White Clay Leaf Print Ornaments

It’s day 8 of our countdown to Christmas. I’m sharing a Christmas science idea with you at the beginning of each day until Christmas. Day 8’s activity is White Clay Leaf Print Ornaments.

White Clay Leaf Print Ornaments

Every year we make homemade ornaments. Last year we were all about using Mod Podge. The year before that we filled glass balls with different things. This year we made leaf print ornaments – my Christmas spin on fossil making or leaf impressions.

I’ve made white cornstarch clay for a glow in the dark Halloween craft before. I wasn’t happy with the recipe so I searched for a new one. I found this white clay tutorial from The Imagination Tree. I always love Anna’s play dough recipes, so I knew this one would work well for us. It is a cooked play dough with baking soda and cornstarch and is soft and lovely.

Aiden rolled out the dough and cut out shapes for ornaments. Then, we pressed leaves and pine needles into the clay together. I punched holes into the tops of the ornaments for adding string later.

I baked the leaf printed clay for about an hour at 200 degrees F. {I turned the ornaments over after about 45 minutes.} You can also let the white clay air dry overnight.

The leaf imprints became much more obvious once the clay dried. We hung the leaf impressions on the tree. Don’t they make lovely ornaments?

What kind of imprints will you make in your ornaments? In addition to leaves, you can make impressions with other nature objects like shells and sticks. You could also make imprints with toys.

I’ll see you tomorrow for Day 8’s Christmas science activity.

More Christmas Activities for Kids

• Catch all of our Christmas Science Advent Calendar ideas.
• Explore pine needles and Christmas trees and take our Christmas science challenge.
• Turn your child’s art into a great Christmas project with these 15 Christmas ideas with children’s art.
• Check out all of our Christmas ideas.

Stay connected with Inspiration Laboratories so you don’t miss a thing! We’re on Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, or Facebook .  You can also subscribe to my posts by e-mail.

 

 

Linking up here.