Welcome back to 7 Days of DIY Ornaments! Today, we’re going to be making the cutest DIY clay ornaments.

I don’t know about your kids, but mine are obsessed with air dry clay. My oldest son has a giant stash of it and is constantly creating tiny creatures with it…and he’s honestly pretty great at it! So, when I was brainstorming ideas for DIY Christmas ornaments we could make, I knew some DIY clay ornaments would be so much fun for him.

And, they turned out so cute!

Simple painted clay ornaments with text overlay - how to make easy DIY clay ornaments

This is a really great craft to do with all ages – for younger kids (like my 3 year old), you can cut the shapes out ahead of time and just let them paint the ornaments. For older kids, you can let them go wild with their own creations. You could also use cookie cutters to cut out shapes (which is what we did for most of our ornaments) and that’s a great strategy for kids of all ages.

And let’s be honest, it’s also a great strategy for some creatively-challenged adults like myself!

Easy DIY Clay Ornaments

You’ll Need…

Step 1: Roll out your clay and cut shapes

young boy making ornaments with oven bake clay

Start by cutting off a piece of polymer clay and rolling it out to about 1/4″ thick. You can use a regular rolling pin or a cup – if you’ve got a Play-Doh rolling pin on hand, that would be perfect!

Once you’ve got it all rolled out, it’s time to cut out some shapes. You can use cookie cutters to get a really perfect shape, or you can use a butter knife (or, again, a Play-Doh knife) to cut your own. I loved having a mix of both – I liked the rustic, handmade look of the ones that are cut out, but the crisp, clean lines of the cookie cutter ones are really satisfying too!

After you’ve cut out whatever shapes you want, be sure to poke a hole near the top of the ornament for hanging! I like to use a straw to create the hole – I find that it’s about the perfect size. This time around, I forgot to make a hole at all, so….oops??

Step 2: Bake ornaments

Once everything is cut out and you’ve made as many clay ornaments as you want to make, it’s time to bake them.

Arrange them on a cookie sheet – I’d recommend using parchment paper underneath just so they don’t end up sticking once they bake. You don’t need to worry about spacing them much, because they shouldn’t spread at all when baking.

Check the directions on the polymer clay you’re using for specific directions on how to bake. For mine, I set the oven to 275 and baked them for 15 minutes.

Once they’re done, they’ll look basically the same, but they should be harder!

Step 3: Paint!

Boy painting clay ornaments

After your ornaments have had time to fully cool off, you’re ready to paint them! They also look really great left plain, but my kids love any excuse to break out the paintbrushes.

There are obviously no real instructions here – just have fun with it!

Here’s a peek at how ours turned out:

DIY oven bake clay Christmas ornaments

We all had a blast with these DIY clay ornaments, and I think making them might have to be a yearly tradition!

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