Last Minute DIY Christmas Craft!

Can I squeeze in another DIY Christmas craft!?

These ornaments are made from air dry clay using stamps, acrylic paint, acrylic gloss, fine glitter, and shimmery thread.

Air dry clay is the next best thing to using actual real clay; but much more accessible and there are some really good ones out there on the market now, so play around with different brands to find the one you like best because they all have different qualities. They are getting the mixes of these air dry clays better and better, and some of them feel as though you are using real clay.

I rolled out the clay first then cut out shapes using Christmas cookie cutters as my guide. I traced around them as I wanted them bigger than the cutters I had, but you could also just use the cutters to cut the shapes if the are the size you want.

I used Christmas-themed stamps and various high-tech-tools like a knitting needle and wooden skewer to make impressions into the clay, then I left them to dry.

Once dry, I coated them with gesso and dried that using a hair dryer. Then a coat of acrylic gloss. You want something shiny that will enable paint to wipe away from later. Dry the gloss. Then use some acrylic paint in you choice of colour and paint all over, getting in all the indents of the decorative elements. Wipe back with a damp rag to reveal the texture and bring out contrast. 

Then once the acrylic paint was dry, I painted a final coat of gloss and sprinkled some fine glitter into the gloss while it was still wet.

Make personalised ornaments using an alphabet stamp set

Add some pretty thread to the top for a hanger, and you're done! 

Check out the video below to see in detail how I made this Christmas decoration craft:

And if you're feeling extra crafty, I also recently made this fox Christmas decoration craft into a tutorial for Alisa Burke. You can find that tutorial here.

Really, I want Christmas to go for a bit longer this year, as I haven't made all the decorations I wanted to! Lucky (!?) the years go fast so next Christmas will be here before I know it!

I hope you enjoyed my last minute DIY Christmas craft!

Jules :)