Homemade Handprint Ornaments
This year for Christmas, I wanted to do a homemade craft with my 8-month-old daughter, Zoey…but I was completely perplexed as to what we could do that would actually involve her! Luckily for me, I have some really crafty friends, and my friend Jessie (who happens to be a super-awesome mom to twins) inspired me by trying homemade handprint ornaments with her little ones, who are just a month older than Zoey. While Zoey wasn’t the most willing participant, we did manage to get several really cute ornaments that will make great gifts for grandparents and aunties this holiday season!
Homemade Handprint Ornaments
Author/Source:
Jimmie @ Onceamonthmom.com (adapted from this recipe)
Ingredients:
- 1 cup flour
- 1/4 cup salt
- 7 tbsp water
- Round cookie cutter (I used a drinking glass instead)
- 1 drinking straw
- Craft paint
- Ribbon
Directions:
Preheat oven to 300°F. Mix together flour, salt, and water. Knead for 15 minutes (or use the dough hook on your stand mixer – so easy!). Roll out the dough to no more than 1/4-inch thick, then use the cookie cutter (or glass) to make rounds. Press child’s hand into dough. If you’re doing this with really little ones, you may have to go back and make deeper impressions of their hands with your fingers or a kitchen utensil–the deeper the impression, the better your ornaments will turn out! Use a straw to poke a hole in each ornament (this is where the ribbon will go later). Place on a baking sheet and bake for 40-45 minutes, until golden. Wait for ornaments to cool, then paint as desired and thread a ribbon through each straw hole to create ornament hangers.
Freezing Directions:
Not recommended for this recipe.
Servings: 1 batch will yield approximately 6-8 ornaments.
I did this exact thing with my kids! Here is ours! http://livelearnlove226.blogspot.com/2009/11/salt-dough-ornaments.html
Great idea! I just tried it & after my ornament was placed in the oven, the flour rose & made the handprint disappear :( do you have any suggestions for me?
Oh no!! Sorry Angie! I’m not sure what happened my thought maybe it was self rising flour?
I have tried this twice now and both times I had the same problem with them rising and the hand prints disappearing. I made sure I did not use self-rising each time. Not sure what I am doing wrong? This is such a cute idea for the kids to do, hate they keep not turning out.
Angie,
I had the same problem last night. Have you found any solutions. I was so dissapointed!
Try cooking them at a lower temp (200) for a longer time (about an hour). I can’t explain the science of why this work, but lower and slower cooking seems to do the trick.
I just tried this, my pre baking prints were beautiful but once they went into the oven they puffed up really bad and the prints disappeared. Is there a trick that I’m missing??
I’ve been doing these for years and i just let them air dry it takes a few days though
I think the puffing up problem may have to do with how long the dough is kneaded. 15 – 20 minutes is quite a stretch of time in the real world and if youre anything like me, I only knead my for about 5 minutes….. what happened? Puffy ornaments! Next batch I will kneaded for the full 20 minutes.
Thank you! I have been looking for something like this. Now i have a craft for my almost 1 month old and christmas gifts :)
Great idea! I remember my boys making ornaments a few years ago and they added some ground clove to the dough. They still smell good, too!
I did this last night with my kids – huge success! http://child-bearing-hips.blogspot.com/2011/12/handprints.html
Did this last night with my girlies! Love it!
http://janetsmith0718.blogspot.com/2011/12/craft-time.html
I did this tonight with my kids. I baked them for a full hour but they were still a bit soft. They puffed up through the center and when I look at the bottom its basically a big concave doughy bowl in the middle. I’m not sure if it would be ok to put them back in or not.
Tara – Mine were a little soft on the back as well, but I just let them sit on a cooling rack overnight and they dried out.
I just got a 9 week old puppy and did this with him so I can remember his puppyhood lol love it
I just added a few drops of food coloring and some glitter to the flour mixture and it turned out so great, since my girls are not old enough to paint them.
Are they terribly fragile? I want to ship these to out of state family and friends as gifts, but don’t want them to break on the way there!
If you make them thick they’re pretty hard. If you bubble wrap them and send them they should be just fine.
Do i have to bake them immediately? i teach a preschool class and want to do them at class then take them home to bake them?
Danielle, I think they could dry out a little but not too bad. You could do a test one and see how it does first.
So I ran out of salt at my house, will this work without salt or can I use seasoning salt? My 4 year old was looking forward to doing this & was heartbroken when I told him we had no salt.
I was wondering how long these last? Thought it might be cute to make new ones every year and decorate tree with all the handprints from years past.
They definitely last over a year. I can’t tell you if they last 20 yet ;)
My daughter did one in Kindergarten and she is 50 this year and I still have it in good condition. It also has been moved over 18 times and not a crack in it. :-) It’s a nice keepsake. Wish I had one for my son.
That’s SO sweet Marcy!
I can tell you they last for well over 20 years. When I was a child, we made these in daycare. I am almost 30, and I still have mine. Your idea will work beautifully! ;-)
This recipe is great! Much better than the baking soda corn starch recipe I found. What sort of craft paint did you use? It looks shiny which I like. I have some acrylic, will the ornament soak it up though?
Dana, I haven’t personally made them yet, but I don’t think the acrylic will soak through that badly. I think Jimmie used a basic craft paint.
Thanks for sharing. Now I wish I had a mixer to knead the dough.
I’m sure these will do just fine if you let them air dry. Put them on a rack to dry. It will just take longer than bakig them, but it would alleviate the “rising” in the middle
Mine rose a little too but took them out and pushed them back down and poked a few little holes in them and reduced heat to 200 F an baked for two hours. My concern is they still feel a little soft I’m going to put them bake in the over and let air dry for a few days before painting.
How did that work? I did the same thing and figured I’d let them sit overnight… Its only been a couple of hours though…
Well I live in a dry climate (Colorado) so it helped. I honestly forgot about them for a day or so and they were totally dried out.
I can’t wait to do this art project with my 4 yr old daughter and 5 and 3 yr old nieces. But I’m a little concerned about the rising issue. I read all the posts, but didn’t see any solutions. Nina wrote something about it a few lines up, but I’m not sure if she was talking about not having salt in the recipe, or using a mixer to knead the dough. Maybe I will try Victoria’s method: lower the heat and extend the baking time :) Wish me luck.
Could you do this with other cookie cutters and not just handprints???
yes you could!
I have a great tip!!!!!! After you bake these off and they cool, Paint with Elmers glue then sprinkle with glitter. Shake off excess it will look amazing hanging from your tree!
I grew up making salt dough ornaments with my mother, and this year I finally get to make them with my new son! A tip for the dough is to add maybe two drops of hand dishwashing liquid. It helps sticking and also I think to help keep the dough from rising. You can also try adding more salt to the dough. Bake them low and slow.
What a great tip Stacey!!
I just made this for some relatives for Christmas. Since my kids have big hands, I simply rolled out the dough, and baked it at 250F for an hour. I had no puffing and no rising (I just used regular flour). What I did notice though is the thinner you make the ornaments, the better the handprints turn out. But they all look fabulous!
Wow.. this is such a cute idea. I know Christmas is far away but I am going to try this soon for some occasion with my 2 years old.
Do you paint them after they have dried, or do you mix in the paint or food coloring with the mixture and then do the handprint? Also, can they just be air dried?
I paint them after they have dried. You can dye the dough if you’d like but I like to paint mine afterward. You can air dry them but it will take significantly longer.