Easy DIY Clay Ornament Gift Toppers

These (super easy!) DIY clay ornament gift toppers are the perfect final addition to your carefully curated gift-giving! Plus, they’re glittery. At Christmastime, everything should be glittery. 🙂

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I’m sneaking in one last craft project in this busiest week before Christmas!

Here’s my favourite thing about this project. I was able to make these cute DIY clay tags using craft supplies I already had on hand! It’s always a win when I don’t have to buy extra materials!

My second favourite thing about this project is that making a batch of these of DIY clay ornaments only took about an hour of active labour. (Not including the cool down time.)

I flipping LOVE a last minute DIY! These are so perfect for finishing up your Christmas gift wrapping.

These are so great to make with kids too because they’re kinda fail-proof! The cookie cutters make the cutting process a breeze and guarantee a great result.

You can use these DIY clay ornaments as adorable gift toppers like I’ve pictured here. With a little ribbon, they add something special to your gift giving!

Or you can also use them for filling Christmas crackers. I love handing out crackers at the end of our big family Christmas dinner, it’s a highlight for everyone! But typically the ‘gifts’ inside pre-made crackers are disappointing bits of disposable plastic. So I’ve gotten in the habit of filling my own.

The boys help me to assemble the crackers, and it’s our secret little project. It’s fun to collect little items that suit each person. This year we have a crowd of 16 coming for dinner, so we had out work cut out for us!

Anyway, all that to say, these clay ornaments are the perfect size for crackers. lol. I purchased my cracker kits at my local Michael’s craft store, but here’s a similar Amazon item. (Although it looks like you can’t purchase DIY crackers that come with the snap/pop/bang function on Amazon. Anyone know why this might be?)

And if you’re looking for another idea for a quick Christmas DIY project, you should check out these cute quilted Christmas ornament coasters.

Gather up Materials

I made 7 little ornaments using about 1/2 a block of this oven-bake Fimo clay. It comes in zillions of colours. Honestly, if I’d had more time, I just would have kept making them, they are kind of addicting!

I just used rubber stamps that I dug out of our craft buckets. They happened to be Christmas-y but you could easily use non-Christmas stamps too. The idea is just to add a little textural interest to the clay. Another option could be rolling fabric or a doily into the clay to make an imprint.

If this hadn’t been a last-minute DIY project, I would have loved to get these little letter cookie cutters, so each tag could have been personalized for each gift. Maybe next year. lol

You’ll Need:
Oven Bake Clay (I’ve added an Amazon link, but it can probably be purchased at your local craft store.)
Rolling Pin
Wax Paper
String or Twine
Toothpick
Stamps
Small Cookie Cutters
Nail File (or sand paper)
Glitter Glue (Optional)
Silicon Crafting Mat (Optional)

How to Make Easy DIY Clay Ornament Gift Toppers

First of all, I learned the hard way to use a separate piece of wax paper for each colour clay. Tiny little flecks will break off and you might accidentally end up with mixed colours. Lesson learned.

I put a silicone mat down, then topped it with a layer of wax paper.

Knead the clay with your hands until it is soft and pliable. Flatten it down with the palm of your hand and top it with another layer of wax paper.

Using a rolling pin, roll out the clay until it is about 1/8th of an inch thick.

Now take your rubber stamps and stamp the clay a lot, overlapping the designs. (In hindsight, I should have stamped a few more snowflakes to fill out the pattern more. Oh well.)

Now you can use small cookie cutters to cut out some shapes. I happened to have this little fishy and a starfish that I bought locally.

Use a toothpick to gently poke a hole in the top of the shapes so you can add a string later.

This type of clay completely maintains its shape in the oven. The hole you poke won’t close up or get smaller. So only make the hole the exact size you need it to be, no bigger.

Now you can bake the clay according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Which annoyingly enough, are not printed on the clay package. But here is the link to the Fimo website which has some tips.

I baked mine at 180 F for about 40 minutes. I baked them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Then I let the pieces cool completely.

Next, use a nail file to sand off any rough edges. A tiny piece of sand paper would work the same way. Just be very gentle.

At this point, I decided my clay tags needed a little more pizzazz. So even though I hadn’t planned on doing this, I dug out our stash of glitter glues and added a layer of coordinating glitter to each piece. Sparkle is always a good idea!