Homemade Clay Star Ornaments

With Christmas just around the corner, we are making decorations for our home. I’m not big into crafts but this year we wanted to make memories and save a little money so we made some homemade clay star ornaments!

It was a simple project and it entertained my kids and their cousins for hours! Cam and I made several homemade clay star ornaments as well. It was so fun.

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You can make these plain, or add words. We did a bunch of Christmas- related words like joy, hope, Jesus, be merry, noel, and angel.

Supplies

The supplies you need for this project are:

• Sculpey clay (1.75lb size) 

• Wooden skewer or chopstick
• Rolling Pin
• Star shaped cookie cutter
• Parchment paper
• Metal baking sheet
• Twine, we used sisal. But any kind works! Jute, bakers twine, whatever you have or can find.
• Rubber alphabet stamps (optional) We got our rubber alphabet stamps from Hobby Lobby. I’ve linked a similar set below.

How to make the Homemade Clay Star Ornaments

1. To get started take some of the clay and knead it in your hand. It helps it become workable.
2. Then roll out the clay to ¼ inch thickness with a rolling pin.  
3. Press in the star cookie cutter and lift.
4. The clay usually was left inside the cookie cutter after pressing, so I took it out carefully and set it back on the table.
5. Add words with stamps by pressing each letter on the clay.
6. Poke a hole with a wooden skewer or chopstick.
7. Set on a metal baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
8. When the tray is full, bake at 275ºF for 15 minutes.
9. After the ornament has cooled off, cut several pieces of twine to about 16 inches.  
10. Thread the twine through the hole until halfway through and the twine is equal on both sides. 
11. Make an overhand knot at the base.
12. Tie a square knot at the top, then it’s done!

Tips for making Homemade Clay Star Ornaments!

Tip #1 How to Tie an Ornament so it Hangs Straight

Since I’m not super crafty, I first started out by threading the twine through the hole and making a square knot at the top. Both Noelle and I were frustrated that the stars didn’t hang straight. 

Cam came to the rescue and taught us some knot tying tips and how to help them hang straight. He is the eagle scout and resident knot expert. Check out the video below if you want to learn how the trick to get an ornament to hang straight with twine or string. If you don’t know how to tie an overhand knot or a square knot he shows how to do that at the end of the video.

Tip #2 How to Make All Your Homemade Clay Ornaments Uniform Thickness

Another thing we learned was to use two items a quarter inch high and place them on each side of the clay as we rolled it out. Cam found some Legos and we used those so that all the stars were uniform thickness.

How many Homemade Clay Star Ornaments will the 1.75 lb clay box make?

One box of clay makes about 35 ornaments for a 3 inch star. I say about 35 because my kids had some fun and made a few other little sculptures so I’m not sure the exact amount. But hopefully that helps as a guide.

I used two boxes because I wanted a lot of stars for our tree.