Tropical Leaf Ornaments

Do you love plants?  If you do then this is the tutorial for you!  I will be walking you through how to create your own Pink Princess Philodendron clay ornament.

All you need is:

Creative Paperclay

Acrylic paint - In greens, pinks, and white

Knife

Rolling pin

Take about ¼ of a package of Creative Paperclay and using your rolling pin (You can substitute a drinking glass if you don’t have a craft rolling pin) flatten out the clay.  

Once the clay is flattened as thick as you would like your ornament to be use a leaf template or create one by drawing a heart shaped leaf onto a piece of paper to cut out your leaf.  

After cutting the leaves out smooth out the edges using your fingers and a wet paper towel.  Put one hole in the top of the leaves using a pencil or needle.  

Let them dry out for a day or two!  

Now let’s paint!

I started with white, the lightest color, and painted a small section on my half moon leaf and then added in light and dark pink variegation.  On the green side I put some light pink splotches and then painted around them with the darker green.  I did blend in a little lighter green in spots to make it more realistic. 

Time to hang them.  Put a little string or yarn through the hole and hang them on your tree!

I would love to see all your different leaves!  Comment your photos below.

Cheers until next time!

Kelly Martin

Paper Hibiscus

www.Instagram.com/PaperHibiscus

Tori's Tip - Cookie Decorating Fun for Kids of All Ages

For my tip this month I'm reminding you that Delight™ Air Dry Modeling Compound retains color well when mixed with acrylic paint, it is very light weight, and can be easily rolled out and cut with cookie cutters!

For a fun way to make ornaments,  mix up a batch of gingerbread or cookie dough colored clay, cut out shapes with cookie cutters and allow the pieces to dry.  When the clay pieces are dry, decorate them with puffy "shiny"fabric paints to create the look of icing.

This will be my last post of the year, so I'll wish all of you a HAPPY NEW YEAR! - looking forward to the new year ahead and creating more projects with Creative Paperclay® and Delight™

Thanks for joining me here again!  As always, play, experiment, and have fun!

Tori

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Holiday Spinners

The year has gone by so quickly!  I am getting ready to celebrate the holidays and so happy to be back in Arizona where I belong.  Don't have my tree up yet but decided to try making some ornaments to hang in the windows or wherever they seem to fit.

If you'd like to try creating some of your own, you will need -
Delight™ air dry modeling compound
pattern
scrap piece of board or cardboard, about 4" x 8"
acrylic paints
a fishing swivel
plain paper
white glue
rolling pin
plastic wrap
masking tape
pliers
monofilament or thread
round toothpick
craft knife
decorative bead or beads, as desired

Here is the pattern I designed for this project:
if you click on the image it should take you to a page where you can print it.

Print the pattern, but out the semicircular shape with the tabs.  Use the guide at the edge to mark 2 pairs of parallel lines onto cardboard, then mark line perpendicular to those at approximately 2" intervals, as shown.

Roll clay out to 1/16" thickness.  place circular pattern cutout lightly on clay and trace around it with a craft knife.  Gently lift out the cut out piece and place it onto the cardboard, aligning the top tab with the top line as shown.  Press the tab portion onto the cardboard just enough to make it stick, then add a piece of tape to hold it in place.

Now carefully lift up the bottom edge and turn it to the other side, creating a twist in the piece.  Align it with the marks on the cardboard, press and tape into place.

Repeat the process for the next piece -

you will need two for each ornament (or, you can try adding one or more extras onto a single ornament if you like).
Set the clay curves aside to dry.

Remove the clip on the fishing swivel, if there is one, and use pliers to pinch one of the end loops on the swivel to make it smaller than the ball in the center, as shown.

Cut a strip of paper the width of the top tabbed section on the pattern and about 1" to 1 1/2" long.  Roll the strip around a toothpick, then place the swivel inside and tighten or loosen the strip so that it fits snugly onto the swivel.  Glue the paper roll into a tube, but do NOT glue it to the swivel.  Make another paper tube for the bottom tab.

