Hello, all you Clay*sters. How was your Thanksgiving? Ours was wonderful and I sure have enjoyed those turkey sandwiches the last few days.
With Thanksgiving behind us, I'm ready to really get serious about Christmas. I was thinking that a decorative candy box filled with candies would make a great gift for friends and neighbors.
I have always been inspired by the old vintage candy containers and the decorative vignettes sprinkled with mica flakes. So, today I am going to show you how I made this cute Santa Candy box. This little box serves as both, a vignette and candy container.
This is how I made it.
Materials needed:
Package of Delight Modeling material
Package of Creative Paperclay®
3" Round Paper Mache' Box
1 Red Striped Paper Straw ( wooden dowel is okay)
Tin Foil
Florist Tape (masking tape is okay)
Sculpting Tools
Straight pin
Paintbrushes
Scissors or sharp knife
Terri Sproul Mixers "Smoky Quartz"
Assorted Acyrlic Paint
I used: Folk Art "Linen", Folk Art " Metallic Gold", Folk Art " Metallic Silver sterling", Burnt Umber, Black,White, Bright Red, Folk Art "Light Skintone" Apple Barrel " China Blue
Mod Podge Dimensional Glaze or Decoupage
Mica Flakes
All of these supplies you may already have around your house. If not, they can
all be purchased at
Hobby Lobby or JoAnns Fabrics with the exception of the mica flakes. I purchased the mica flakes off of Ebay. You can search Mica Flakes. Also, the Mica Flakes are optional and glitter may be used as you will see later in the tutorial.
Step 1. you will cut your straw in half. With one of the halves, measure 1" and cut.
You will now have 3 straws. With your tin foil wrap around your longest straw to form a tree. Then, repeat with the other two straws. In the above pic it shows the measurements. They don't have to be exact, just approximate.
2. Snugly wrap trees with florist or masking tape.
3. Okay, now reach into that wondermous black package and get yourself a nice ball of Creative Paperclay®
Flatten your clay about 1/4" thick and cut 3 triangles, one for each of the trees and the Santa.
You can lay your tree next to the clay and eyeball it when cutting your triangle.
4. Moisten your clay and the taped foil. Begin to roll your clay around the armature. Smoothe out the lumps,bumps and seams whiling keeping your fingers moistened with water as needed.
5. With a ball sculpting tool or the eraser on the end of a pencil, create little circle indentations. I like to dip the ball in the water then do my indents. Now set your trees aside to dry.
6. Roll three clay snakes as in above pic.
7. For your Santa, moisten around the bottom edge of of his coat and wrap the clay snake around. Press it in as you go round to make sure it has a good seal.This is the fur trim on Santa's coat. With a straight pin Draw a line up from the bottom just above the fur to the middle of the Santa. This is the opening of Santa's coat. With your flat tool or orange stick press in and slightly under toward the line you made, this will create a flap.
8. Make more indentations around the bottom fur.
Using the flat top of your straight pin create buttons on Santa's coat, by pressing inward .
Now roll four balls of clay as seen in above pic. Flatten and form to a egg shape and add to the Santa , making sure the surface is moistened for a good seal. Lightly press down and shape.
9. With flat tool or orange stick create an eye socket. Pushing in , then pulling up. With your ball tool or end of pencil make a divet for where the nose will be placed. Then add your small ball for the nose. Have fun shaping his nose.
10. Form the beard in your hand then attach to Santa's face. Use your straight pin to make lines in the beard and a wet paintbrush to smooth between the lines. Add mustache and lines.
Next add your arms . Be sure to moisten the area you will be attaching your arm to.
In the pic I already have the arm attached, but you can see how I wrapped it around. Blend the shoulder into the back of his coat.
When I'm sculpting a body, sometimes I will refer to pictures of people in magazines for guidance in creating my lines and forms on a sculpt.
11. Using your last clay snake, moisten edge of hat and wrap your clay around. Press down and mold , keeping your fingers wet. Once again, add round indentations in the fur using your ball tool.
12. Allow to dry. I baked mine in the oven at 200 degrees for one hour. Then I shut the oven off, but left the pieces in the oven until morning.
13. You may want to paint your candy box in another palette of colors. When choosing the palette for this Candy box, I wanted to give it and old vintage look. Beige,golds, browns and mercury glass with a splash of red. To achieve this look I gave all the pieces a base coat of Linen.
14. To age my pieces, I used burnt umber watering it down to a very thin consistency. This is called a wash or antiquing. I painted all the pieces generously,then with a damp cloth I wiped away the excess.
You want to work quickly on this step to prevent wash from drying on your piece.
15. Above is the sample and names of my paint palette. I wont go into detail except that on the trees and the fur of Santa's coat in the circular indentations I used the pure gold. Then I loaded my brush with white paint and wiped it a couple times on newspaper then proceeded to dry brush the trees in downward strokes.
To resemble the color of mercury glass that I adore so much I mixed Terri Spoul Smoky Quartz mixers with the metallic silver sterling paint. I just LOVE her mixers. After it was dry, I gave it a coat of plain metallic silver sterling. Finish the rest of the Santa by painting his beard,face and eyes. Then paint your box. Spray with a sealer.
16. To finish the Santa candy box, take some Delight modeling material and form around the top of the lid draping down the side of the lid. Arrange the trees and Santa where you would like them placed, then push in. Now remove the pieces until the
Delight is dry. Return the pieces to their little spots with a little glue. I like E-6000.
Allow to dry 1/2 hour, then paint on dimensional glaze where you want the mica flakes to stick. Just sprinkle with mica flakes and wallah, were done!
Some of you may prefer to add less Mica flakes or none at all. Some of you may prefer glitter. It's all in the creative look you want. I plan on making several with candy boxes in traditional colors with a light dusting of glitter.
The Santa Candy Box.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and will want to give it give it a whirl.
It is actually a time friendly project and would be fun to make several at a time.
If you have any questions please leave a comment and I will do my best to answer your questions.
I wish you a wonderful Holiday season. When your out and about in blog land, I'd like to invite you to visit me over at
my blog.
Happy creating!
~Diane
