We made these handprint ornaments using our homemade clay recipe, but you could easily make them from salt dough or air dry clay if you prefer! Salt dough is one of our favouite doughs to work with, (as its cheap to make using ingredients we always have in the cupboard), but because we wanted a bright white dough for these clay ornaments we decided to use homemade white clay.
See all our salt dough ornaments
These adorable baby handprint ornaments were inspired by the story book 'The Mitten' by Jan Brett that I have been reading with Daisy (aged 4). Before making the baby handprint ornament that I am sharing today I spent the afternoon with Daisy mixing up some homemade clay and making a whole batch of smaller mitten shaped clay ornaments. Do check them out as we came up with so many different ways to decorate the white clay.
Scroll down below to see how to make your own clay baby handprint ornament
Clay Baby Handprint Ornament - The Cutest Baby Keepsake!
Below you will find the easy homemade clay recipe that we used to make these handprint ornaments. Alternatively you can buy white air dry clay or use our easy salt dough recipe.
See our recommended clay and salt dough supplies in our amazon store
Follow our video instructions
Homemade white clay recipe
Ingredients to make clay
- 1 cup baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
- 1/2 cup cornflour (cornstarch)
- 3/4 cup of hot water
How to make homemade clay
To make your own homemade white clay put the baking soda and cornflour into a saucepan. Add the hot water and mix the ingredients together over a low/ medium heat. The ingredients will begin to bubble and come away from the sides of the pan. Tip the dough out onto a hard surface and when cool enough knead the dough. The clay dough should feel soft, a bit like playdough!
How to make a clay baby handprint ornament
Handprint Ornament Supplies
- Clay (use the recipe above or buy air dry clay)
- Mitten cookie cutter
- Rolling pin
- Straw
- Acrylic paint
- Paint brush
- Glue
- Glitter
- Twine, string or ribbon
STEP 1: Gather your supplies
Before starting to make this handprint ornament make sure you have all your supplies to hand. This will make things so much easier, especially as this craft is to make with babies or toddlers!
STEP 2: Cut a mitten shape from clay
Roll out the clay so it's about 1cm thick and use your mitten cookie cutter to cut out a mitten shape.
If your don't have a mitten shaped cookie cutter you could cut out a mitten shape using a knife after you have made your handprint
STEP 3 : Make a handprint in the clay
Next you need to help your baby or toddler to make a handprint on the clay mitten shape. This is easier said than done!
I found that when doing this craft with Oliver (10 months) it helped to let him play with some of the dough first and then distract him with the rolling pin that he had seen me using. I put him in his highchair and used the highchair table to place the mitten shaped clay dough on.
When making the handprint in the clay dough you need to press each finger down slightly to leave an imprint. This may take a couple of attempts before you get a clear handprint that you are totally happy with. If your first handprint doesn't work simply roll the clay back into a ball and start again.
If you have a really fidgety baby or toddler you may find is easier to make the handprint first and then cut out the mitten shape afterwards. Just experiement and see what you find works best for you!
STEP 3: Make a hole for hanging your handprint ornament
Once you are happy with the handprint that you have made in the clay you need to add a small hole so that once dry you will be able to hang your baby handprint. The easiest way that we have found to make a hole in clay or salt dough is to press a straw into the dough. When you remove the straw there will be a small hole.
STEP 4: Dry out clay
Next you will need to dry out your clay. If you are using our homemade clay recipe you can do this by putting your clay ornaments into the oven at a low temperature (100.C) or you can leave them to dry overnight in a warm room. If you place your ornaments in the oven keep checking on them as they dry out quite quickly and you don't want them to burn. If you decided to buy air dry clay to make your handprint ornament simply leave them on a flat surface to dry for a day or two.
STEP 5: Decorate your baby handprint ornament
There are several ways that you can decorate these handprint keepsakes. If you want to keep it simple you could leave the handprint ornaments as they are! The bright white clay looks great left as it is and it means you arent distracted from the natural creases on your child's tiny handprint.
Another way to decorate your baby handprint ornament is to paint it. You could paint the whole ornament, or what I personally think looks amazing is to paint either just the handprint or just the background. Experiment with different colours and ideas!
If you want to add a bit of glitz to your clay handprint ornament use glitter in place of paint! I love how the gold glitter really stands out against the white clay.
To add glitter simply paint the part of the handprint that you want glitter added to with glue and then sprinkle glitter over the top. Again you could either fill the handprint with glitter or the rest of the mitten shape.
Adding a name to your handprint keepsake is also a really nice added touch. I used a gold sharpie pen to add Oliver's name.
STEP 6: Add twine to hang clay ornament
You are almost finished making this beautiful clay handprint ornament now, you just need to thread some twine, string or ribbon through the hole so that your baby handprint is ready for hanging!
It could be fun to make your own clay baby handprint as a Christmas ornament, or even to give to family as a homemade Christmas gift. However, making a beautiful baby keepsake to treasure your babies little handprints forever is fun at anytime of the year!
We hope that you and your baby or toddler enjoy making and treasuring a clay handprint ornament of your own! I love the baby handprint ornaments I made with Oliver!
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