Art Project - Home-made Clay

With less than 50 days to go until Christmas I thought I'd get in some crafts you can do at home either on your own or with your kids with Christmas in mind. First up is making home-made clay that you can mold into either tree decorations or into anything you want and it can be either an ornament for the home or a gift for a relative or friend.


Ingredients:

120 grams of flour (2 cups)
60 grams of salt (1 cup)
1 cup of water
1.5 tablespoons of vegetable oil
food colouring (if you want)

Mix the flour and salt together and then the vegetable oil. Slowly add the water to the mixture until you get the right consistency, it should be like putty sort of stiff but not too stiff so it holds together when rolled but also not too runny. If you're adding food colouring now is the time to add, put however much you want in to get the desired colour you want. The clay is now ready to use. If you want to hold off using the clay it can be stored in your fridge, just dampen a little with water and store in a plastic storage bag.


When ready to use go wild with your imagination, use either cookie cutters or mold into shapes of your choice, your imagination is the only thing holding you back. When you have your desired decoration, ornament it's time to harder it. Remember if you are making a decoration to be hung up somewhere make a little hole big enough to place some string through once finished.Place in an oven on a baking sheet lined with grease proof paper and cook 250 degrees (Gas mark 1 or 2) for about 45 minutes-1 hour. When cooked, take out and leave somewhere safe to cool down. Then you are ready to decorate them. If you have used food colouring you can leave as they are or you could paint them. The same goes if you haven't used food colouring but to be honest they would look a little dull and boring with no colour on.

Hope you find the instructions easy to follow and as always I would love to see any creations you've made.