Every year I choose a special ornament that goes with something special that happened that year to add to our Christmas tree. My mother-in-law did this and wrote the dates on all my husband's ornaments from his childhood and when he and I got married, I wanted to carry on the tradition.
This year has been an especially hard year for us and trying to find an ornament has proven quite difficult. While scrolling through Pinterest, I found the answer to my dilemma...
make our own ornaments! Perfect. And with all our Mother Goose Time supplies, this would be fun, easy, and hopefully a family tradition!
Once we made the clay and added a few drops of Peppermint Essential Oil to our recipe to trigger all the senses, we gathered our supplies, including our letter cookie cutters and shape stamps from Mother Goose Time.
Sweet Pea and I would make balls of clay. Afterwards I would press them flat with the bottom of one of our glass plates. This allowed for a great circle shape that was equal in thickness and smooth in texture. Sweet Pea would then get to work with her stamps and cookie cutters.
We really wanted an ornament that was an "A", since Sweet Pea's name starts with "A".
Do not forget to use a straw or toothpick to make some holes to lace ribbon into your ornament!
Our ornaments needed drying time, so I put them on a cookie sheet and placed it on the counter for a few days, rotating them to help with the drying time. The recipe made a ton of dough that keeps when wrapped in damp paper towels and in a plastic ziploc bag with hardly any air in it.
Our ornaments needed drying time, so I put them on a cookie sheet and placed it on the counter for a few days, rotating them to help with the drying time. The recipe made a ton of dough that keeps when wrapped in damp paper towels and in a plastic ziploc bag with hardly any air in it.
It's sitting on my counter now, a full week later.
Sweet Pea loved doing this activity so much that the next day she asked for her "White Playdough" to make some more ornaments. So we used our "O" cookie cutter to make some wreaths.
After a few days of drying, it was time to paint our ornaments. I put some red, yellow, and blue tempra paint into some cups for Sweet Pea and she grabbed her paintbrush.
Mother Goose Time has given us so many opportunities to paint and work on fine motor skills, especially in their Invitations to Create! I was so impressed with Sweet Pea's painting technique as she held the paintbrush.
Finger painting always wins out eventually, of course!
After the ornaments dried, I laced some ribbon through the holes and put some glitter glue on the star. I painted the "O" green and added embellishments to make our wreath ornament. The pine cone pressing that Sweet Pea added to the "O" made the ideal texture for the wreath.
All of the ornaments are so beautiful on our tree and they are perfect to commemorate something great that happened this year:
all the learning, painting, and fun my girl and I have had with Mother Goose Time.
No comments:
Post a Comment