December Daily Craft, 5

Fimo Ornaments

I made these a few years ago... I found a multi pack of 19 colours of Fimo in the clearance bin at The Walmart... and used my fingers and a toothpick to make all of these :) How to Make Fimo Clay Ornaments 1) Buy some basic colors... green, warm red, pearly white, navy blue, orange, silver, gold and brown. They sell these individually at Michaels for about $3 a brick. Some of the ones I bought had a fine sparkle in the Fimo; those turned out really nice for Christmas :] Important: Work on a clean surface or you might get crumbs in your creation. ick. 2) Get out a glass baking dish. You can place your pieces on this and later, cook it on here. 3) Start by creating the base part of your project. For example, the green part of the Xmas tree or the snowman's round face. Tear off a chunk of Fimo and work it in with your hands...like you're kneading bread. Always knead the clay before molding it. 4) Once it's softer, shape each piece with your hands. Pressing, molding & rubbing to smooth it. 5) Kiss each piece against the other piece. Once you see that you like your layout, gently press them together so they hold onto each other. (later)You will be cooking the ornament all-put-together. 6) With the edge of a toothpick, I added gentle little lines along the outside edges of my tree. It sorta made the appearance of pine needles :) 7) Next, add the other structural components... A hat on the snowman, or the star and trunk of the tree. Gently press them on the same way as you assembled in step 5. Again, use a toothpick to add dimension lines and texture (see the stars and trunk). But restrain from going Overboard with Goldie Hawn. TIP: Don't be afraid to layer! On the snowman's blue touque/hat, I added a band along the base to resemble a fold :) And later, I added hearts along that fold :] 8) This is my favorite part...all the cute character decorations :) Tiny fimo balls in a row for popcorn & cranberry garland... polka dots on the hat and all over the tree (ornaments). And especially the snowmans face--- Eeek! I remember the carrot nose had me squeeling (add toothpick cracks for real carrotness). Tip: To press down the hats polka dots, I used the the pointy tip of a toothpick...made them look like pompoms. And I added one dot to all the popcorns and cranberries :) (For the K and the Star, I used little cookie cutters :) 9) Using your toothpick, widdle a hole somewhere so you can hang it on the tree. 10) Cook it on a glass baking dish for about 30 minutes on 275degrees. 11) Let decorations cool and add a wire or string thru the hole and hang them on your tree :) Note: If any of your pieces ever fall off (like my big snowmans carrot nose) just make a new one, bake it and glue it on with whatever :) Kids can make these too! Just make sure you do the baking :) Elsie made some ornaments recently; Here are two tips I learned from her: Tip One: If you just want to buy one color of fimo (she uses sculpey brand), you can paint your ornament (after it's baked) using acrylic paint :) Also, Sculpey sells a gloss that makes them look quite dashing :) Tip Two: Before it's baked, cut a piece of wire, fold it in a little loop and gently jab it in... it will cook in permanently :) Here's one I made with Elsie's tips :) Other Things... :) Place old broken vintage ornaments in a bowl :) Very pretty :) While making your crafts, take pictures along the way. These were from our family's bulb ornaments and I'll use this picture in our Christmas Mini Album :) Lol, blurriest photo ever...but I like it :) Keith took it of me blogging yesterday. The blurryness also disguises the messy craft tornado that went off ;) Lol. My boyfriend always sings this country twang song about me: "Leigh-Annn is a mannnn". So I made perler bead revolvers as a gentle "warning" ;) Lol, and then made the baby into a tree ornament. Guns don't kill people. Perler Beads do. I ordered this from Mallory (love that name!) She's the cutest Californian and I loved this print! I bought it the day I started dreaming again :) And she has some CAA-UTE packaging!! Brother, I love you Number 1! :) Have a great weekend everyone! I'll be back with Daily December Crafts on Monday!...and pictures of our Tree and Christmas Lights! Eeeep!