Little known fact: My dog
Dory is the BEST dog in the world. Seriously. Rebecca may disagree and say her dog
Rocky is the best, but whatever. In my eyes, Dory takes the cake! And since she is truly a member of our family, the boys and I wanted to make her her very own ornament (especially after seeing this cute one
here!). This was a fun project to do with the kids, who now want to make their own paw print ornaments (ok, ok, hand print ornaments)! We used
this simple recipe for salt dough and it couldn't have been easier!
What You Need:
- 1 cup salt
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup lukewarm water
- 1 or more awesome pets
First, mix the flour and salt.
Then gradually add the water until you get a dough-like consistency. Add more water if it's too dry, more flour if it gets too wet.
Knead it for several minutes until it is smooth and workable.
We found the simplest way to do the pint making was to roll out the dough onto a cookie sheet. We didn't grease ours and had no problem with the dough sticking.
The plan was then to have Dory "sit and shake" and get her paw print that way. However, my normally mellow, laid back, patient, sweetheart girl turned into a maniac when we'd get the dough near her feet. She thought that running away became a fantastic game and had no interest in sitting still so we could get a picture of the process. Naturally, the kids thought this was hilarious as well! The blurry pictures below show the madness:
But she eventually cooperated (with the help of fast hands and treats).
We then cut a circle around her print, made a hole for the ribbon, and popped it in a 200 degree oven for a couple hours (cooking time will vary depending on your oven and the thickness of your ornament. You can also just let it air dry).
Once it was completely hardened and cooled, we painted it white
...then added blue around the imprint. We also added her name, of course! Then sprayed it with a coat of polyurethane to help preserve it.
Dory has now been immortalized on our Christmas tree!
We're thinking about making ones for our two cats, but think maybe we'll wait until they're sleeping....
Very cute idea!
ReplyDeleteWhat might of scared your fur baby was the shiny foil around the ornament.
Just a thought.
Good point Kathy! Although in her case, she just went into her "I want to play chase right now!" mode. Haha!
DeleteGlad you like it! :)
We'll definately be using this one as we just got a new puppy! Unfortunately I wish we would have done this sooner as we also lost a dog we've had for 13 years just last month.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the idea!
These are so cute. You want to include the dog on Christmas with his own ornament for the tree. This is great especially if your giving a new puppy as a gift. Make one of these with the date you got the puppy. Probably could do for your cat too
ReplyDeletethanks
Yesterday one of our dogs was diagnosed with tumors in his spleen that have spread to his lungs. I made your recips this morning and made prints from both of our dogs (they are in the oven right now). Thank you for this easy to make keepsake!
ReplyDelete