Category: Holidays

Here’s an idea for something really cute for your Easter table. Small springtime animals – lambs, chicks, bunnies, etc. whimsically designed and created to be used as place cards for Easter!

The instructions for mixing up all the dough to be used is on my previous blog postings. So some hints for making little 3 dimensional animals:

Think about the animals you’ll make and what colors you will want to have on hand. You won’t need a full range:
Lambs: black and white with blue eyes and pink nose
Chicks: yellow with blue eyes and orange feet and beak
Bunnies: white, with blue eyes and pink nose.

Tools: Definitely a garlic press, sharp kitchen knife, alum. foil, toothpicks – oh and a clean damp cloth to wipe off the table between different colors.

Size: You won’t want these to be too big. For one thing it takes forever to bake them completely. Also, they are not quite as cute when they’re big – they tend to look a little dumpy and not roly poly cute! Let’s say your animals will have a finished size of 3″ tall by 2-3 ” wide.

All animals will be constructed the same way. You’ll begin with the body – Take a piece of yellow dough and form a nice smooth ball. – We’ll do the chick first as it’s the easiest. Work on a smooth surface like Formica table top, and construct the ornament on a piece of foil. (It’s easy to move to the oven that way)

Take that ball and pinch one side to form the tail. Make another yellow ball about 1/2 the size of the first. Roll it until it is completely smooth. Stick this ball on to the first body ball, on the other side of the pinched tail area. Now you have a body and head.

Make another yellow ball about the same size as the head. Roll it very smooth. Put it on the table and cut in half. Roll each half into a ball. Then pinch one end like you did in step 1 – and then flatten the ball. You will have a wing – press that onto the side of the body. Repeat for the other side.

Now you have a body, head, and two wings.

You are finished with yellow, so wipe off the table where you were working. Let’s make the feet.
Take some orange dough, making a ball about the size of the ball that made one wing. This is not an exact science – your chicks might look different than mine! Roll that orange dough into a ball and cut it in half. Then roll each half. Put the two balls down next to each other, just barely touching. Press down on about half of the ball squishing it to the foil. Put the body of the chick on top of the two side by side feet and gently press down to have them stick together. Use a toothpick to make feet marks on the chick. (They might look a little like duck feet, but this is artistic license! They will be big enough for the chick to stand up.)

The beak is next. Take an amount of orange dough and form a ball – probably a small amount.
After the ball is smooth, use your fingers to make a cone or pyramid shape. Press into the chick’s face, right in the center of the ball. Using your sharp kitchen knife, gently slice the pyramid in half, to form both top and bottom of the beak.

Time to wipe the table again. We’ll make the eyes blue! Here take a very small amount of blue dough and roll it into a ball. Put it on the table and cut in half, and roll two new balls. They should be small, but in proportion to the beak. Take a toothpick and put it into the center of the ball. Pick up the toothpick with the ball of dough on the end, touch the end to your moist towel (or to your tongue to moisten) and place the toothpick on the chicks head right above and to the side of the beak and press in a little. The eye should stick to the head as you remove the toothpick. Repeat with the other eye.

Your chick (s) should be baked in a 225 oven until they are done. I usually leave my projects in the oven overnight. At 225 they won’t burn and they will be dried out completely.

When baked and cooled, spray with a verathane coating. When completely dry and finished, personalized with a black fine point permanent marker.

Good luck with the lamb and bunny! If you need more tips, write me back.

Time to start making some dough!

OK, do you have everything on the list? If so, let’s get started by making some dough!
You can make it in smaller batches than this recipe, just reduce the proportions. You will probably want to make quite a few colors.

White
Red
Blue
Green
A little brown
A little black
A little purple
A little orange
A little yellow

After you make the dough, put it inside a nice zip lock bag and keep it in the refrigerator.
If you keep it too long and it gets sticky, just add flour the next time you want to use it.
If it gets dry, add a little moisture – water – just a little.

Here is the url with instructions: https://www.calliopedesigns.com/blog/how-to-make-dough-ornaments/

Next time: some Easter ideas!

Last time we created an Easter Chick to sit on the table by each place. After each Chick is finished it should be coated with a clear acrylic spray, then personalized with an extra fine tip permanent marker! A nice little keepsake, especially if you put the year 2007 on it.

Today I’m going to write about making a standing lamb dough placecard for the Easter table.

You’ll use the same recipe for the dough materials found at www.calliopedesigns.com – making your own dough ornaments at home.

Mix up some white, black, a tiny bit of pink and a tiny bit of blue. The white should be soft, almost sticky as we are going to use the garlic press. The other colors can be medium hard.

It might be fun to have a little jingle bell to put on a collar around the lamb’s neck, but it’s not a necessity.

Tools: a toothpick, garlic press, sharp kitchen knife, and alum. foil

Again, you won’t want this little item to be too big! It will take too long to bake, and they are cuter when they are small.

The first piece to make would be the white body. Take about 2 T of white dough and roll it into a ball, then into an oval shape. Set aside.

Make the legs. These four legs will be the same size. Because they will be holding the lamb’s body and head, we will want them to be oversized in a way… sturdy. And bigger at the base than the top. (These lambs are going to be whimsical in appearance!) So make a fairly large ball of dough – roll it until round and smooth. Set it down on the table and cut it in half. Roll each half into a ball again and set them down and cut each in half. Now you have four pieces just about exactly the same size.

Roll the four pieces of dough into balls, then set the balls on a smooth surface and roll each into a cone by using the tips of your fingers and pressing down slightly on one end so it becomes smaller as the other stays the same.

You should have four legs (cones) hopefully with large bases (the feet). Set these four pieces standing up, close together and press the white body on top. Make sure it will stand up. The legs don’t have to be very tall, maybe only 1 ” or so.

Make a little black ball and roll it into an 1″ long snake – and press on to the bottom end of the body (for a black tail).

Take about 1 T of white dough and make a ball, then a football shape, and press into the body for a head. Make black ears – the same way you did the tail – a ball of black, cut in half, rolled and pinched into ear shapes. Press those on to the white dough head.

Now comes the fun part! Practice pushing dough through the garlic press. Just push out about 1/3-1/2″ of dough, and swipe it with the toothpick. The dough pieces will stick to the toothpick. Then lay the toothpick on to the white body of the lamb and pull the toothpick away leaving the dough fleece on the body. Continue over and over until you have covered the entire body of the lamb, the entire head, and the little tail and ears are sticking out.

To make the blue eyes, take a tiny bit of blue dough. Roll it into a ball, cut the ball in half. Make two tiny balls. Place them on the table. Stick the toothpick right into the center. The eye will stick to the toothpick. Touch the blue eye to your tongue, then stick the toothpick into the lamb’s head where you want the first eye to be…. repeat with the second eye.

Same process with the pink nose. You can make two nostrils or one – whichever is cuter to you.

Bake in a 225 degree oven until completely hardened. Spray with a clear acrylic coating. There is no place to personalize the lamb unless you want to cut out a flat piece of dough – perhaps a heart shape, and bake it on to the lamb’s side. Then spray and personalize.

Have fun!