Oven Flour Clay Ornaments

For this gift, featured on Familycrafts.about.com,you use household ingredients to make a flour clay. You bake; you decorate; and end up with cute, inexpensive ornaments for your tree. So simple and fun even your kids can make them.

Materials:

2 Cups Flour
1 Cup Salt
2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
3/4 - 1 Cup Water

Cookie Cutters

Colorful Paints (optional)

Drinking Straw

Directions:

Mix together flour and salt.
Add the oil
Slowly add the water and stir until you get a nice clay consistency.
Once completely mixed, roll dough to desired thickness.
Use cookie cutters to make shapes.
Use drinking straw to punch out a whole to hang the ornament.
Bake in a 250 degree oven for approximately 1 hour. This will vary depending on how thick you creations are. (One hint, do not make shapes too thick or they will crack with baking. )

Decorate:

Have a ball! Deck these little flour clay creations with glee. For a golden appearance, paint your creations with egg yolk before you put it in the oven. Or decorate these new ornaments with acrylic paints after baking. If you need to add beads or pom-poms for eyes or noses, use a little craft glue. If you would like to preserve the paint for longer ornament life, spray some craft sealent or gloss on the ornament after you've finished decorating. Get your kids involved. Some of my favorite ornaments I made as a child were some of these. They are easy and fun keepsakes to bring out every Christmas.

*Thanks are due to Familycrafts.about.com for the use of their information.