DIY Ornaments: Clay Gingerbread Men

I love a homemade Christmas. I'm into the not-quite-perfectly-decorated tree. I like when it's obvious that my children helped make ornaments. We'll have plenty of opportunity this year: instead of the yellow and white Christmas of years past, K and I decided to make 2014 the year of the Crafty Colorful Christmas.

...starting with these gingerbread men ornaments.

If you want truly homemade ornaments, you can make salt dough with just a few household ingredients. However, I happened to have plain white Sculpey clay on hand so that's what we used. We rolled it to about a half-inch thickness then used a gingerbread man cookie cutter to stamp out a tiny army of them.

I used a straight needle tool to poke holes in the heads so we'd be able to hang them later.

If you don't have one of these, a sewing needle or safety pin works just as well.

I added simple clothing details to a few of them, for some variety.

After baking them at 275ºF for a half hour or so, we let them cool then started painting.

we used plain ol' acrylic craft paint, nothing fancy.

hang them on your tree with ornament hooks or a bit of ribbon.

I just love knowing that years from now, I'll pull these out and remember how K and I rolled out the clay, stamped the gingerbread shapes, and hand-painted each one.

they would make really cute gifts from the kids for grandparents or neighbors as well. you don't have to hoard them all. ;)

p.s. If you're into a handmade Christmas like I am, feel free to browse the many, many festive projects I did on my home decor blog, crab+fish.