DIY: Make a Decorative Spoonrest

Making your own spoonrests is a fun project for you and your kids to do together. We made a whole pile of these as holiday gifts. Each of them is unique, and they were very well received.

Your spoonrests will be made of air-drying clay. You can use any color you like. You can even layer the colors on top of each other, so that different parts of your spoonrests will be different colors. Think about the colors and patters you would like to have before you start rolling out your clay.

Using a rolling pin or an empty drinking glass, roll out your air drying clay until it's about one-half inch thick. You'll cut out the shape of your spoonrest from this. We used cookie cutters. The advantage of using cookie cutters is that they're much easier to cut with than a free-hand knife, especially if you're working with younger children. Plus we have a lot of different cookie cutter shapes.

Your spoonrest doesn't have to be exactly in the shape of the spoon. One section of it simply has to be big enough for a spoon. For instance, an oversize gingerbread man cookie cutter allows you to rest a spoon in either the gingerbread's head or his stomach, with the rest of it being decorative. You can shape your spoonrest in whatever design or shape you think the person receiving it would enjoy, as long as its one area is big enough to put a large spoon on it later.

Once you have the basic shape of your spoonrest cut out, you may wish to add extra bits of clay as embellishments, such as like adding eyes or buttons to that gingerbread man. Once you have everything in place, use a large spoon, (such as a mixing spoon), and press it slowly but firmly into your basic spoonrest shape. You want to make an indentation, but don't press all the way down through the clay you're working on. You don't want to make a hole.

Air drying clay can simply be left out overnight to dry on its own, or you can speed it up a little by putting it in the oven. Turn your oven down to 200 (or to whatever the lowest possible setting on your stove is; they usually stop around 175 or 200). Leave your spoonrest in this low temperature oven for about 30 minutes. Be sure to check on it every five or ten minutes to make sure it is not actually cooking. You don't want it to turn brown!

Once your spoonrest is completely dry, you may wish to paint on additional details. Make sure you use acrylic paint, so that it will be waterproof. You can paint the name of the person receiving it, the occasion such 'Merry Christmas' or 'Happy Halloween', or just put the date on it or the name of the person making it along the edge.

Even if you don't feel like it needs any extra painting on accessories, you may wish to give it a coat of clear acrylic paint, just to make it waterproof. That way, when someone sets a spoon of bright, red spaghetti sauce on it, it won't stain it red.

Homemade spoonrests make unique, personalized gifts for any time of the year. It's also a great rainy day activity that you can do at the kitchen table with your kids. This is one of those projects that they'll remember for a long time to come, and they'll always have a spoonrest as a souvenir.

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