Baked Clay Ornaments

My husband and I are really fond of Christmas, so we always decorate our home just as soon as Thanksgiving dinner is over. This year, after all of our Christmas decorations were up, we realized that our Christmas tree was looking a little sparse. Perhaps some of our old ornaments were broken or lost, or maybe we never had that many to begin with. Either way, we decided we needed more decorative attire for our tree, and came across this fun idea for baked clay ornaments.

We went to the craft store to purchase a couple packages of polymer clay, and got straight to work! The hardest part of the whole process was conditioning the clay, but after rolling it around in our hands for awhile, it became warm and soft. After that, the rest was really easy, and makes adorable ornaments you can put on your tree or give away as gifts to friends and family. It would be an especially perfect craft for kids.

Here’s what you’ll need:
• Polymer clay
• Wax Paper
• Rolling Pin
• Festive Cookie Cutters*
• A Toothpick
• Aluminum Foil
• Decorative Materials (such as acrylic paints, markers, and glitter)
• Ribbon, embroidery floss, or twine
• Gift Boxes
• Tissue Paper
• Festive tags and labels from My Own Labels


Preheat your oven to 275°F. Warm the clay by working it around in your hands. It will be cold and hard at first, but will soften as it warms up. Once your clay is moldable, place it between two sheets of wax paper and roll flat to 1/4″ thickness.

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and set aside. Remove one sheet of wax paper and, using your cookie cutters, punch out shapes and place them on the foil. Once you’ve punched out as many shapes as you can, roll the remaining clay into a ball and roll flat in the same manner as you did before. Repeat this process until you no longer have any clay.

Using a toothpick, poke a hole on the top of your shapes that will be large enough to later insert twine, ribbon, or embroidery floss. You want to do this now because you won’t be able to pierce a hole in your ornaments after they have baked and hardened. Place the cookie sheet with the ornaments in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes. Remove and let cool.

Once your ornaments have cooled to room temperature, you can decorate them however you’d like! I decorated all of mine with markers and acrylic paint. For my stars, I painted in our initials, and for my candy canes, I painted stripes. After the paint was dry, I added a festive tag from My Own Labels, and placed them in a gift box with tissue paper. I labeled the gift box with a red label in the style Santa.

*Cookie cutters that are used for baked clay ornaments should not be used for food.

More homemade holiday ideas from Lindsay Jewell…

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Lindsay (134 Posts)

Lindsay is a writer/blogger from Oregon who loves crafting, cooking, gardening, and simple living. You can find her writing about all of this and more on her blog A Wooden Nest.