I painted our Santas in layers, that is, that I went through and painted the swipe of skin tone on all of the ornaments first, then went back and painted the white pom pom in the thumb and made the white fur trim of the Santa hat next, and then did the red hat. For painting, I didn’t use anything fancy, just acrylic craft paints in red, white, black, and flesh tone. Now that you have perfectly hardened little hand prints, it’s time to paint! I like to spray each with clear acrylic spray sealer first, just to give me a good, smooth base for painting. The waiting is actually the hardest part! In 2 days, turn each hand over so that the back side can also be exposed to the air and the ornaments can dry out all the way through. Don’t bake them, though! Just set the cookie sheet in a safe place and let the hand prints dry out. Just like cut-out sugar cookies, we used a spatula to transfer the little hand print cut-outs onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Now let the hand prints dry for about 4 days. Don’t forget to punch a small hole near the heel of each dough hand print so that you can add a ribbon for hanging later! Remember that the hand is going to hang on the tree with its fingers down, since the fingers form Santa’s beard. When the hard part was done, I used a sharp knife and cut out around the edge of each hand print, leaving a thin edge around the whole hand. If the dough is a little sticky, rub some flour on your kiddo’s palm before pressing. Then I just rotated the dough and we repeated the process until I had eight little hand prints. With his hand down, I made sure to give a little extra (gentle) press of each finger and the heel of his hand to ensure a good impression. (Not including Liam’s hands!) Lucas held Liam and I pressed his hand into the dough. Making the hand prints with a 5.5 month old took two sets of hands. I didn’t grab a ruler or anything so I can’t tell you exactly how thick or thin we rolled our dough out to, but remember that you need it to be thick enough so that when the hand is pressed into the dough that the indention doesn’t make the ornament too thin in places, and thus super fragile. It’s kind of like making holiday sugar cookies now roll your dough out to form an even, flat disc of dough. Sprinkle flour on your work surface and grab a rolling pin. Not too grainy or dry, and not too sticky. Â You want a nice soft, smooth ball of dough to work with. I found that if it was a tad too dry to form the perfect ball of dough that all I needed to do was wet my hands a little and get back to kneading. Use your hands to combine it all really well and begin forming “dough.” Knead, knead, and knead some more until you get the right consistency. Mix the flour and salt thoroughly in a large mixing bowl, and add the water. Teaching 4th grade and making salt dough maps of Indiana in the classroom paid off here’s the recipe I used to make the perfect salt dough clay: We even made the clay together, too! The best part? This project was “free” for me to make since I already had all the materials at home, and I bet you do, too! Here’s how we did it:įirst you’re going to need some clay. I saw a picture of a hand print Santa floating around Pinterest recently but there was no how-to, so I decided to replicate the idea and turn it into a special gift to celebrate Liam’s first Christmas. UPDATE Dec 2012: Thanks for all the love on this post! This year we made a Hand Print Star Tree Topper for our Christmas tree … be sure to check that out, too, for another fun DIY holiday craft idea. What better way to save Liam’s hand print than to make an ornament out of it for the tree? I bet most kids are on winter break now, too, so here’s a great project you can do together. We got crafty and made some homemade ornaments for family this year! Now that I have a little one, every little thing seems like a memory I must preserve somehow.
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