Prepare the string for your ornament by putting a stop bead on the end.
cut a strip of paper the same size or just slightly smaller than the hole in your bead.

Fold the paper in half, tie the end of a length of monofilament around the paper (12" to 14" of monofilament should be more than enough - it's better to have it longer than you need it at this point, so you have room for tying off the ends later).  Fold the paper in half again, keeping the monofilament in the fold.  Pull both ends of the monofilament up through the bead, put glue on both sides of the paper and pull it up into the bead to hold the monofilament snugly.  (clip off the ends of the paper if it is sticking out below the bottom of the bead.  Trim the extra "tail" off the monofilament so you have a single strand coming from the top of the bead.

When the clay pieces are dry, trim the tabs off in line with the marks on the cardboard.  Glue a paper tube to each end of the curved clay as shown, making sure that the tubes are in line with each other.

When the glue is dry, attach another clay twist to the other side.

It should appear to be a figure eight when looking through the lined-up tubes from the top or bottom of the ornament.

Allow the glue to dry, then paint as desired.

To string the ornament, put the monofilament with the bead on the end that you prepared earlier up through the bottom tube.  If desired, add a center bead in the center of the ornament by either knotting the monofilament where you want the bead to sit and gluing the bead in place, or by wrapping a piece of tape around the line and securing the bead to it with glue.

Thread the monofilament through the top tube of the ornament, through the bottom (squished) end of the swivel, then back through the top tube of the ornament.  Pull the swivel snugly into the tube, then make a knot in the monofilament to hold it in place.

Hang it up and blow on it gently to watch it spin, or place in a breezy doorway or window.

I hope each of you have Marvelously Happy Holidays, whichever ones you celebrate!

Thanks for joining me here again!  As always, play, experiment, and have fun!

Tori

Find me on Facebook, or peruse & ponder pics with me on Pinterest

Sing A long Christmas Ornament The Little Drummer Boy by Gloriann Irizarry

 

 

 

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Happy holidays to all and a bless new year to all my wonderful friends, followers and collectors.

This season is full of the family gathering, food, decorations and many Christmas Songs.

Thanks to these beautiful songs and to show the holiday spirit why not make an ornament. I have to say been part of crafting groups sure help to inspire you. These groups challenge you to create and make your gears turn. This is how this Sing A Long ornament took shape. With the help of my girls we choose The Little Drummer Boy we give him a Anime Manga better know has Chibi style and brought him to life in a cute ornament to hang from your Christmas tree or anywhere you want.

 

 

 

Materials

 

Delight™ Modeling Material

Foam round ornaments

Mini Drum Christmas Ornament

Wires

Multi use pliers

Aluminum foil

Acrylic paints

Brushes

Scissors

Water Mist bottle

Tacky Glue

 #2 Pencil

 

 

 

Cut a small piece of wire to create the small body armature.

Since is a chibi body it doesn't have to be big.

Chibi is a style of Anime/Manga drawing style used in characters to show smaller children as the actual meaning of the word is "short person" or "small child." have very small bodies with large heads.  

 

 

Is very important you pay attention to the neck piece a hop is required to hang the head from it.

Just bend the wire in half and shape a hoop with the pliers.

Now cut a strip of the aluminum foil and start wrapping around the armature.

 

 

Make sure your press the foil secure to the armature to shape the belly and back. 

 

Used your pliers cut a 3 inches long wire and curl it up like in the photo above.

 

 

Twist the wire inside the foam ball.

This will anchor the wire on your ornament head.

These ornament balls are seasonal items and I found these at Walmart fairly priced $.48 each

 

 

Now time to cover the ball with the Delight™ Modeling Material . Start by rolling a big ball flat to be able to cover the entire doll head.

I choose Delight™ Modeling Material due to be one of the most light weight clay I ever seen.

It help when your making a ornament because it is easy to use and once it dry has a foam like texture.

 

Once you have the sheet all rolled out like a pizza dough cover the ball and cut any excess out.

