Grammy Cher, one of our Mommy Auctions store owners, recently posted a great craft/gift/holiday recipe in our forum and I just couldn’t resist sharing it with you here! I really LOVE that these ornaments last so long. Our family tree is covered with personalized ornaments, several of which are dough ornaments (I won’t divulged my age but these ornaments have been around a while). Below are the two recipes, straight from Grammy Cher (ChersWares).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bread Dough Ornaments

You and your kiddos (big & little!) can get really creative with this craft. These ornaments make fun gifts, gift tags, magnets … or whatever else you can think up! Here’s what you’ll need:

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup salt
1 1/2 cups water
Cookie cutters and straws
Craft (Elmers) glue
Craft paint
Glitter (any any other decorative finishes you can think of!)
Clear polyurethane spray
Ribbon (or small magnets)

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees
2. Mix flour, salt, and water; knead for 8-10 minutes. Roll out on lightly floured surface. Use cookie cutters to cut out your favorite shapes. Use straw to cut hole in the top (for ornament ribbon). Bake on cookie sheet for 30-45 minutes, then allow to cool.
3. Once shapes have cooled, decorate by painting, adding glitter, or other decorative items. (NOTE! On the bell ornament, daughter used a meat tenderizer mallet to gently press the pattern in it!)
4. Allow paint/glue to dry then spray with clear polyurethane (on both sides) to preserve.
5. Let the spray dry, then you can attach ribbon to hang from (or magnet if you prefer putting it on the fridge).

The ornaments shown in the above photo are ones my daughters made over 20 years ago - they do hold up well !!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cinnamon Ornaments

These non-edible ornaments are fantastic not only at Christmas, but as house-warming gifts throughout the year. Just use different cookie cutters for the different seasons!

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 cup ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup applesauce
2 tablespoons (Elmers/craft) glue
Ribbon, lace, or other fabric embellishments.

1. In a medium bowl, stir together the cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.
2. Mix in the applesauce and glue. Work the mixture with your hands 2 to 3 minutes to form a ball. If mixture is too wet, add more cinnamon. If mix is too dry, add more applesauce.
3. Lightly dust a clean surface with cinnamon. Roll out the dough to 1/4″ thickness.
4. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters, and use a toothpick to make a hole at the top for hanging with a ribbon.
5. Place on cookie sheet and dry in a slow oven at 200 degrees for several hours (can also air dry in a sunny spot for 4 or 5 days.) Turn several times during drying process.
6. When dry, you can decorate with little bows, ribbons, or other fabric embellishments.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Share This

This entry was posted on Friday, December 14th, 2007 at 5:00 am and is filed under Great Gifts, Holidays, Random. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.