Ornament recipe for Marcee

Marcee,

This is the recipe I told you about. It's a project that you have to do in stages. But the ornaments are really cute made in the nutshells.....get your Dad to help you hull the walnuts, that's a great job for him if he is hanging around.

This is a good project for the boys if you make the cutouts with cookie cutters and let them paint them!.....directions below......... Have fun. :)

Love you,
Aunt Kaye



Nutshell Ornaments

2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 cup warm water........... not hot just warm tap water

Walnut shell halves
Paper clips or wire with out plastic coating
Acrylic paints and brushes
Clear spray paint
Assorted beads and ribbons, glitter, pipe cleaners etc.
Elmer's glue

Combine flour and salt in mixing bowl. Slowly mix in water. Roll out onto a clean floured surface and knead for 8 to 10 min until smooth. Roll into a big ball, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze for about 30 to 40 min. Take out about 1/4 to 1/2 of the dough and leave the remaining in refrigerator. You don't want the dough to dry out before you can mold it...... Pinch off enough dough to fill the nut shell. Let it mound up.

You can add small balls of dough for eyes or  ears... make a small ball and attach by applying a small amount of water to small ball....or you can make small balls and attach them with glue.............we made some cute christmas mice with a painted face and ears, santas are always cute too. Make a snowman easily by stacking 3 balls of dough and insert a wooden toothpick in the middle of the dough to hold them in place.

Use wire cutters to cut paper clips in half or use any wire without plastic coating. Each paper clip will give you two hooks. Slide the clip into the dough making a hook for the ornament. Place ornaments on baking sheet. Do not grease sheet. Bake in a 200 degree oven for 2 to 3 hours or until hard. Let them cool completely and then you can paint them and add beads and or glitter what ever you can think of!  One more tip! If you take aluminum foil and wrap it around the back of the nutshell  you can create a cradle by wadding the foil up. This will keep them upright when you move them to the oven. :)

If you are doing this by yourself, Marcee you might want to roll half of the dough in a ball to use with the nuts and then take the other half and roll it out flat until it's about 1/2" thick...make your cutouts put them on a baking sheet and add the hook. Then put them in the refrigerator or freezer...... where ever you have room for baking sheet....After an hour or so take them out and bake them 200 degrees for 4 to 6 hours.....they just keep getting harder and harder but you don't want the edges to curl up. Just cook them until they are definitely hard!

I remember using the cookie cutters with the girls. I think the smaller cutter worked better than the larger. The larger cutouts cracked when they cooked. Glitter covers up those spots good.

After you have added everything and your paint and glue is dry lay them on a piece of cardboard and lightly spray them with a clear latex spray paint. Let them dry for about an hour..... The spray will help preserve them.

After Christmas wrap them in tissue and store them in an air tight container until next year! I kept mine for about 10 years. :)