Smooth the edges with your finger and some water.

 

 

Do the same with the body.

Roll some clay out and cover all the body making sure all the foil and wires are cover in clay.

 

 

Shape all the body parts like the hands, belly and feet.

Chibi style doesn't required many detailed feet or hands so have fun

 

 

To make the hair just roll a smaller ball and once flat mist the head and attach the whole rolled clay on top and style to your like. You can also cut any excess out .

 

Move the the clay around roll it a little to give the hair the natural flow and it looks nice once it dry.

Set aside and let it dry.

 

 

Once the head is completely dry. Use your favorite acrylic paint in your chosen skin color.

Here the Peach Rose was applied.

 

Make sure your entire body is all painted with at least 2 coats of acrylic paint.

Water the paint down with water to minimized the brush strokes when the paint dry.

 

 

Now that the body base paint is dry you can start by painting the top vest and the little shoes.

Vest is light mint green and the shoes Renaissance Metallic brown 

 

Use the same Renaissance Metallic brown for the hair and apply 2 full coats.

Make sure you always wait for each coat to be completely dry before adding the other .

 

Do the same on the vest add to full coats of the light mint green.

 

 

Use Metallic Green for the pants and also use 2 full coats of paint.

 

Line up the vest with the Dark Metallic green.

Create some holly leaf detail on the vest and add dots to the shoes. 

 

To give the final touch to the vest use the Tuscan red and add the holly berries.

3 simple dots will be enough to achieve this look.

Here you can also add some belt detail. Also you can sign and year your ornament.

 

One more red dot of Yellow to create the buckle and a center dot of Tuscan red to make the shoe pop. .

 

For the drum sticks you can use toothpicks.

Stab thru the hand and cut to size.

Use a little dot of Tacky Glue or  Elmer's glue to secure the sticks in place.

 

Now to make the signature Chibi big eyes. Start by lightly sketching the eyes over the dolls head

 with a regular #2 pencil. Make sure the placement is were you want them to be. If the placement r not were you want them to be lines  can be easy removed with a school eraser.

 

Cover the whole iris with white. White is a base to make the top color pop and looks more vibrant.

Wait for them to dry.

 

 

Now add 2 coats of  the Teddy Bear FolkArt acrylic paint to create the iris.

Make sure is completely dry before each coat is apply.

 

 

Now to give the eyes some shine use Gold acrylic paint  to the final third coat.

For the Pupils use Renaissance Metallic brown to finish the eyes.

Paint 2 coats in a half moon shape. Make sure you wait for the pupils to dry between coats.

 

 

 

After the pupil had dry use the white acrylic paint to finish the eyes.

Water the white paint down to minimized the strokes out.

Paint 2 coats or more depending on the skin color of the doll you might need more. Now again make sure the paint is all dried before the other coat is added to achieve a nice bright eyes. 

 

 

 

Now use the Black acrylic paint to accent the eyes. Water the black out and with a small brush start outlining the eyelashes and pupils.

 

To finish the eyes add some whites to give them some shine.

Use the gold paint and add some freckles.

Use the black to out line the mouth and rose to blush the cheeks.

 

 

To finish the doll out use Black acrylic to outline the belt, pants and shoes.

 

 

Before your add the head to the body make sure to thread your cute mini drum ornament.

Use a pair of plier to twist and shape the head wire into a nice hoop and thread it to the body.

Secure it in place with the pliers. Paint it with acrylic paint to cover the wire and give it clean look.

 

Seal the ornament with any matter acrylic sealer to protect the paint over time.

 

 

 

 Now your Little Drummer Boy is ready to be display.

 

Are you ready for the holidays? Let just remember the true meaning of these holidays and make sure we spend time with all your loves ones. Don't be afraid to have fun and let them know how much your love them so they can have great memories to treasure.

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you kindly for join us for this Sing A long Christmas Ornament The Little Drummer Boy and if you have any questions feel free to leave us your comments below or email me here

 

 

scan or visit my blog at

http://byglori.com/category/blog/