Handmade Heart Ornaments – and a giveaway!

I’ve been on a bit of an ornament making kick lately.  I made these super simple beaded ones last week with my kids and they turned out so well, that I wanted to dress them up a bit so that we could give to our friends and family as gifts.  I am thinking they will make wonderful Thanksgiving gifts.  Sort of a way to get people into the Christmas spirit!

Supplies

• Clay
• Beads
• Cord or String
• Paint
• Scissors
• Knife
• Rolling pin

Start off by breaking off a piece of your clay.  I used 1/8 of my package and it made 4 clay hearts.  Soften the clay by working it with your hands, basically loving, squeezing and rolling it until it is soft and pliable.  Then you will want to roll it into a ball and place it on a clean, dry surface.  Roll it out, flipping it periodically until it is about 1/4-1/2″ thick.

Once you have it all rolled out you can either use cookie cutters or a sharp knife to cut out your shapes.  I like the free form shape of the hearts when they are cut out with a knife, but that might just be because I don’t own any cookie cutters.  🙂  Once you have them all cut out poke a hole through them using a paper clip or other sharp pokey thing. Place them on a glass or metal baking dish and bake according to the package directions.

Once they are done baking let them cool off.  Once cool paint them with whatever color you like, I did mine with a metallic gold paint from DecoArt.  Once the paint is dry you will want to cut off about 15 inches of string.  String it through until both ends of the string are the same length and then tie a knot as close to the heart as you can.  Then tie another knot about an inch higher.  Start stringing your beads through both pieces of string.  For this part I needed to use a needle so that I could get it all through the bead holes.  When you have about 3 inches of string left tie your third and final knot at the top.  Repeat this process for all your hearts.

Now they are ready for you to gift to your friends and family or keep them for your own tree! 😉

If you’re still looking for hand made gifts I encourage you to check out the following bloggers who are sharing some of their best!

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