Everything About Ladybugs!

Make Ladybug Christmas Ornaments!

Make homemade ladybug Christmas ornaments and many others out of easy to make dough.

Here are some things you may need:

1 cup of salt
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 cup water
Some paint brushes
Acrylic paints (your color choices)
Clearcoat (if you want to preserve it)
Cookie cutters (optional)
Permanent markers (optional)
Metal wire or straws

As you are getting ready for the holidays, a great way to have some spirited fun is to make ornaments. In our house being the ladybug lovers that we are, of course we made ladybug ornaments! This craft is fun, inexpensive and makes great decorations for the house or even as a gift to someone else who appreciates ladybugs.

Step 1: Lets make some dough

Lets get started making some dough for these ladybug ornaments. Start my mixing the salt and flour . If you get it mixed up pretty well the rest will go smooth.

Now add the water and keep stirring it until it starts to form a ball. Once it starts to clump together go ahead and get your hands dirty and knead it together to make up a ball of dough.

       
Step 2: Use your imagination and make some ladybugs out of the dough

We used a number of techniques to make our ladybug ornaments and we are happy to share them all with you.

Ladybug Method 1: Roll yourself an egg shaped ball out of dough and place it on a flat surface. I did this right on our cookie sheet covered in foil. I then proceeded to push down on it and mold it a bit so the bottom would be flat. I used a butter knife to make a groove in the back and a separtion for the head.

Ladybug Method 2: This is a variation of method 1 where you additionally add little legs made of dough.

Ladybug Method 3: Use an object such as a toothpick to poke holes for eyes in a much more round piece of dough and cut a simple split down the ladybugs back using a butter knife to signify the separation in the wings.

Ladybug Method 4:There's endless ways to sculpt your own ladybugs. Use your own wonderful techniques and get everyone in the family involved.

Step 3: Prepare your ladybug ornament for the oven

Make sure before you put your ladybug ornament in the oven that you have made a way to hang it up. You can do this one of two ways.

1. Use a straw to poke a hole through your ornament so that after it bakes you can run a string through it.
2. Cut a small piece of metal wire and bend into a horse shoe shape. Poke both sides of the horse shoe into the dough where you would like the loop to stick out. After you bake your ladybug ornament you will have a little loop to tie string to. We used this technique on our ladybug ornaments as seen in the finished pictures.

Step 4: Cook your ladybug ornament

Put the ladybug ornaments in the oven that has been preheated to 325 degrees. Let them cook for 45 minutes to an hour or until you see them start to brown a little. Make sure to monitor your ornaments. Depending on how thick certain parts are, they may require more or less time.


Step 5: Paint and decorate your ladybug ornaments

After the ornaments have cooled it's time to decorate your masterpieces. This is where your ladybugs will really start to take shape. Pick out your favorite acrylic colors, glitter, beads, buttons, glue and use your imagination.

We stuck with more traditional ladybug colors of black & red as well as black & orange. We painted up our ladybug by starting with a base coat of the lighter colors first. This ensures that the colors will stay bright when you are decorating your ladybug.

After you are all done painting and the paint has dried thoroughly for a couple of hours, you can optionally clearcoat your ornaments to preserve them. You may also want to thread some ribbon through the hole so that they can be tied to a tree or as an additional decoration. This way you can give your ladybug ornaments away as gifts or as keepsakes.

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