a kit from Michaels with plaster of paris to make an imprint. I found it difficult to get the foot the right depth in the wet plaster...my advice would be to get the powder with no kit, make it and pour it into a cheap container that is larger than his foot. LET IT DRY, then pop it out, paint it, then paint his foot another color and put it on there. Good luck!

I like to make ornaments to have for our house and for friends and family for Christmas. Here are directions for home made clay ornaments:

Baker's Clay for making
Christmas Tree Ornaments
4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cup water
food coloring -- optional. Add to water, or keep plain and paint after baking
beaten egg -- optional for use with dough made without food coloring
shellac
wire hooks, bent wire, ribbons, etc., for hanging

Add food coloring to water if desired. Mix flour, salt and water together and knead until smooth. Roll out and cut with cookie cutters, shape by cutting out freehand, or cut using cardboard templates. "Glue" two pieces together by scratching the surface of one piece, brushing the area to be attached with water, and pressing the second piece onto it. Smooth over cracks with moist dough or water.

Make a hole in each piece through and thread through a hook or bent wire. These can be left in as the pieces are baking.

Bake at 300 degrees until set (1/2 hr to 1 hr). If you want a golden color to the pieces that aren't made from colored dough, brush with beaten egg when they are almost done baking and are dry (a golden color would be good for golden skin tones. For a darker golden color, repeat this process a few times).

If desired, paint totally cooled pieces with acrylic paint.

Seal all types of ornaments in shellac on both sides and let dry thoroughly.

Store ornaments in an airtight tin; keep very dry. They should last for years.

Hope this helps.

you can usually get kits at places like Michaels and AC Moore or other crafty stores.

M.: My ceramic handprint company, Cutie Pies Clay Print Keepsakes makes adorable Holiday Handprint Ornaments for $20 for infant and $30 for toddlers. The ornament has the child's handprint impression on the front and their name and the date handpainted on the back. These durable keepsakes are glazed in a color of your choice and kiln-fired to create a timeless treasure to hang on your tree or give as gifts. Please see our web site at: www.cutiepieskeepsakes.com
Thank you.

I bought a 2 lb tub of crayola Model Magic for $12 with a coupon at michael's. Roll into a ball, flatten into a circle, stick the hand/foot in, make a hole for a ribbon with a straw, and let air dry. You can write & paint on it and it's really light. We made 10 ornaments out of half the container. We're gonna give a set to the grand- and god- parents this weekend for his baptism. They turned out really cute! Good luck! We made ours white, but it comes in colors too.

Try FamilyFun.com its a great website for crafts, activities, etc.

I think Michael's sells imprint kits. You can also use fingerpaint to make prints and then laminate them or otherwise turn them into ornaments. Or maybe get one of those fillable plastic ornaments, put his handprint in paint on the outside and put confetti or something festive on the inside. You can also try making stepping stones for a garden and put his handprint/footprint on it.

There are kits you can buy at Micheals/Joann's/Ac Moore that have an air-drying clay that you can use your son's hand or footprint in. We did that for my daughter's first Christmas. The kit has the clay, ribbons, little straws for poking the holes in the ornaments, etc. Depending on how many you need to make, a cheaper option may be to purchase "Model Magic" which is also an air-drying modeling compound. I used to work at a pediatric hospital and we used Model Magic a lot. You can buy your own ribbon to put through the clay to make it an ornament.
One piece of advice: it may be more successful to use his footprint than his hand because he may grab the clay when you try to put his hand in it. When we did my daughter's we covered a cookie sheet in aluminum foil and put the clay on that and then pressed her foot into the clay. Good luck!

Babies r us has some kits over by the wrapping paper section. But we got very nice hand and foot print ones at my daughters preschool thru a company called Mudpies. Their product was great. If you can't find the site on google, try asking The Goddard School in chantilly. They place the childs age, you can pick from a range of colors for the writing, and they autoclave them to a nice shiny finish. We do them every year for the kids now. Good luck to you!

another idea I've seen and always wanted to try was creating a profile of your baby's head.
Take a photograph of your baby with his head (side view) filling up the frame. Print the pic. Take scissors and cut out your son's profile. Use it as a template and trace the profile on construction paper or thin colored card stock. Paste the face on a doily or other pretty background for contrast. You could label or further decorate the background.
I've seen these profiles created on white ceramic dinner or lunch plates (very striking!) and I think adapting it to christmas ornament would work, too!

you can trace his hands on craft foam or cardstock. and cut them out. they can be wings for an angel or antlers on a reindeer, or a beard on Santa. just draw the rest of the design. have fun with it, it doesnt havr to be perfect

Hi M.,
My sister has sent me some neat ones but they are on paper or cloth just to hang up on the wall. She used her daughter's hand print as the antlers and her foot print as the head of a reindeer and then put a little red ball on the nose. Also she used a hand print a bunch of times and made a Christmas tree. Good Luck.
G.

We have made Christmas ornaments using construction paper. All I did was cut out the construction paper to look like a Christmas ornament. I wrote the year on it. Painted my little ones hand and placed it down. You can add glitter and stuff also. Then we laminated it so it would be more durable. We have a laminating machine, but they also offer laminating services at kinkos. It is easy and inexpensive to complete.