Homemade Christmas Ornaments

These are the ones my twins made...before sparkles.

I have been wanting to make ornaments with the kids for the tree, and found these recipes for ornaments HERE.  I remember making them with my mom, and we had a great time painting them after they were made.  The recipes that I've seen said 7 years+, but the twins are three, and I'm sure they'll be able to pull it off.  I'll post photos on here of the ones we've made after they're all finished.  Until then, enjoy making your own!  (If you want some of your photos put on here too, just email them to me at:  momofcutetwins@hotmail.com)

Oh, and if you make more than your tree can stand, these would also make great additions to any gift (tie on with ribbon), and I'm sure there are more than a few grandparents that would LOVE getting a few of these!  (When they're all done, write the name of the child who made it, and the year it was made, on the back.)

Happy baking!

SALT AND FLOUR ORNAMENTS

This is an excellent recipe for homemade ornaments.
The dough is very easy to work with, and once baked
the ornaments are very firm and easy to paint.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup salt
2 cups flour
1 cup water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Water-based paints

Place dry ingredients in a bowl, add the water
and oil, then stir until blended. Once the dough
holds together, make it into a ball and
knead it with your hands to make
a smooth texture.

Place the dough
on a cutting board, and using a rolling pin, roll the dough
out into a pancake shape that is a bit thicker
than you would use for regular cut-out cookies. Cut out
the ornaments with cookie cutters, design your own
ornaments using a blunt knife, or shape dough with
your fingers. Punch or carve a hole into the top of
the ornament to thread a string through to hang the decoration.

Bake at 250 degrees until hard (for one to two hours).

Once cooled, paint with water-based paints if desired,
or glue on glitter using white household glue. Thread a string
or ribbon through the hole and hang the decoration on the tree
or elsewhere in your home. These ornaments can be reused year after year.

**I should mention that I've seen this recipe several times, and it uses anywhere from 2-4 cups of flour, and this was the only one with vegetable oil.  So, do what works for you.

EGG SHELL ORNAMENTS

These ornaments are just about the most eco-friendly holiday ornaments you can make. Although these ornaments are very fragile, you can reuse them year after

They really do look cute!

year if you handle them with care.

INGREDIENTS
Fresh eggs
Sterilized sewing needle (sterilize by holding over a lit match)
Water-based paints
Glitter
White household glue
Pipe cleaners

Poke a hole into the top and bottom of
each egg. Blow into the hole at
the top of each egg (the small end) so that the insides of
the egg comes out through the bottom hole, into a bowl
below. Save all the eggs’ insides for cooking. Paint the eggs
with water-based paints, or coat the eggs with
white household glue before covering their surface with glitter.

Bend one end of each pipe cleaner into a “U” shape (so that
the “U” is about 1 inch in length). Gently insert the other end of the pipe cleaner into the
top of the egg, and use the end with the “U” to hang the egg on a tree.

Here are a couple more, found HERE:

CINNAMON CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS 

3/4-1 c. applesauce
1 (4.12 oz.) bottle ground cinnamon

Mix applesauce and cinnamon together to form a stiff dough. Roll out to 1/4 inch thickness.

Cut with cookie cutters. Make a hole for ribbon. Carefully place on rack to dry. Let air dry several days, turning occasionally. If you prefer they may be baked at 150 degrees for 5-6 hours.

This one is a little different:

SCENTED CINNAMON CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS

4 oz. can (approximately 1 c.) cinnamon 1 tbsp. ground cloves 1 tbsp. nutmeg 3/4 c. applesauce 2 tbsp. white glue Combine ingredients. Work 2 to 3 minutes (knead) or until smooth. Roll out to 1/4 inch thickness, do not roll any thinner. Use cookie cutters (Christmas type). Let air dry for 24 hours or in a low oven bake at 200 degrees for a couple of hours until dried out. Be sure to put hole in ornament to hang it with prior to drying process.

Popcorn Christmas Decoration

Oh, and lets not forget the popcorn tree decoration!  I've never made this myself, but my husband has.
1.  Make some popcorn with any method you prefer. At least one large size bowl is needed, but that will depend on the size of your tree. Be sure to let the popcorn cool before you continue on to the next step. Better yet, use stale, day old popcorn as this will be less likely to crumble and break.

2.  Thread the needle, but do not cut the thread from the spool. It will take a lot of thread for the popcorn garland to cover an entire tree.

3.  Start stringing one popcorn at a time by inserting the tip of the needle into the center of each piece. Keep sliding it further down on the thread making room for more popcorn. It's best to slide the popcorn to the end of the thread to prevent knots. Once you feel that you have enough garland for the size of your tree tie off the end of the thread by looping the thread, pulling tightly, and going under the loops a few times. Make sure that it is well-secured, so that popcorn won't fall off, and then gently cut the thread.

*You can also alternate popcorn with fresh cranberries, or separate popcorn into a few small bowls and spray with a mixture of water and food colouring (the night before stringing to allow time to dry). I've seen it done with red, green, and white (un-coloured) popcorn, and it looks really neat!
4.  Carefully hang the garland onto your Christmas tree.