Kid's Project: Beehive

Recently, we visited the Ohio State Fair where we saw a honey bee display, complete with the hive. Chloe and I decided to make our own beehive. Here's how we did it.

Chloe kneaded and rolled the Creative Paperclay® into a log to fit into our clay extruder. If you don't have an extruder, you can roll the material into a snake about 1/4" in diameter. We just like gidgets and gadgets, so we used the extruder :) We inverted a condiment cup to build the base of the beehive.

As I coiled the paperclay around the cup, Chloe painted the previous layer with water. This encourages the coils to bond to one another, and also smooths the material so no sanding is required. We used several coils, and joined the new coil to the previous one as we built the beehive.

When we reached the top of the condiment cup, we continued coiling, making the coils smaller as we neared the top. I left the condiment cup in place while the beehive dried overnight, and removed it the next morning for the remainder of the drying time.

When the beehive was dry, Chloe painted it with yellow ocher acrylic paint. When that was dry, we stippled the surface with a metallic gold acrylic paint. The bumblebee is attached with a pop dot.

For the bumblebee, I cut the bottom layer out of yellow acetate. Black vinyl on top of the acetate outlined the bee. I used white vinyl for the face, and yellow vinyl for the two stripes. Here are links for SVG and PDF files for the bumblebee: SVG Bumblebee    PDF Bumblebee

Carole	Chloe
Table Cell	Table Cell

Jeepers, Creepers, Peepers

While cruising the web the other day and I came across glass and plastic eyeballs and thought I could make them with Creative Paperclay®.  I probably should have practiced doing bigger ones first however these are very inexpensive to create and don't require shipping.

Supplies:

Creative Paperclay®

Amazing Molding Putty

Paint

Liquitex Pouring Medium

Tools for holes

 

I started with two equal amounts of clay and these two things (sockets)  I found in my husband's garage. They made great indents leaving a circle in the middle for the pupil. Thing about what you have around the house that can make these shapes.

When the clay dried, I painted the pupil and iris.

After this dried I added some pouring medium to the indented area. This looks white but will dry clear. When dry it looks like the finished eyeball in the first picture.

Option: You can do a thin first pour and add detail when it is dry. Then do a second pour. This will give you even more depth in the iris.

 

Enjoy another technique for your art arsenal! —Darlene Olivia McElroy

Using Creative PaperClay® as a painting Medium by LuLu Lancaster

Hello There this is LuLu lancaster and I have a tip to use Creative PaperClay® as a painting medium.

I have bought the gels and dimensional paint for acrylics and thought what if I use my slurry of clay to create dimension without actually sculpting. 

Here are the results. :)

Use a regular gesso primed canvas and a cup of Creative PaperClay® that you have turned into a slurry. 

Create your slurry by adding water to a bit of clay until it becomes the consistency of thick pudding. Keep adding clay and water until you get the right thickness that will work for you.

I like to use high flow acrylics for this type of painting. I start by adding the clay slurry to the canvas.

with my paint brush and drip the high flow acrylic onto the slurry. 

I can then swish around my paint brush and get high areas of paint and clay. 

I keep adding more slurry and paint and swish it around with my paintbrush. 

The more slurry you add the more dimension your canvas will have.

I created trees with the slurry using this same method mod adding slurry and then dropping the acrylic onto the canvas swishing with my brush.

Here I took a wire and dragged it through the trees to expose the colors underneath.

Now it was time for soothing silly! I added a slurry of a teddy bear.

add paint 

and swish it around :)

Here he has a Creative PaperClay® unicorn horn at my granddaughters request :) 

Thank you of following along and i hope you have enjoyed this tip for using Creative PaperClay® as a paint medium :)

LuLu

http://LuLusApple.com

How to create a Creative Paperclay® Art Dolls Hollow Head

Full instructions to create a Creative Paperclay® A Hollow Art Doll Head

Here I had made a few big BJD or Art Doll heads. Now in order to be able to make more with less is not that difficult.Now when you in a budget you find creative ways to save and reuse. 

Now I came with a easy technique to create hollow Creative Paperclay art doll heads that will help you save time, material and money.

I done many dolls in the past and discover that the weight is key on the finish product so after some trial and errors I find this is the easier way to get it done so let me show you now how this is done.

Materials 

Creative Paperclay Material®

Smooth Styrofoam Half Spheres

Plastic sheet

Clay roller

Hobby or Xacto knife

Sand papers

Aluminum Foil

Cover the soft Styrofoam with a plastic sheet.

Roll the clay into an even  1/4 thickness sheet.

