SugarPlusSpice

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Samoa Ornaments

I got a lot of questions about the Samoa ornaments I made for my daughters' Girl Scout Troop, so I thought I'd brush the dust off my neglected blog and post the instructions.  So excuse the blog's appearance please, it will get TLC soon!

Here is the ornament...

Looks yummy!

Here is what you need to make them.  Plus hot glue, tacky glue, scissors, etc.  The brown circles are felt, and brown rickrack is sometimes difficult to find.  You could use ribbon or puffy paint instead. 


They are not hard to make, but do take some time.  First thing to do is make salt dough.  

I made the dough using 1 cup of flour and a 1/2 cup of salt. Mix well, then add water slowly while you continue to mix the dough.  I had put aside half a cup of water but didn't use all of it.  I stopped when it felt a little more firm than Play-Doh.  This made enough for about 12 ornaments.  

Then I used a template I'd made for the felt to make the first cookie.  I was able to see how much dough I'd need for each cookie and I rolled the rest of the dough into evenly sized balls.  Then I flattened each ball onto the template, making them all the same size.

I used a marker cover to make the hole in the middle, I found it easier and neater than trying to do the hole myself...notice I used our least popular color marker, in case some of the leftover bits stuck inside dry out the marker :-)

I baked mine on a cookie sheet with parchment paper on 225° for almost 3 hours.  I took them out after two hours and checked them, but the bottoms weren't firm enough.

Then I rubbed tacky glue on the tops, and sprinkled them with rice.  You'll need to use a thick layer of glue, and pat down the rice a bit to get a good coating of rice to stick.  Let it dry!! Do not be impatient like I did the first time or you'll be sorry!

When the glue finally dries, give it a good coat of brown paint.  I mixed a few browns together to get a good Samoa color, and a fluffy brush to get in all the tiny crevices.  Then when the paint is dry, spray the cookies with an acrylic sealer or gloss varnish.  I tried brush-on varnish, but all the crevices caused bubbles to form.  The spray was easier and looked much better.  

Paint the bottoms a dark brown in case the felt chocolate bottoms don't match up exactly...

...and then start gluing the rickrack!  I found it easiest to do the middle strips first, wrapping them around and gluing underneath.  After the one in the middle, add one more on each side of the cookie, wrapping the rickrack underneath and gluing it down.  

Then glue a loop of ribbon to the back of the cookie--I chose purple because that is the color of the box Samoas come in.  Then glue the brown felt to the back of the cookie.  Then make a bow (I made mine from a thicker ribbon the same color purple), and you're done!


Now the kids want ornaments of the other Girl Scout cookies!  Maybe next year...