Clay Leaf Christmas Ornaments: A DIY Tutorial

Bring Nature Indoors: DIY Clay Leaf Ornaments. This Christmas, add a touch of nature to your holiday decor with these elegant DIY clay leaf ornaments. They’re easy to make and can be customized to match your personal style.

Roll out some air-dry clay, create leaves using a silicone leaf mold, and let them dry overnight. Once dry, paint them with gold paint and age them with antique wax for an elegant vintage look.

Materials For This Project

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• Air dry clay (or oven-bake)
• Leaf-shaped mold
• Knife or X-acto
• Skewer or straw (for hanger hole)
• Gold craft paint
• Antique wax
• Paintbrushes
• Gold string twine for hanging

Creating Clay Leaf Ornaments: A Simple DIY Project

You can use either air-dry clay or oven-bake clay for this easy project.

Since I had a container of air-dry clay on hand, I decided to save a few bucks and use that.

1. Prepare the Clay: Start by softening a clump of clay by kneading it until it’s pliable.
2. Mold the Leaf: Press the softened clay into one of the leaf-shaped molds. Use your palm to gently press the clay into all the details of the mold.

The next step is to remove the clay from the mold. Just use a lifting motion like you are removing a Tupperware lid off of the container.

Another way to remove the clay is to pick up the mold and pop out the leaf shape.

To remove excess clay, use a fine-tipped tool like a steak knife, X-acto blade, or similar to carefully follow the edges of the leaf imprint in the mold.

The silicone mold I used had some beautiful leaf shapes, especially the smaller ones with intricate details.

One tip: If I were to do this project again, I’d probably cut off the stems of the clay ornaments. They’re quite fragile and don’t really add much to the final look.

Let Clay Leaf Ornaments Dry

To allow for air circulation around the clay I always use a cookie cooling rack. It helps speed up the drying process for air-dry clay.

If you are using an oven-baked clay follow the directions for the brand that you are using.

Painting The Ornaments

Once the clay leaf ornaments are completely dry it is time to give them a glam look with metallic paint. I chose a lighter gold color but any metallic shade that you like will work. Copper would look fantastic I think!

A fine-tipped paint brush helps to get in all of the crannies and tight spots of the ornaments.

Final Touches

Brush With Antique Wax:

To give my ornaments a vintage look, I applied a coat of antiquing medium. I like Waverly antique wax from Walmart, but any brand will work.

Applying the medium is simple: just brush it on and then wipe off the excess with a soft cloth or paper towel. This will highlight the details on the leaves.

Here is a comparison of the painted leaf next to the one with the antiquing to see the difference.

Add String For Hanging:

The final step is to add a cord or ribbon for hanging on your Christmas tree. For my set I added a gold twine string but a thin velvet ribbon would look pretty too.

For a more rustic look plain jute twine would work great.

Finished Painted Clay Leaf Ornaments

Your DIY painted clay leaf ornaments are now complete! Hang them on your Christmas tree, give them as gifts to friends and family, or use them to decorate your home for the holidays.

Making your own ornaments is a fantastic way to express your creativity and add a unique, personal touch to your Christmas tree.

Looking for more DIY ornament ideas?? Well, I have so many ideas for you to scroll through:

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