Cover the half Styrofoam ball with the clay and using your hands smooth it all over the form.

Cut any excess clay off . Make sure the clay is flat and flushed with the edges of the ball.

do these steps again and set them both half aside to dry over night.

Now that is dry you can remove your Smooth Styrofoam half sphere off by pulling it off by the plastic sheet. 

Now if the plastic sheet breaks off and you can not pull the Creative Paperclay® half don't panic here I will show you a TIP to help you remove the foam.

TIP: To remove the stuck Creative Paperclay® half  go to your silverware drawer and pick you stronger fork and stab the foam ball in an angle. This will give you leverage to pull the foam right off the dry clay form. 

Now little by little pull from side to side until POP! 

You will end up with the 2 half for your BJD or art doll head.

Like in here you can see the 2 half ready to be assemble into one big hollow head.

Fell free to remove the foam and set it aside to be use again and again .

I love this technique because I don't have to buy so many Soft Styrofoam balls I can reuse and reuse the one I already got.

Now to complete your full head is pretty simple.

Either using you hobby knife cut any big excess an with the sand paper leave both ends flushed flat.

I cut a hole on the back of the head for easier assemble to the body and to allow me to add more clay to join the both half together. 

Fit the head together add some fresh clay all around the head and inside the head and let it dry. This will secure the both half creating the one hollow BJD or art doll head. 

Now you can create the head cap and make sure it fits just right I use aluminum foil to keep the 2 part separate while making I'm adding more clay and the foil will keep it from sticking but at the same time will help you create the perfect fit doll head cap.

Move around and add clay were you feel it need it.

Set it to the side to dry and you will have a one full OOAK doll head ready for you to customized it to fit your dolly words needs.

This technique can be used over and over in many styles and sizes.

I hope this help you create cute big head dolls with out the waste and over weight.

Stay tune for more Creative Paperclay® tutorials and tips. Feel free to ask questions by leaving your comment below or email me at Gloriann Irizarry  Stay tune for more wonderful ideas and for inspiration browse your Creative Paperclay blog it is full of great artist with many tutorial and tips.

My friends now lets always remember to always have fun while crafting. Blessing!

Medicine Box by Lynda

This project was a lot of fun for me to do...though it was not easy!  I recently had to have surgery, and wanted to have a place to put all of my medicine in one place...in a container that was attractive.  I didn't like how the first one turned out...and though this one is not perfect, I love how it all turned out! Just because I use this for one thing, doesn't mean I will always be using it as a "medicine box"...you never know when I will decide to use it for something totally different!  

Supply list:
Creative Paperclay (at least 1 package)
Rolling pin (or item to roll out clay)
Xacto knife
Water
Silent Setter (or something to create small holes with)
White paint
Ribbon
Molds (flower and leaf)
Radiant Pearls paint
Container to use as a mold (I used a Longaberger basket protector)
Stylus

Directions:

Step one:  Flatten out your Creative Paperclay.  This needs to be wide enough to go around the whole container you are using.  I used 1 1.2 packages for this project.  

Step two:  Cut the corners out of the clay.  Lay it on top of the basket protector so you can finish it up.     

Step three:  Using your stylus, cut the excess off from where the top is around all 4 edges.  

Step four:  Using a Silent Setter (or other type of round hole punchers), start to put 3 holes down each side of the box. Repeat all around the box.   

Step five:  Using the small end of the stylus, pull out the little clay pieces from the holes you have created.   

Step six:  Using the water, soften out any of the imperfections in the clay - let dry overnight... 

 Step seven:  After the piece has dried overnight - add it to the inside of the basket protector to dry on the inside of the basket.  

Step eight:  While the box is drying, mold the flowers you are wanting to use - along with the flowers. After they have dried at least overnight, then paint the flowers and leaves using your favorite choice of paint.   

Step nine:  When the box is completely dried, paint it with white paint...  You might need to do 2 coats or more, depending on what you want it to look like.

Step ten: After the box has dried, start to add the ribbon to the sides, creating a bow at the very top.  I tied the bow twice to make sure the ribbon didn't come undone.

Step eleven:  Add a simple stamp or signature to the bottom of the box, showing you created it.

Step twelve:  When the paint has dried on the flowers and leaves, start to add them to the box using hot glue.

Thank you for checking out my project, personally I love the ribbons on the side - though it was not easy to get the holes the right way to thread the ribbon through!  I hope you enjoy making your own project...and make sure to share with us what you have done!  

Lynda Jeffs

Creative Paperclay Design Team

and Memories in Tyme