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Easy DIY Air Dry Clay Christmas Ornaments

Looking for unique ways to make Christmas Ornaments? Check out this Air Dry Clay Ornament Tutorial. Clay Christmas Ornaments DIY is a great way to create unique, one-of-a-kind ornaments for your tree.

Get the whole family involved and see who can create the best ornaments.

Gather fun supplies such as greenery, stamps, cookie cutters, and other household items to press into the clay.

Clay Christmas Ornaments DIY

Clay Christmas Ornaments DIY is fun for the whole family and is very kid-friendly as well as budget-friendly.

You can use a variety of supplies around your home to create the ornaments and keep the cost down.

Leaf Design Clay Ornament on flocked Christmas Tree

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Supplies for Air Dry Clay Ornaments

Here are a few things that I used to make my ornaments. Let your own creativity soar when choosing your supplies.

Supplies to make air dry clay ornaments for Christmas Tree

How To Make Air Dry Clay Ornaments

Begin by preparing your table surface.

I like thin, flexible cutting sheets to roll the clay onto.

Prepare Clay

Add a small amount of clay rolled into a ball to the cutting sheet. Use a rolling pin or sizeable smooth glass to roll the clay until it’s approx—1/4 inch thick.

Use rolling pin to make clay ornaments

Add Design to Clay

Next, add a design to your clay. Here I’ve used an evergreen leaf from my yard.

Press the leaf or other item into the clay and use your fingers to press firmly.

Make sure you don’t press deeply to avoid pushing through the clay.

Use sustainable materials to create farmhouse style air dry clay ornaments for the Christmas tree

Now you can place the biscuit cutter over the design and cut the clay in the area of the design you prefer.

Use round cutter to make a DIY Air Dry Clay Ornament for the holidays.

I only allowed the design to show on 1/2 of the ornament.

Cut the design with a biscuit cutter

Make a ornament hanger

Next, use a straw to punch a hole in the clay for the ornament hanger.

use Straw to cut a hole for the DIY Air Dry Clay Ornaments hanger

Finally, dampen your fingers and rub around the edges to smooth any uneven spots on the ornament.

Use dampened fingers to smooth edges of the ornaments.

How Long Do You Allow Air Dry Clay to Dry?

Now you can place your ornaments on a drying rack lined with wax paper to allow them to dry.

The clay Christmas Ornaments DIY will take a minimum of 24 hours for the ornaments to harden. You may want to wait 48-72 hours to ensure they will not break.

The hanger area is the most fragile, and I did break one of mine while adding the ribbon.

All Clay Christmas Ornaments DIY Project to dry before applying finish paint.

How To Finish Ornaments

Now it’s time to finish the air dry clay ornament. You may choose to paint the ornaments or leave them natural.

For this clay Christmas Ornaments DIY, I sprayed mine with metallic gold and copper paint.

Spray Paint the clay Christmas Ornaments DIY project with warm gold paint.

To Add Wax or Not?

After the paint is dry, you may want to add dark wax to the ornaments.

Use wax to enhance the design on the clay ornaments.

This is an optional step, and you can see the difference below. The addition of the wax helps to enhance the design stamped on the ornament.

Wax on clay ornament or leave plain with gold or copper spray paint.

Add Ribbon to Air Dry Clay Ornament

To add a ribbon to the air dry clay ornament, begin by cutting a length of ribbon approx. 10 inches long.

Gather both ends of the ribbon together and fold to push through the backside of the ornament hanger hole.

Gently pull the ribbon through the hole and run the ends back through the ribbon loop. Gently pull to tighten.

Note: Pulling the ribbon through the hole aggressively may cause the clay to break. I lost one ornament because of this.

Napkin Ring Charm

In addition to the ornaments, I made some charms for my napkins.

These are just smaller versions of the ornaments, but I love how easy they are to make. This idea can be adapted for any season by changing the words.

You may also remember these Pottery Barn-style Leaf Napkin Rings I made for fall from clay.

Air Dry Clay Ornament used as a napkin charm tied with copper ribbon around a linen napkin.

The ornaments look great with the other sustainable and cheap Christmas tree decorations.

You may also like to see these Easy Christmas Tree Ornaments made with hot glue and these Eco-friendly foraged DIY Ornaments for money-saving tips on Christmas Tree decorating.

Air Dry Clay Christmas Ornament with  warm gold spray paint and copper ribbon on woodland tree.

I added both gold and copper DIY clay Christmas ornaments to the tree.

Copper Air Dry Clay Christmas Ornament with gold ribbon on flocked Christmas Tree

However, I like the warm gold ornaments with the copper ribbons best.

Clay Christmas Ornaments DIY Project that you can get the whole family involved in.
Yield: one ornament

Easy DIY Air Dry Clay Christmas Ornaments

Easy DIY Air Dry Clay Christmas Ornaments

Easy to make Air Dry Clay Ornaments - Unique One-of-a-kind design that you can get the whole family involved in making.

Prep Time 1 minute
Active Time 5 minutes
Additional Time 1 day
Total Time 1 day 6 minutes
Difficulty Easy
Estimated Cost 2.00

Materials

  • Air Dry Clay
  • Spray Paint
  • Dark Wax (Optional)
  • Ribbon

Tools

  • biscuit cutter
  • foraged leaves, stems, etc.
  • alphabet stamps
  • Cookie cutters
  • Other optional items for stamping such as leaves, stamps, wooden cutouts, etc.

Instructions

  1. Roll out the clay on a cutting sheet until approx. 1/4 inch thick
  2. Press a design into the clay
  3. cut the desired design area with the biscuit cutter
  4. use a straw to make a hole for the hanger
  5. use dampened fingertips to smooth edges or ruff spots
  6. place on a drying rack
  7. Allow drying a min. of 24 hours
  8. Spray paint with the desired color
  9. Allow drying
  10. Use a dark watch to enhance the design (optional)
  11. Add ribbon to hang

Did you make this project?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Instagram

Thanks so much for stopping by. I look forward to sharing my next adventure with you.

Pin It To Remember It

Did you find some great ideas you’d like to save for future reference? Hover over the images you’d like to save and pin to your favorite Pinterest Boards when you see the PIN button.

Kim

Sunday 18th of December 2022

I just love these and they are definitely on my list to try and make! What a fun project with multiple uses! Merry Christmas, Rachel!😘

Rachel

Sunday 18th of December 2022

Kim, Thanks so much.

CoCo

Wednesday 14th of December 2022

Just pinned these, Rachel, they are so beautiful! I love how you added the metallic spray and aged them with the dark wax. They're fabulous! Hugs, CoCo

Rachel

Thursday 15th of December 2022

CoCo, You are so kind. Thanks so much for stopping by.

Wendy McMonigle

Tuesday 13th of December 2022

These are darling Rachel and look so great with the dried orange oranaments.

Rachel

Thursday 15th of December 2022

Wendy, Thanks so much. I appreciate your comments.

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