In an effort to keep my mind busier lately, I’ve been crafting. All dog related things so far, of course.
Earlier this month I made a Christmas ornament with Petal’s paw print. Something I had always meant to do with Lassie and Ella’s paw prints, but never did. But we won’t talk about how much that upsets me, especially after finding that it was a really simple and extremely cheap project.

Instead we’ll just be happy that I did this with Petal and admire how it turned out.

I followed the simple tutorial from Sew DoggyStyle. I think the hardest part was balling up and then rolling the Sculpey clay out. That stuff was SOLID. I ended up using a rolling pin and temporarily staining it red. Then trying to shape it into a nice circle? That took some time.

The easiest part was actually getting Petal’s paw print, thanks to my Mom feeding her treat after treat while I squished her paw into the clay. To avoid having my handprint squished into the other side and messing up the circle I spent so much time on, I laid the clay on a clean, glass, cutting board and laid the cutting board on the floor before pressing Petal’s paw into it.

I ended up having to take that rolling pin to the first paw print and gently roll it out because it was hardly noticeable. I pressed too gently, afraid she’d fight me on it or worse, that I’d hurt her. After my Mom reassured me that Petal didn’t even flinch or care about anything but the treats she was being fed (it was chicken, by the way, the good stuff!), I did a better job the second time and luckily didn’t have to do it a third time. I pressed on each individual toe and even wiggled them just slightly.

After that was done, I made a little hole to string some ribbon through later and I carved the year on one side and her name on the other.

Then I popped it into the oven and baked it for an amount of time that I wish I had written down! Oops. I do know that it wasn’t very long.

After it was done baking and cooling off, we sprayed it with varnish (Varathane Polyurethane in a clear gloss). This part took the most time. We sprayed the front and then left it to dry for 24 hours before spraying the back and allowing it to dry for 24 hours. Then just for good measure, we sprayed the front again and then the back again, waiting 24 hours in between.
I didn’t use the Sculpey glaze stuff that was used in the tutorial simply because I already had a can of varnish on hand.
I didn’t have to buy any ribbon either, so this priceless ornament only cost me $2 and some change.

Not only does it look great on our Christmas tree, but it also looked pretty good when I hung it on Petal’s collar. 😉

My gorgeous girl.
I love those taller-than-the-mountains bunny ears!

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!
♥