Give the Girl a Hand....a Santa Hand That Is!

I wasn't sure if I would be back before Christmas Day, but here is one last blog entry for the year.  As you may or may not know, my husband and I adopted a beautiful baby girl this year and it is her first Christmas.  Her addition to the family has been such an amazing blessing.  It is really a miracle from God that she is in our lives.  She's the perfect fit that God created for us and we couldn't be more thankful.

I was wanting to make Christmas ornaments to give to our parents, siblings, cousins etc. and while browsing on Pinterest (which is one of my favorite things now, by the way) I found the perfect idea to commemorate her addition to the family.  I saw a picture of the cutest Santa ornament made out of a hand print.  So my brain went to work deciding that I could do this myself and I came up with a plan.

First - I went to check out clay at Hobby Lobby (my home away from home).  If you have never delved into the world of clay or modeling it can be a bit intimidating.  At least it was for me.  There is clay you fire, oven-dry clay, air-dry clay, self-drying clay, colored clay, modeling clay, clay you throw on a wheel and the list goes on.  For no other motivation than cost, I settled on Amaco brand Play in Clay that is a self-drying clay in color white.  I had no idea if it would work, but it was the cheapest and I thought I would give it a go.  It turned out to be the perfect medium!

I set aside a day for ornamenting and chose a time when baby girl would be in a good mood since I needed her cooperation.  I rolled out the clay (I actually ended up rolling in on a baking sheet that was lightly sprayed with cooking spray because I had some "stickage" problems when I rolled in out on the counter and it tore right through wax paper.  I'm sure that is not the professional recommended thing to do, but you go with what works, right?)  I then proceeded to press her little hand in to make prints making sure to leave a little room around each print to carve it out for the ornament.

After all the prints were done, I took a regular kitchen knife and carefully cut around each print.  You don't have to cut all the way in between the fingers.  I just followed the picture I had found on Pinterest.  I'm sure a craft knife would work for this as well.  I used small up-down cutting to prevent the clay from sticking to the knife and dragging.

I then just peeled away the excess clay.  The edges were kind of rough, but after trial and error I figure out that you could wet your finger and smooth out the edges.  I used a small knitting needle to get down in the points between the fingers and smooth them.  I then laid each cutout on a cookie sheet and used the knitting needle to make a hole at the base of each hand to attach an ornament hanger.

Even though this is an air-drying clay, every thing I read about it said it could take up to a couple of days to completely dry.  I was hoping for a faster drying time so after some research online I determined that I could place them in the oven on a low temp.  I put them in at 200 degrees for about 5 hours.  They dried like a charm! with no detectable shrinkage.

The next step was painting.  I painted each ornament with white acrylic paint all over, making sure to get down in every crease and hole completely to form a complete seal.  If the clay isn't sealed, moisture can seep in over time and soften the clay.  When that was dry I just used the internet picture as a reference.  I found that using a red paint pen for the hat and a black paint pen for the outlining was easiest.  I did use a brush for the face color.  Then I made sure to write the name and year on the back.  

After the paint was completely dry, I spray painted them with a clear, acrylic gloss seal for the final coat.  I bought a thin ribbon and used that as a hanger for the ornament.  I love this keepsake ornament and look forward to passing it on to Olivia with her other ornaments.  I will always remember her sweet little hand on her first Christmas and how thrilled I am to get to hold that hand as she grows and goes through life.

I ended up liking these so well I decided to use the idea for a dirty Santa gift exchange I had with my Waiting Moms group.  These are all families who's lives are being touched by adoption and I have the privilege of meeting with them each week.  What a wonderful support and group of prayer warriors they are!  I'm so glad to have these sweet ladies and kids in my life.

I wish you all the merriest of Christmases.  May God bless you in this season as we celebrate His Son's birth and in the coming New Year.

Erin

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

November certainly took our home by storm and I can't believe it's December already.  Two weeks ago the stomach bug had me out of commission for about 5 days.  Fortunately after that we were able to get away for eight days with family for Thanksgiving.  And we have so much for which we are thankful!  God has blessed us abundantly.

Now we roll into December and I'm excited to celebrate Christmas and get a jump on traditions with our baby girl.  It's her first Christmas and the shopping is done, but I was anxious to make some things for my girl so I thought I would share what I've been up to this week and share in some of my family traditions.

My wonderfully talented mother made all of us hand made Christmas stockings when we were little and I am always thrilled every year to see them.  They all still hang on her mantle at my parents' home, but the home made things that both she and my grandmother made for me are such a special part of my Christmas memories.  So one of the first things I wanted to get to was making Olivia her Christmas stocking.  Through the years, I've made several attempts of making stockings for myself and my husband, but have never been satisfied.  I was quite nervous about deciding what to do for Olivia.  After seeing a chenille stocking I liked at Canton and then searching the internet for ideas for finishing touches, I came up with a plan.

Thanks to the help of my mother-in-law who embroidered her name on the material over Thanksgiving, I came home ready to get crackin'!  All in all I was pleased with the outcome and home she will come to appreciate it over the years.

My mother also started a tradition with our Christmas ornaments.  Every year since 1973 when my sisters were born, she kept a journal of all the Christmas ornaments we were given and who gave them or made them as well as things we may have made for neighbors or teachers.  When we put up the tree each year we went through the journal in in order and we each hung our ornaments on the tree in that order.  I admit by the time we were in college it took so long that at times it could be a little wearying, but it is a great way to remember!  She since has divided up our ornaments but with each of our boxes she included the list.  I look forward to unwrapping my ornaments and hanging them on the tree to this day...even if it is weird to think that some of those ornaments are over 30 years old now!

To keep this tradition alive I bought an inexpensive Christmas journal at Michael's.  My sister-in-law brought her Cricut to Thanksgiving and let me play with it so I made Olivia's name and some snowflakes out of red flocked paper, ran them through my sticker machine and embellished the journal so we can start the ornament list this year.  We've already got several to include!

My other craft project for the week was to finish making her a Christmas onesie to wear throughout the Christmas season.

I do love Christmas crafts and am grateful for the time my mother and grandmother spent teaching me and crafting with me.  Those memories will always be a part of me.  But I am most grateful to my parents and grandparents for teaching me the true meaning of Christmas.  That we were sinful and separated from God so He sent His only son, Jesus to earth as a tiny baby.  And while we focus on the baby at Christmas, he grew to be a perfect, sinless man who laid down his own life to pay the penalty for my sin.  He graciously has saved me from the death and separation from God that I deserve!  That is the reason my family celebrates Christmas.  And I look forward to passing down that awesome tradition.

So if you don't hear from me before then...Merry Christmas!