Star of wonder, star of night

As we approach the Feast of the Epiphany, I thought I'd share the Christmas gift that Gemma (and I) made for her grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, godparents, etc. I wanted something simple, where she could do most of the work, but that would still be a nice "keepsake". I found a recipe for Christmas ornament playdough in this book that I used quite a bit during the Advent season. I will say (if you already own this book) that the recipe itself needed a bit of tweaking. Here's the recipe, with my "tweakings" in (italics):

"Perfect Playdough"
2 cups baking soda (yep, you read that right)
1 cup flour
1/2-1 cup of water (start with about 1/4 cup but be ready to add more)

Mix the ingredients in a saucepan. Cook gently over medium heat, stirring often until it is the consistency of moist mashed potatoes. Don't let it get too dry. (The original recipe only called for 1/4 cup of water. I just don't see how this would ever be enough. I just kept slowly adding more until it reached the consistency mentioned above and it all worked out fine.)

Put dough out onto a plate and allow to cool. Don't let the kids touch it at this point, even though it looks ready. It's very hot! Cover it with a damp cloth and allow to cool to handling temperature (this didn't take too long).

Turn out onto counter and knead until smooth (this wasn't a big deal at all, it was already a great consistency).

Roll out to approximately 1/4 inch thick and cut as desired. (We used a star cookie cutter and had enough dough for roughly 14 stars.) Remember to cut hanging holes now if you're making tree decorations (I used the top of a pencil that I pulled the eraser out of to cut the holes.)

Bake at 325-degrees F. Bake the shapes until they are firm or hard to the touch and just barely beginning to brown on the underside. The shapes should stay white. (I baked ours for about 15 minutes because I was paranoid of overdoing them. They probably could have gone a bit longer though, as I had to let them "cure" a few days before they were really hard).

COOL (COMPLETELY, I left ours all night) IN THE OVEN. This is important-slow cooling avoids cracking.

Decorate as desired, finishing with a coat of varnish, acrylic, nail polish or white glue mixed with a little water. The point is to waterproof it so that moisture in the air doesn't make it go soft in the future. (We used yellow and gold acrylic paint and then a layer of acrylic glitter/glow-in-the-dark paint after that was completely dry, and they sealed up just fine.)

Gemma had fun using the cookie cutter to cut the stars out, and did a great job with the painting, it was right up her alley and I was amazed she was able to paint the fronts completely on her own with literally no assistance. I painted the edges and backs once the fronts were dry and then she painted the fronts with some glitter/glow-in-the-dark paint once the first layer of yellow/gold was dry. I used one of those metallic sharpies to write "Love, Gemma 2010" on the back of each one and some pretty red and silver twine I found looped through the holes made a nice "hanger" for the tree.

Gemma picked out some pink (imagine) gift bags at Target and we went through the list of people and she chose an ornament for each one, wrapped it in tissue paper, and put it in the bag (which she had already stuck personalized gift tags on all by herself). I found this poem online about the Christmas star and we glued it to the front of each bag.

A diamond shines no brighter than that lovely Christmas star.
It shines in all its brilliance; it's seen from near or far.
A symbol of the Christ child as He lay upon the hay,
It tell to all the waiting world a King was born that day.

O Bethlehem Star keep shining - give us faith and hope and love.
Keep our thoughts forever turning to the Savior up above.
Give us strength and hope and courage to do our best by far
And never falter in our faith as we watch that Christmas star.

And that's it! As we were working I used the opportunity to talk about giving gifts to those we love in honor of Jesus' birthday, and about the wisemen and their gifts, etc. It was a really fun project and I hope to find something equally successful for next year. Here are a few pictures of her work. She was very proud.

She has started doing this very forced, cheesy smile whenever I take her picture.
After wrapping them
Christmas morning (we kept one star for our tree)

Merry Christmas and Happy Epiphany!!