Salt Dough Recipe:
This dough can be baked or left to dry on its own.

Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups of flour
- 3/4 cups salt
- 1 cups warm water

Pour water into a large bowl.  Add the salt and stir to dissolve.  Add half of the flour and mix in with an electric mixer.  Continue adding the remaining flour gradually until it becomes difficult to mix.  Add the remaining flour and knead by hand.  Continue kneading until the dough is soft and smooth.  You may have to add a little more water or a little more flour, it all depends on the texture that you desire.  It should not be sticky, and should be easy to work with.

This dough does not have to be baked, but if you choose to bake it then preheat your oven to 300 degrees F.  The benefit of baking this dough is that it will slightly rise and create edges that are soft and round.  This dough keeps well (sealed) in the refrigerator for many weeks.  The recipe makes 2 doz ornaments.

Creating the Ornaments

Materials:
-   Rolling pin
-   Small amount of flour
-   Waxed paper (optional)
-   Christmas cookie cutters
-   Craft or white glue
-   Poster or model paint (preferred)
-   Ornament hooks OR craft wire OR pipe cleaners
-   tin foil

Form 1/2 of the dough into a ball and flatten it with your palms.  I like to work on waxed paper, but if you do not have any you should sprinkle your surface lightly with flour.  You may also have to occasionally rub a little flour onto your rolling pin as well to keep it from sticking to the dough.  Roll the dough out to a thickness of no more than 1/4 of an inch.  Use cookie cutters to cut out the shapes.  Place them on a foil-covered cookie sheet and insert one of the ornament hooks into the top of each one (the bottoms of the hooks will need to be straightened first).  How far in you insert the hooks will depend on the size of hooks you have, you will have to rely on your own judgment.  Note: Another option here is to glue pieces of pipe cleaner onto the backs when the ornaments are dry instead of using wire or ornament hooks.  Don't make the ornaments too thick or too large as they will be too heavy for the tree branches.  Next put your cookie sheets into the oven.  Be sure not to crowd your trays or the ornaments will bake un-evenly (the trays should have space around all sides).  Bake at 300 degrees F for 1 1/2 hours.  Try not to let the edges get brown.  Remove from the oven and let the ornaments cool for about 1/2 hour.  Now you can paint the ornaments with model paints (this is the fun part!)  If you wish you can add a clear coat once the paint is dry to protect them and to add shine.  Don't forget to sign anddate the backs.

Variations:  You can use this recipe to model with as long as you do not model something too large.  It will not bake properly or will take a long time to air dry.  You can also use it to create beads of various sizes and shapes for jewelry.
Attach one of your homemade ornaments to gifts!
 
 

Materials:
- Styrofoam balls, varying in size
- Plastic Jewelry Beads
- Strait pins
- Christmas Ornament Hooks   OR Craft wire
- Craft or white glue
- Glitter (sparkles)

1.   Rub glue thinly on a ball or paint it on with a brush.  Roll the ball in the glitter.
2.  Decide which beads you would like to attach and secure them to the ball with either the straight pins or the glue.
3.  Cut a 2 inch piece of the craft wire (or use a straightened ornament hook), bend it in half, cover it with glue and press it into the top of the ornament almost as far as it will go.
4.  Attach one of the ornament hooks to the wire that you inserted into the top of the bulb.
5.  Repeat the steps to make different or matching bulbs.  Be creative, anything goes!
 
 

Materials:
-  Squares of felt, various colors.
-  Craft or white glue.
-  Strips of self adhesive magnet.
-  Scissors and pen.
-  Christmas coloring book.

1.  Select the picture that you would like to use (or draw your own).  Cut it out to use as a stencil. Trace around it on the felt color of your choice and cut that out too.
2.  Cut out pieces from the other colors of felt to decorate your magnet.  You can also use buttons, nerds, smarties or jewelry beads.  Put the glue on light and thin as it can seep through the felt (which is very unsightly).
3.  You may wish to make a frame or outline of your magnet from a different color of felt.  Just take the original stencil and trace a larger image around it and glue your magnet onto it. This gives the magnet a finished look.
4.  Finally, cut a one inch strip of magnet and attach it to the back of the felt.  If your magnet is large you may need to attach two smaller pieces at top corners or edges.  The magnet may need glue to stay attached properly.

Alternatives: Magnets can also be made from cookie cut outs (as in Ornament recipe above)or any small toy (such as Lego) or Shrink Art (see Jewelry).
 
 

Materials:
-  Fine string or elastic thread.
-  Poster or model paint (preferred)
-  Beads created from Ornament recipe above
-  Scissors and small paintbrush
-  Newspaper
-  Optional:  Hot glue gun and hot glue sticks,
   jewelry hardware (clasps, posts, broach pins)

Use the Ornament recipe above to make various sizes of beads (be sure to poke holes through them if you wish to string them).  Cover your work area with newspaper.  Paint the beads that you have made and string them.  Once you get the desired length you can tie jewelry clasps to the ends (or just tie them together).  You can make matching sets that include a bracelet, necklace and earrings.
 
