Make Bakeable Ornaments
Edited by Witz Taluban, Robbi, Nerissa Avisado, Eng and 3 others
Surprise your friends and make bake-able ornaments in different shapes and sizes. Mesmerize them with your ninja-like skills in the kitchen by crafting different designs for them, or just make them for your own home. You will see how effortless such a feat can be with this quick and easy guide for making bake-able ornaments in your kitchen.
This craft will not only yield personalized gifts you can give to friends and family over the holidays; if you have children who are old enough to enjoy making their own projects, you will also be building priceless memories with them. It will be a very valuable experience, especially now that holidays have become so commercialized.
While doing crafts, you can allow your children to express their artistic side. You can also use the things you bake as educational items. For example, you can talk about seashells and create pieces to look like their favorite species. Or, you can make each other's favorite flowers. When your children are all grown up, remembering this happy time will bring a smile to your lips and theirs. Give this project a try and you may very well find your family adopting a new tradition of your own.
Basic Bake-able Ornaments
The ingredients and the procedure laid out in this first recipe are extremely simple and safe. Once you've created a batch of ornaments, you will probably want to fully explore your talents in this craft.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup of salt
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 1/2 to 1 cup of water
- Water-based paints
Procedure:
- 1Add the first three ingredients carefully.Prepare your bowl, making sure it is thoroughly clean.
- 2Do not stir too much; this will result in a thickened dough that will have the tendency to break easily.Add water to the mixture gradually while stirring gently.
- 3You can now start shaping the dough into whatever shape you like. Be creative! You can make Superman, or Wonder Woman, or any other interesting figure.Once you notice that the mixture is cohesive enough, roll the newly made dough onto a clean, flat surface.
- 4Bake the dough for about one hour.Get your oven up and running to 250-300 degrees Fahrenheit.
- 5Guide your child carefully if he or she wants to make some ornaments with you.Remember to work safely.
- 6Paint with water-based paints and allow to dry completely.
Beautiful Ornaments for your Tree
Your Christmas tree will be more meaningful to everyone if you hang some ornaments that you made with your children. With proper care, these ornaments can last for years.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup salt
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup water
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- Water-based paints
- Beads and sequins
- Glue
Procedure:
- 1Combine all dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl.
- 2Add oil and water to dry ingredients, stirring until well blended.
- 3Keep stirring until the dough holds together. Gather into a ball, and knead until smooth and elastic.Mix well.
- 4Use a rolling pin to roll dough on a cutting board to about half an inch thick.Roll out the dough.
- 5Cut out into desired shapes with a cookie cutter or create your own designs with the use of a blunt knife. You can also create shapes manually.Create shapes.
- 6Punch a hole at the ornament's top portion so that you can later thread through some yarn or a fine ribbon to hang the decoration.Put a hole in.
- 7Place ornaments on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Bake at 250 degrees for 1½ hours or until very hard but only slightly browned. If the ornaments are browning too quickly, lower oven heat.Bake the ornaments.
- 8Remove ornaments from oven and cool completely.Cool.
- 9Paint with water-based paints if desired. Lightly glue on beads, sequins, or trim such as ric-rac, lace or ribbons.Decorate.
- 10Once the décor is fully dry, thread ribbon or yarn through the hole in the ornament and hang.Hang.
Optional: You can glaze the decorations using quick-dry, colorless nail lacquer. Dry fully before hanging.
12 Days of Christmas
You can use this recipe to create ornaments patterned after the song "12 Days of Christmas". Make the figures in three batches and allocate each batch to make 26 individual ornaments so you will have the complete set of 78 gifts mentioned in the song.
Ingredients:
- 4 cups flour
- 1 cup salt
- 1½ cups warm water
- Poster paints
- Polyurethane spray
Procedure:
- 1Preheat oven to 300 degrees F or 150 degrees C.
Tips, Tricks and Warnings
- You don't have to limit yourself to the "12 Days of Christmas" when you make your ornaments. A Noah's ark set, a herd of sheep, or a gingerbread family would be just as nice. These sets would make marvelous gifts for friends during the holidays. Just allow your imagination to run free!
- Knead slowly and thoroughly, stretching the dough to activate the gluten.
- Allow the shaped ornaments to sit for an hour before baking. This will help prevent them from puffing up.
- To have sweet-smelling ornaments, you can add some cinnamon and nutmeg to the flour before mixing the liquids in.
- If kids join you in this exercise, allow them to create less than perfect ornaments and be properly appreciative of their efforts. Hang their ornaments proudly; you just may inspire them when you display that lopsided star.
If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.
