A sweet way to keep the memory of your little one’s tiny fingers… and, to make it even sweeter, they are in the shape of a heart. Each holiday season, a special reminder of your little one.

Materials:

• air dry clay (I used the brand FIMO, as my son wasn’t truly handling the clay, but only adding his fingerprints with adult assistance; if your child is going to be more involved I would recommend an air dry clay specifically for children, for example: Crayola brand)
• gingerbread man cookie cutter
• rolling pin
• baking paper
• wire baking rack
• brown and red acrylic paints
• white paint pen
• magnets (if you can find self-adhesive magnet tape I would highly recommend that) * keep out of reach of children
• super glue (if using regular magnets) *keep out of reach of children

Instructions:

1. Set out your baking paper on a flat surface.
2. Place a fist-full-size amount of clay on the baking paper (if you want to make a larger batch, you can also choose to start with more clay—just be sure your baking paper and surface are large enough).
3. To avoid sticking, add another piece of baking paper on top.
4. Use your rolling pin to roll out the clay (make sure not to roll the clay too thin, as this will make it less stable and could lead to holes later when pressing your child’s finger into it).
5. Press out gingerbread man shape using your cookie cutter (do not leave too much space between the cutouts, to maximize the number of magnets you can make with only rolling out your clay once).
6. Keeping the cutout gingerbread men on the baking paper, remove the excess clay from around them.
7. Assist your child in pressing their finger into the clay, creating the heart shape (I placed mine in the middle of the chest, but if you choose a larger size cookie cutter you could also place the heart more to the left).
8. Once each has its heart, carefully remove them from the baking paper and place them on a wire baking rack to allow them to dry.
9. For the air dry clay I used, it has a dry time of 24 hours. If you are using a different kind of clay, be sure to follow the drying times provided on the packaging.
10. Once they are fully dry on the top, after about 18-20 hours, I recommend flipping them over to be sure the bottom gets fully dry as well before painting.
11. After the gingerbread men are completely dry, you can begin painting.
12. I began painting each of the hearts red, and letting them dry before going on with the brown everywhere else.
13. Allow the paint to dry before adding your finer white details.
14. Using a white paint pen add the eyes, mouth and the icing squiggles on the wrists and ankles.
15. Allow time to dry.
16. Once completely dry, add your magnets to the back using a very small amount of super glue (if you have the adhesive magnet strips, you only need to cut them to the desired length, peel off the paper backing and stick them on) *this step should be done with caution as super glue can cause very serious skin injuries and magnets should also be kept away from children as they are a serious choking and swallowing hazards!
17. Before using/gifting the magnets, I wrote my son’s name and the year on the back of each one using permanent black marker.
18. Time to use or gift your magnets!