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


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.


These are adorable! I love the heart ribbons too – where did you get them?
What a fab idea, I’ll be trying this out with my little man
Such a lovely idea for a valentines day gift, so sweet and personal I think we’ll give these a try x
What a lovely fun and very personal idea for a gift or to keep, I will have to try this out with my girls! 🙂
These are super cute and I love the baking soda clay.
what a cute activity I love it , I think my reception class would love it
What a simply adorable idea, and simple enough for a fool like me too!
How cute are those? I love how artistic the boys are
Nell@PigeonPairandMe.com The ribbon is from my stash – it possibly belonged to my mum!
What a fantastic idea for gifts! I’ll have to do some of these with my boy 🙂 xxx Thou Shalt Not Covet
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.
Oh I love these, you are so clever. x
What a good idea so very good to kids to learn and have fun.
These are adorable. I have a box of air drying clay that I’ve been wondering how to use. Thanks for the inspiration
These are just so amazingly cute and would make such amazing gifts x
Lovely idea. Now i just need to find such a nice ribbon 🙂
These are awesome x
What a fun idea. Stumbling and sharing.
These are so gorgeous!!
This is an amazing idea! Great for presents too.
You have such brilliant and simple ideas! Even I can achieve this with my girls 🙂 thanks x
definitely going to try making these, I love them!
These are wonderful and so easy to make! Such a good idea for Valentines day. Stumbled x
These are so cute, great gifts and tree decorations, xx I have stumbled for you too x
These are gorgeous Jen, love them! 🙂 Thanks for joining in with Tuesday Tutorials #pintorials
I am going to make these with my minds for valentines day – lovely idea
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!
These are so nice and cute!
Thank you so much for linking with the #pinitparty
These are so cute! We made some homemade clay before xmas and I never realised it was so simple to do 🙂 x #weloveweekends
I can see us making these for Grandma & Granny! Thank you for linking in with #weloveweekends
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! 🙂
I just love this craft! Thanks for linking up to A little Bird told me link paty ~ this will be featured this week on Adventures in Wunderland!
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Perfect craft activity with Valentines Day coming up. Thanks for sharing it on the Virtual Fridge!
These are such a lovely keepsake! We have created something similar too and are putting them in a hamper for Grandparents for Valentines Day.
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This is such a gorgeous craft! Thank you for sharing on my facebook page.
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This is a brilliant idea!! Perfect for Valentine’s Day, thank you!!! 🙂
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My readers love all things fingerprints, do you mind if i share this article?
Feel free to share socially, but do not copy the post in its entirety
Ahh I love this idea!! I’ve been looking for valentines crafts that the kids can make and these are just adorable!
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