my post-christmas christmas craft

i wanted to do something with sam's handprint for his first christmas, but i didn't have time to do it before christmas. things were just too busy. i decided to make something after christmas to put up next christmas.

i tried salt dough with a handprint impression. my first try i threw away because it got very puffy even though i followed the directions. my second try was ok with a different recipe. it's sitting unimpressively on the table right now. it was tough to get a good impression because he's at the age where it's fun to grab things and he just squished his fingers unevenly through the salt dough.

but with felt i had leftover from making my argyle christmas wreath, i decided to make a handprint ornament. i liked this project because it wasn't messy and the ornament won't break if it gets knocked off of the tree, etc.



i took green felt and traced sam's hand on it, then cut it out.

i cut two circles of red felt (the same size, large enough to fit the handprint cutout with a "border").

then i stitched the handprint to one of the red felt circles with white thread, just stitching around the edge of the handprint. it might be embroidery floss. i just found it in my sewing box. it's thick and white.

i used white yarn to then stitch the two circles together around the edges (with the handprint on the outside of one of the circles). i left an opening to stuff some stuffing between the circles to give it some dimension, then continued stitching until it was stitched all the way around.

last, i threaded a piece of yarn through the top of the circles and, leaving enough yarn to hang the ornament from, i knotted it securely. this created the loop at the top of the ornament.