 

Materials:
- Shrink Art sheets
- Christmas Coloring book (optional)
- Permanent markers or pencil crayons (washable
  markers and wax crayons will not adhere)
- Scissors and a hole punch
- Jewelry hardware (your choice)
- A few sheets of white paper

Shrink Art sheets are clear plastic sheets that can be colored, cut and baked.  During baking they shrink and become thicker and hard.  The sheets can be purchased at  craft stores.  They come with directions so my suggestion is to follow those.  Since they are clear it is easy to trace any image.  They shrink to a little less than half of their original size.  You can buy sheets that are smooth or ones that are a bit dull.  I prefer the smooth clear ones but I sometimes need to rough them up a little with fine sandpaper so that the marker and especially pencil crayon will adhere.  You can also purchase sheets that have pictures on them already, but these are a little more expensive.

Once you have the sheets, simply draw, color, cut out, punch a hole at the top (at least a 1/2 inch from the edge) and then bake.  Place a sheet of white paper on a cookie sheet first for better results.  The cut outs will twist and bend while baking but will eventually flatten.  Turn on the oven light and let the kids watch!  If they do not, flatten properly then immediately place another white sheet of paper on top and press gently.  These cool very quickly!

 Variations:  You can use these as name tags for gifts, tree ornaments or magnets.
 
 

Materials:
-  Paper or scraps of material or felt
-  Markers and/or fabric paint
-  Glitter
-  Optional:  Magazine cut-outs buttons, plastic jewelry beads etc.
-  Optional:  The recipient's favorite cologne, perfume or spice

Create your coupon from the paper or fabric of your choice.  This is fairly strait forward so I will not explain it!  Use the other materials to decorate it.  Give it a spray of perfume or dust it lightly with a spice.  You could also attach a cinnamon stick or mint candy. Another idea is to use small dowel or twigs to glue onto the coupon to create a scroll. Be creative!  When you are finished seal it in an envelope or wrap it up fancy with tissue paper and ribbon.

Example:
Create a coupon from silk fabric.  (Be careful, glue shows through silk VERY easily).  The coupon might read:

Don't forget to add small print!  For example:
 

Materials:
-  A large or small baby food jar
-  Christmas cards
-  Craft or white glue
-  A hot glue gun and glue sticks
-  Glitter (any color)
-  A square of Christmas material (4" x 4")
-  A length of ribbon (about 12") 3/4" wide

Soak the jar in hot water and remove as much of the label and glue as possible.  Dry the jar well.  Cut an image from a Christmas card and cover the front with white glue.  Paste it onto the outside of the jar so that when you look through the jar you will see the picture.  Fill the jar with water and add about 1/4 of a teaspoon of glitter.  Cover the jar tightly with the lid.  Put a thin line of hot glue all around the outside rim of the lid.  Place the square of material over the lid and press it down all the way around the rim.  Next put another line of hot glue around the rim and press on the ribbon.  Tie it into a bow and glue the bow between the folds to keep it from coming untied.  You can glue pieces of garland, cinnamon stick, candy, holly, nuts or hard candy onto the top of the lid.

 One option is to use hot glue to secure a small Christmas figurine to the inside of the jar and use a cut out for a background scene on the outside.   You can also add tiny pine tree cones or anything that you can think of.
 
 

Materials:
- Popsicle sticks
- Glue
- 1 silk flower (optional)
- 1 piece of magnet or small length of string
- Small notepad
- Pencil

1.  Cover 2 popsicle sticks with glue and place them horizontally about 2 inches apart.

2.  Place about 11 or 12 sticks vertically across the two horizontal sticks.  You may want to draw a square on a piece of paper and lay the sticks on it to help keep your note clip square.

3.  Glue the edge of a stick horizontally (1/2 inch from the bottom) to your "raft."  Break 2 sticks in half and glue 2 of them (the edges) onto the left and right sides of the "raft" (in the center of the 1st and last vertical "raft" sticks) with the broken ends touching the stick that you have just glued to the bottom.  Next glue one more broken piece (the edge) about 3/4 inches from either of the 2 other broken pieces.  This is what will hold the pencil, and the bigger space will hold the notepad.

4.  Next glue (flat) two popsicle sticks horizontally to the edges of the 3 1/2 sticks to provide a cover for the pencil and notepad.  If you wish you can break more sticks and glue them (spaced apart) vertically (about 5) to the 2 horizontal sticks.   This gives a nice "picket fence" effect.  Now you can glue any type of decoration to the front such as a silk flower or some plastic holly.

5.  Glue a magnet to the back or a piece of string or pipe cleaner.   Sign and date the back and place a pencil and small notepad inside.  You can make a custom notepad with colored paper and use the computer (or a pen!) to personalize each sheet.  The sticks can also be painted.

This may sound complicated, but it is not!!!
 
 

Materials:
- 1 wooden clothes pin
- Glue
- A picture, drawing or silk flower
- 1 piece of magnet

1.  Glue the magnet to one side of the clothes pin
2.  Glue the picture (or flower) to the other side so that it barely covers the bottom of the pin.
3.  That's all... Anyone can do this one!  Stick it to the fridge!  You can use a cut-out from a Christmas card,
nuts or holly instead of a picture or flower.  Or you can use on of the ornaments made from salt dough (see Ornaments above).
 
 

- Give Christmas baking or homemade chocolates in Christmas tins.

- Create a scrapbook or photo album.  Decorate the pages with drawings, pictures cut out
  from greeting cards, or small leaves or flowers.  This is a nice gift from a Mother or
  Father to their child.

- Take some crazy and candid pictures of the recipient's pet and create an album.

- Make a donation to an organization that you know the recipient cares about (Thanks Jane).
 
 

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