Make some gorgeous finger print gingerbread men ornaments to hang on your Christmas tree this year as a special family keepsake to last for ever! So easy to DIY with kitchen ingredients and some willing little helpers.

How to make finger print gingerbread ornaments

You will need:

salt

plain flour (all purpose)

warm water

gingerbread cookie cutter

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Instructions:

Mix 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of salt in a large bowl. Next, stir in 1/2 cup of warm water and mix thoroughly until it resembles a dough similar to cooking or play dough. Take it out of the bowl and start to knead it until it becomes soft and pliable. It shouldn’t be sticky or dry.If it is, try to fix it with a little more water or flour to make it just the right consistency to roll out.

Cover a clean surface with a dusting of flour, then roll out the dough until it is 1cm thick.

Using gingerbread men cookie cutters, cut your shapes until you have as many as you need. Then ask your children to push their fingertips to carefully make three buttons on each one. My children made around 5 each but you could also do one each in a class setting.

Lastly, poke a hole at the top of each one using a drinking straw.

Next, lay them onto a baking sheet and put them into a VERY low oven for 3 hours, turning over half way. I recommend 100 degrees C (approx 210 F.) Any higher and they start to rise or burn. Think of it as drying them out rather than cooking them. If they are still doughy or soft after this time, pop them back in for a further hour.

Once hardened you can decorate!

We painted them first with brown acrylic paint and allowed that to dry a little before adding the coloured button details.

Use acrylic paints as these adhere to the surface much better and make a more vibrant, sealed colour. You don’t need to varnish over the top to seal them but they looks nice and shiny if you do.