Ornaments: Painted Dough Ornaments

 When Blythe was a baby, she came to Texas and spent her first Christmas with us.  It was truly a precious memory, and I got to start a tradition with her that we have been carrying forward, and I hope will mean a lot to her in the future.  That first year we took her hand print and pressed it on a glass ornament I filled with 'snow' to also commemorate her first white Christmas.  The next year I made a gingerbread shaped ornament and pressed her thumb into it.  This year, she was finally old enough to do a little more than be held still while we pressed random digits into materials.  I used a really simple recipe to make up some dough ornaments. 

 Dough Ornament Recipe:  2 c. flour, 1/2 c. salt, 3/4 c. water.  Mix, knead, roll out to about 1/8 inch (this made 6 Christmas tree cookie cutter shaped ornaments). Cut out, I inserted a hole using a straw to thread later with string, and then and baked for 2 hours at 250. 

 Once they were cooled, I gave Blythe some paint (you can use, whatever-watercolor, glitter and glue, etc), and she went to town. 

 She soon adopted a technique for dipping her brush in every color before decorating, which accidently turned out to be a reddish color, and green. 

 She was really proud and kept asking anyone who walked by to look and see what she was doing.  She worked super hard, and only paint a portion of her face in the process, certainly less damage than I do when painting!  I had her mama write her name and the year on the back, and then I used a clear coat of spray paint on both sides to give them a little extra protection against aging.  Wish that  would work on me...

 I threaded some ribbon through the holes...

 And Blythe has ornament #3 to add to her tree.  We are actually now going to be working on ornament 4, and this year we will be incorporating her little brother in the mix.