Kids' Project: Leaves of Clay Necklace

This project can easily be scaled in complexity depending on the age and attention span of the child you're working with. I'm working with a four (soon to be five) year old, so I'll share with you how we made this necklace.

We started with a ball of Creative Paperclay® about the size of a golf ball. Chloe rolled the ball flat to a thickness of about 1/8". We used these veined rose leaf embossing cutters.

I held the cutter in place while Chloe pressed it into the clay, cutting the shape and embossing the surface in one step. We made many leaves, so we could select the best ones for our finished project. These are a few of the leaves before drying and sanding.

You can pierce holes in the leaves for jump rings while the clay is still wet, or you can wait until they are dry and drill a small hole with a fine bit and Dremel.

After the leaves were dry, I sanded the edges and the reverse side. I found that an emery board worked great for sanding the jagged leaf edges.

Next, was painting the leaves. We used mica powders mixed with Gloss PPA. Mixing the colors was a combined effort, but Chloe did most of the painting. Then, another round of drying before one last finishing coat of Gloss PPA. Here's what our leaves looked like after the paint was dry.



Chloe had fun going through my stash to select beads to add to the final project. I did all the jewelry work, with Chloe handing me beads and jump rings. Here's our finished necklace—just in time for the crisp autumn weather.

Don't forget our Halloween Link Up Party!!

Carole	Chloe
Table Cell	Table Cell