Valentine’s Day is coming! These little Valentine Bears are adorable – and so easy!

You just need conversation hearts, Teddy Grahams and a little bit of icing, purchased or homemade.

Using a toothpick, put just a little icing on the back of a heart and then attach to the bear’s tummy. Set aside to let the frosting dry.

How cute are these? These could be used put in little individual bags for Valentine’s Day treats.

They would also be cute to use to decorate cupcakes or to decorate the top and edges of a layer cake, or maybe to top a frosted brownie!

Enjoy making these cute little Valentine Bears!!! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Christmas is coming soon! Time to plan Christmas crafts! One fun craft is to make Christmas ornaments and gift tags out of air-dry clay. You can apply Sparkle Mod Podge, glitter and paint to make them sparkle and shine.

Air dry clay is easy to work with for most ages and no baking is required. This package made about 3 dozen ornaments. (You can purchase this from Amazon.)

To begin, remove the clay from the package and knead a few times. I usually work with about one-third of the dough at a time. Roll out the clay on a smooth surface, using a rolling pin. Look around your kitchen and craft area to find “tools” that you can use to decorate your clay. I used a pie crust cutter and stamp on some of these designs. You may have glasses or bowls with decorative designs on the bottom that you could use. You can also use pieces of lace or trim, small pieces of greenery, embossed rolling pins – or anything with the texture you want.

After you roll the dough, you are ready to get out your favorite cookie cutters and start creating! Or cut your own shapes!

What can you use to create textures or designs in your house?

It may be easier to stamp or apply your design and then cut out with a cookie cutter.

Carefully place the ornaments on a baking sheet. I found out it is best to have parchment paper or a silicone mat under them to prevent them from sticking to the baking sheet. You can gather up the leftover clay and make more designs. The great thing about this clay is that if you don’t like the way the design turns out, just re-roll it and try again

Let dry for about 24 hours, then carefully turn and let try for another 24 hours. Make sure the ornaments are as flat as possible. About 5 hours after I placed them on the baking sheet to dry, some of the corners started to curl just a bit, so I gently flattened them back out.

Once the ornaments are dry, you may want to smooth the edges a bit. I used sponge sanding blocks. You could also use a nail file or sanding paper.

Then the real creativity begins. You can add paint to brighten up your designs. I painted the stripes, outside edges and stand gold on this tree, then when it was dry I applied a layer of Sparkle Mod Podge between each stripe and sprinkled each section with glitter.

The finished tree is behind the angel. I painted the main section of the other two trees dark green and then painted the star and base gold. I applied Sparkle Mod Podge over the paint and sprinkled on the chunky glitter. The angels have two coats of the sparkle Mod Podge, one has the edges painted gold. I used a mini fondant cut-out to create the small heart indentation on the angels.

Do you have some dog lovers on your list? I used images from gift tags and glued them on the houses. Add glitter or a small wreath for the finishing touch.

Just brushing the Sparkle Mod Podge on the ornaments will give them sparkle and shine! Everyone can use their favorite colors of paint to personalize their design. I used a house cookie cutter to cut the clay and then made the heart indentation with a small heart cookie cutter while the clay was still wet. Then I painted the heart pink once the clay was dry.

You can add extra embellishments, like pom poms or snowflakes to your design.

Enjoy being creative! You can make this as simple as just sanding the dry ornaments, or adding all kinds of festive decorations.

Washi tape is also an easy way to decorate these ornaments, just lay down the tape on top of the ornament and press it in place with your fingers. Then trim along the edges.

Use twine, raffia ribbon or holiday ribbon for a hanger or to hang from packages. More ideas coming tomorrow!

Merry Christmas and Have Fun!

Click on the link below for ideas using an embossed rolling pin and alphabet stamps to decorate Christmas Clay Ornaments.