Easy Christmas Craft – White Clay Tags

If you are looking for a cheap and easy Christmas craft project, these air dry, white clay tags are quick and fun to make. Like all of my favourite craft projects, these tags are simple, affordable and look great. All you need for this Christmas project is – DAS air dry clay (i bought mine from office works), christmas cookie cutters, a straw, a rolling pin and your choice of thread or ribbon to decorate them. I used some old X-ray films as a mat for rolling out the clay and drying the tags. They work well as the clay doesn’t stick to the surface and they clean up really easily. So, if you have some old X-ray film around, i can highly recommend using it as a mat for this project. Open your packet of clay and break off about a third. I like to work with a third at a time because it’s easier to handle and the clay is less likely to dry out if you can work with it quickly. It will look a little grey initially, but don’t worry, once it is dry it will turn white. Roll out your clay until it is nice and smooth on both sides. You don’t want to see any lines or bumps in the clay, or your tags may crack and break as they dry. I like my tags to be about 1/2 a cm thick. Once you are happy that your surface is smooth, press the cookie cutter into the clay until it cuts all the way through. Push the straw into the clay, twist and pull out the centre, leaving a clean hole for you to thread your string or ribbon through later. Leave them to dry for up to four days. As they dry you can see them turning a lighter and brighter shade of white. You will know when they are dry when there are no more grey patches left on either the front or the back of the tag. Here are some of my finished tags, threaded with jute string. Ribbon or bakers twine looks quite effective too. And don’t they look great hanging off our stick Christmas tree. My family and i made this tree from sticks that have fallen on our property. It was a great family bonding activity and I LOVE how it turned out. The clay tags compliment the rough sticks perfectly. These tags can be used to decorate Christmas gifts too. The recipients name can be written on the clay once it is dry, or even stamped into the wet clay to leave an impression. I will be making a batch of these every year to attach to gifts. I may even get a bit more adventurous next year with paint and stamping, but for this Christmas i’m loving the chalky, matt finish of the plain clay tags. It really is starting to look a lot like Christmas around my home.