Footprints

Again, I found myself poking around on Pinterest, this time for some homemade Christmas gift ideas. I wanted to do something special for our son’s grandparents, his aunt, and uncles. I found an adorable idea for preserving his footprints, in the form of ornaments. Too cute.

This is the original Pin: https://youresomartha.wordpress.com/2012/12/22/handprint-ornament-diy/

So I called my mom and set out to the craft store with a supply list I assembled from the pin. There were lots of different interpretations of this ornament project on Pinterest and I wasn’t sure what to get. For instance, some pinners commented that they pressed their son/daughter’s name into the dough, while others used a paint pen after the project was complete. Other pinners suggested using a clear coat spray on the ornament, while contradicting posts said to use Mod Podge. So, I bought everything I could possibly need for any or all of those options.

Grandma rolling out the dough with Pinterest Fail #1 because I didn’t have a rolling pin. This really should have been a sign to stop right then…

Then, my mom came over to help me get the dough together. It was supposed to be super easy, containing just three ingredients: salt, flour, and water. Perfect for a Pinterest Wannabe, like me. So we got the dough together and used a bowl to cut the circle-shaped ornaments out.  My husband helped us with the baby portion on the project. He held the baby over the dough and did his best to center his squirmy foot, and press it into a perfect little footprint.  The ornaments looked great when I put them into the oven for the 3-4 hours the Pinterest Pinner suggested.

“Mom…What are we doing?”

When I took them out of the oven, I could tell there was a problem.  Apparently our dough was too dry, because they had all cracked. Not cracked like they split down the center; cracked like the Sahara Desert’s surface.  Damn it. So, we decided we would give it another go a few days later.

We used a little more water in the dough, and thought that they looked great! I baked them again, and this time they came out with an orange tint?! Dang it! By this point we were only 3 days from Christmas, and I knew I could never get another round baked, painted, and decorated in time. So, here I sit on December 26^th with a couple of baking pans full of orange tinted footprint ornaments and a crap load of art supplies, but no Christmas gifts. So my friends, let’s chalk it up to yet another Pinterest Fail.

Oh well, right? We cannot excel at everything, I guess. I will just stick to wiping bottoms and noses 🙂