Christmas is a time filled with family and special memories.
A terrific way to include your pet in this special season is a paw print Christmas ornament. I made my own very simple, very personal paw print ornament using a kit from Sculpey.
Sculpey is an easy to use clay that you can shape, cut, stamp and then bake to have a long-lasting, personal keepsake.
I knew I wanted a record of my pet dog Baxter’s paw print, so I picked up a Sculpey kit at my local craft store. There is a keepsake kit specifically for family pets as well as one for babies. I actually gotten the baby keepsake kit, even though I used it for Bax! Either one must work.
Scupley is using 20% off anything in their store with code: MUTT20
The company is also using a paw print kit giveaway to two lucky winners. just leave a comment at the end of this post to enter! Update:The giveaway has ended!
Use code: MUTT20 for 20% offClick here
More about the Sculpey Paw print Kit
The kit included everything I needed to make my ornament: instructions, a ring mold, a stylus to write my dog’s name, a ribbon to hang the finished ornament, even a little rolling pin to flatten the clay.
How to make your paw print Christmas ornament
I unpacked everything and kneaded the clay a few times as instructed.
Then I flattened it into the mold with my fingers and rolled it a few times with the rolling pin to get it great and smooth.
I very carefully extracted the clay from the mold. It stuck a little bit and I was anxious about stretching it out of a best circle or putting marks on the smooth surface, but it held its shape very well.
I found I had plenty of clay to fill the mold. some of it overflowed the edge, so I cut it off and threw it away. (Though I wish I had thought to make an impression of my daughter’s thumbprint or even another paw print for our cat, Ralph.)
I slipped the disc onto a plate for the next stage: paw printing. I found my victim beloved Baxter and interrupted his nap by smushing his paw into the clay.
Don’t be shy in the smushing. You want a great deep print, so push your dog’s paw into the clay assertively. just in case there was any residue from the clay, I wiped his paw clean with a wet wipe.
Baxter and his sidekick inspected my work (one was a lot more interested than the other).
Then I poked two holes through the top of the disc for the ribbon and inscribed Baxter’s name using the supplied stylus.
I slipped the ornament into the oven and baked it at 275 degrees for 30 minutes to harden it.
The clay paw print ornament turned out well!
The ornament came out great and solid. I threaded the ribbon through the holes and the ornament was complete.
Although if you wished to personalize further, you could easily paint the ornament with craft paint.
I love that Baxter has his own special ornament for the tree, and I love even a lot more that we will have this keepsake for years to come.
Order a paw print ornament kit
You can buy a paw print kit from Sculpey here. use code MUTT20 for 20% off anything in the store. Click here.
Giveaway – win a paw print Christmas ornament kit for your pet!
Sculpey is giving away one paw print kit to two lucky readers in the U.S.!
UPDATE: The giveaway has ended. Congrats to Melody and Janice P.!
Have you ever taken your dog’s paw print?
Let us know in the comments!
author [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://www.thatmutt.com/web/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Julia-and-Baxter.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Julia Thomson writes for That Mutt about pet dog behavior and training, working dogs and life on her farm in Ontario, Canada. She has a sweet, laid-back boxer mix named Baxter. She is also a blogger at home on 129 Acres where she writes about her adventures of country living and diy renovating.[/author_info] [/author]
