138) Cornstarch Clay Ornaments

Every year we make ornaments of some sort and every year I love going back and looking at the ones we made the years before. For this years ornaments I thought we would try something new, Cornstarch Clay. Last year we used salt dough, which was great and the girls loved it, but I was a little bothered by how bumpy it was. I wanted a smoother finish to the clay, so we tried  to make our own air dry clay. The air dry clay was very smooth and easy to use, but kind of a pain to make. So when I read about this cornstarch clay I hoped it would be a good mix of the other two, and happily it was! The cornstarch clay is very easy to make and use, like the salt dough. It also rolls out easily and has a much smoother surface like the DIY air dry clay. 

To make the clay we followed this recipe from The Woodside Kitchen for:
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 cup of baking soda
3/4 cup of water
We mixed all the ingredients in a pot and stirred them over medium-high heat until it began to form a dough and pull away from the sides like play dough. I will say that I found my mix a little dry so I added a little more water less then 1/4 cup and it helped to smooth out the dough. Once it had clumped into a dough, it was still a little lumpy. I took the dough off the heat and poured it onto our metal counter and kneaded it until it was smooth. As soon as it had cooled enough for the kids, the Bee and I took it to our table and started rolling it out. We have a lot of cookie cutters so she was in charge of cutting shapes and putting holes into each one with a straw. We then put the cut out shapes on a parchment lined cookie sheet and baked them in a 175 degree oven for about 45 minutes. I turned the ornaments a few times while they were in the oven  because they started to curl a little as they dried. I am not sure if we are going to paint the ornaments yet but if we don't I think we will give them a coat of modge podge just to seal them. We have some friends coming to make ornaments with us this weekend so I will share our ornament decorations next week.