These adorable simple fingerprint heart ornaments are made using baking soda clay and are perfect for valentine’s day. They are a really easy kid craft and inexpensive to make and make great valentines keepsakes or gifts. We are using ours as part of our valentines cards but they also make ace Christmas ornaments or for Mother’s Day.

How to make your own fingerprint heart ornaments

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Baking soda clay (we used this recipe, but store-bought air-drying clay or a homemade salt dough works and did you know you can get microwave drying clay)
Red Ribbon or twine (UK Link/US Link)
Heart-shaped cookie cutters (UK Link/US Link)
Adjustable Rolling Pin (UK Link/US Link)
Silicone Sheet (UK Link/US Link)
Straw
Ink pads or paint (UK Link/US Link)
Permanent Markers

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ELEGANZA Double Faced Satin 3mm x 50m Red No.16

Adorably simple fingerprint heart ornaments made using baking soda clay. They are really easy and inexpensive to make and make great valentines keepsakes or gifts

Types of clay perfect for Keepsakes

Air Drying Clay (UK Link/US Link)
Polymer Clay – Staedtler FIMO (UK Link/US Link) or Sculpy (UK Link/US Link)
Microwave Drying Clay (US Link/UK Link)
Homemade 3 Ingredient white clay
Homemade two-ingredient white clay
Homemade White Salt Dough Recipe

Instructions

Once you have decided which clay to use, roll it out (we use a silicone cooking mat) to around 3/4 cm thick. We actually feel that making the clay or salt dough is a fun step in making these. We have a salt dough ornament that is over ten years old.

Cut out your heart shapes using a cutter, we are using ones designed for cookies.

Make a hole at the top using a straw or skewer which will become the hole for your thread or ribbon.

Get your child to press his or her finger or thumb into the clay at an angle and repeat in the opposite direction so that the bottoms of the prints meet and form a ‘v’ shape heart. Make sure that the child’s fingerprints are pressed firmly to distinct impression in the dough.

Allow your dough to harden, how long this takes will depend on which dough you use. We popped ours in the oven for an hour on a low setting (120 degrees).

Once the hearts are hard, then comes the fun part of decorating them. We decided to use ink pads as we wanted to get the boys fingerprint details to show on the hearts, just make sure you have a damp paper towel on hand to clean your child’s finger or child’s thumb. However, you could use paint, ink or even glitter. The special touch of a fingerprint makes these homemade gifts a super special keepsake.

Once the ink is dry, you can varnish the hearts or you can leave them as they are, which is what we did. If you have made salt dough decorations then I would recommend using mod podge to varnish and to protect them as moisture is the enemy of salt dough crafts. Oh and don’t forget to pop the child’s name and date on the rear using a black sharpie! These make the best handmade gifts and kids love the completed craft.

Want to see what we have done with our fingerprint heart ornaments, then come back later in the week.

Make sure you check out all our other Fingerprint crafts which are fab to do with kids of all ages, but preschoolers and toddlers especially love them. Just follow the step by step process with the children and make sure there is adult supervision as you do not want them to et the clay or dough. We love making gifts using a child’s fingerprints as are such a unique homemade gift idea and grandparents love them plus they are perfect for Mother’s Day. I love looking at the little fingerprints on the salt dough fingerprint ornaments by children have made in the past. There is something really precious about a child’s fingerprints. I particularly adore our heart pendant fingerprint jewelry.

49 thoughts on “Fingerprint heart ornaments”

Nell@PigeonPairandMe.com January 11, 2015 at 5:12 pm

These are adorable! I love the heart ribbons too – where did you get them?

Gym Bunny Mummy January 11, 2015 at 5:38 pm

What a fab idea, I’ll be trying this out with my little man

Lori January 12, 2015 at 11:17 am

Such a lovely idea for a valentines day gift, so sweet and personal I think we’ll give these a try x

My Family Ties January 12, 2015 at 12:14 pm

What a lovely fun and very personal idea for a gift or to keep, I will have to try this out with my girls! 🙂

Globalmouse January 12, 2015 at 1:49 pm

These are super cute and I love the baking soda clay.

ninjacat January 12, 2015 at 3:08 pm

what a cute activity I love it , I think my reception class would love it

Sonya Cisco January 12, 2015 at 3:15 pm

What a simply adorable idea, and simple enough for a fool like me too!

Clare Nicholas January 12, 2015 at 6:24 pm

How cute are those? I love how artistic the boys are

Jen Walshaw Post author January 12, 2015 at 7:50 pm

Nell@PigeonPairandMe.com The ribbon is from my stash – it possibly belonged to my mum!

Michelle January 12, 2015 at 7:56 pm

What a fantastic idea for gifts! I’ll have to do some of these with my boy 🙂 xxx Thou Shalt Not Covet

Emma T January 12, 2015 at 8:51 pm

Love these. So simple, but really pretty and nice for children to do. I must get some air dry clay because our salt dough attempts were rubbish.

You Baby Me Mummy January 12, 2015 at 9:21 pm

Oh I love these, you are so clever. x

Hannah Staveley January 12, 2015 at 10:06 pm

What a good idea so very good to kids to learn and have fun.

Louisa January 13, 2015 at 12:48 pm

These are adorable. I have a box of air drying clay that I’ve been wondering how to use. Thanks for the inspiration

Rachel January 13, 2015 at 3:34 pm

These are just so amazingly cute and would make such amazing gifts x

agatapokutycka January 13, 2015 at 3:54 pm

Lovely idea. Now i just need to find such a nice ribbon 🙂

Susan Mann January 14, 2015 at 2:00 pm

These are awesome x

Bintu @ Recipes From A Pantry January 14, 2015 at 2:57 pm

What a fun idea. Stumbling and sharing.

Karen January 14, 2015 at 3:07 pm

These are so gorgeous!!

Hollie January 14, 2015 at 3:49 pm

This is an amazing idea! Great for presents too.

Stephs Two Girls January 14, 2015 at 4:10 pm

You have such brilliant and simple ideas! Even I can achieve this with my girls 🙂 thanks x

Cherished By Me January 14, 2015 at 4:30 pm

definitely going to try making these, I love them!

North East Family Fun January 14, 2015 at 5:11 pm

These are wonderful and so easy to make! Such a good idea for Valentines day. Stumbled x

Sarah Christie January 14, 2015 at 8:40 pm

These are so cute, great gifts and tree decorations, xx I have stumbled for you too x

Kate Williams January 14, 2015 at 8:54 pm

These are gorgeous Jen, love them! 🙂 Thanks for joining in with Tuesday Tutorials #pintorials

Kara January 15, 2015 at 1:42 pm

I am going to make these with my minds for valentines day – lovely idea

Nell January 16, 2015 at 5:01 pm

These are so cute! I was looking for a simple keepsake for my daughter to make for her daddy and these are ab fab! Thanks!

Otilia January 16, 2015 at 6:25 pm

These are so nice and cute!
Thank you so much for linking with the #pinitparty

lindsey kettle January 17, 2015 at 7:03 pm

These are so cute! We made some homemade clay before xmas and I never realised it was so simple to do 🙂 x #weloveweekends

Helen @ Peakle Pie January 19, 2015 at 1:39 am

I can see us making these for Grandma & Granny! Thank you for linking in with #weloveweekends

Marlene @ A Diligent Heart January 19, 2015 at 1:48 am

Love this adorable ornament! You wouldn’t think of making an ornament for anything other than Christmas, but I LOVE this idea! You’re going to be featured on Good Tips Tuesday!!! Thanks for linking up! 🙂