Creative Paperclay® Heart pendant

With Valentines on its way my head is filled with hearts so this month I'm going to create an easy but very pretty Heart pendant using Creative Paperclay®.

Material list:
Creative Paperclay®
wire - for the bail
tool to stamp in your texture
acrylic paints

1. Make a paperclay ball, about the size of a walnut. Actually, the amount of clay you use really depends on the size you want your finished piece so play around. If you use too much simply make the ball smaller and reshate again.

2. Start shaping the clay into a heart. I first roll the ball in my hands to form a cone shape and then squish and moosh the clay into a heart shape. This is play time so have fun and don't worry if your heart isn't a perfectly shaped heart. I kinda like the wonky look, I think it gives the pendant more character.

3. Insert your wire bail into the top of your pendant. Since mine is a wonky heart I inserted the bail so the heart will hang at an angle.

4. Next we stamp in our texture. I used a leather stamping tool for my texture but you can use whatever you have handy. Stamp the texture deep enough to make it look like it's inside the heart, not on the surface of the heart.

5. Once you get the look you like let the pendant completely dry. What? We're done? Yep, how easy is this! :)

6. After it dries completely you can paint it . I started by painting the entire pendant black. I then dry-brushed metalic gold and red. That gives the pendant an aged look that I love. After the paint dried I sprayed a couple of layers of polyurathane on it to protect the paint. All that's left to do is sting it on a cord or ribbon and you have a beautiful heart to wear.

Steampunk Christmas with Viva Las Vegas Stamps

I'm really not much of a stamp user so this month's tutorial was a bit of a challenge for me. I decided to create a Christmas card with a bit of a Steampunk look. I love just about anything Steampunk and Viva Las Vegas Stamps has Steampunk stamps that are fantastic! I'm using  Item 16006 Plate 1273 and Creative Paperclay®.

(Note - This card was painted with metallics and metallic paint is impossible to take pictures of. The background color is a light gold, not brown. The ornaments are copper, silver and gold.)

Materials:
Viva Las Vegas Stamps Item 16006 Plate 1273
Creative Paperclay®.
Acrylic paints
Water color paper cut to size 5" x 7"

1. I first rolled out my paperclay to about 1/4" thick. I then used my stamps and pressed them into the clay to make tiny gear ornaments for my card. Then I cut out each stamped clay piece with an exacto knife. Let these "ornaments" dry.
2. While the clay was drying I painted a Christmas tree on my water color paper using thinned out acrylic paints. You can paint whatever you want using colors you like. I wanted to stay with a metal look so I first washed the paper with a very thinned out light gold. While the paper was still damp I painted the tree using 3 shades of green. (Actually, I just jabbed and splashed the brush around on the paper till I got a tree shape I liked)
3. I wanted to use the stamps to actually stamp gears onto the tree so I painted the surface of the stamps with my metalic paints and stamped them onto the paper. The gold was a bit light but the copper worked nicely.
4. Once the clay ornaments were dry I painted them and then glued them onto the tree.

I hope you enjoyed this quick little crafting idea using Viva Las Vegas Stamps in a little bit different way.

Thanksgiving Turkey Pin

For my first official tutorial I decided to create something fun to wear for Thanksgiving. I love wearing unique pins and brooches during the Fall and Winter holidays and making your own for you and as gifts for family and friends makes them extra special.

Supplies you'll need:

Creative Paperclay®
Craft Glue
Black bead for eye. (I used a black onyx round bead)
Pin Back
Your sculpting tools
Something to roll the clay out with
Paint brushes
Acrylic paints (I used French Vanilla, Dark Brown, Black and Metallic Copper but feel free to choose the colors you like!)
Water
Strong Glue for pin back (I use E-6000)
Protective Urethane spray

Okay, let's play!

Step 1. Grab about a golf ball size of clay and role it out to about 1/8 inch thick. I use bamboo skewers to rest my roller on while rolling out the clay. Next, cut out 11 circles to make the tail feathers with. If you look at the picture you can see I used what looks like some really nice cutters. What they are are those brass candle stick inserts you use to help keep wax off the lip of your candle sticks. You can find them in several sizes and they come in a pack of 5 or six. They work great are are inexpensive clay cutters! Or you can eye ball it and make 5, 1/2 inch balls and 6, 1/3 inch or so.

Step 2. Now take all those nice clay balls and roll them into cone shapes about 1 1/2 inches long.

Step 3. Lay all your clay cones out into the shape of the tail feathers and gently flatten a bit. Don't worry if the bottoms don't match, you're going to trim them next.

Step 4. Now trim the bottoms of your feathers to make a nice curved arch.

Step 5. Time for a bit a detail. You can use a toothpick or a tool with a straight edge to add details to the tail feathers. Don't push all the way through the clay, you just want the lines deep enough to hold onto the dark brown paint later. Now let the tail feather dry a bit, you don't want to squish out all your lovely work.

Step 6. After the tail feathers have dried a bit it's time to add the rest of the turkey. Make a ball of clay a little bit smaller than the size you want the body.  Before pressing it in place, brush a little bit of craft glue along the bottom edge of the feathers to help the body stick. Now press the ball in place and shape it till you like the way it looks.

Step 7. I added feather details to the body with a silicone tipped sculpting tool but you can use a piece of wire bent into a U shape to stamp feather impressions into the body.

Step 8. Next we'll make the turkey's neck, head and  the wattle. The WHAT?  LOL. The wattle is that hangy down thingy on the turkey's beak and neck. (I didn't know either so I looked it up!) Just make a snake shape, give it a little curve, paint a little glue on the back and press in place. The head is a flattened ball of clay with one edge pinched out a little for his beak. The wattle (teehee) is a tear shape press in place. Don't forget to paint a little glue on the back of each piece before pressing into place.

Step 9. Here's lookin at ya! Add a little glue to your bead and press it into the head.
Now let this all dry. If you're like me and you can't stand to wait a few hours do what I do. Warm your oven to 200 degrees. Turn oven off, place your turkey pin in oven on something flat, like a cake pan and leave in oven till dry. Keep an eye on it though, in case it starts to crack or bend.

Step 10. Now that your pin is dry you can add the nice smooth bottom. Roll out a chunk of clay to about 1/8 inch. Paint glue all over the back of your pin and then gently press the turkey onto the rolled out clay. Trim all the extra clay away from the pin and smooth the edges. Let dry again.

Step 11. Once your pin is completely dry you can paint it in the colors of your choice. Once your paint is dry, thin your dark brown paint just a little with water and then paint over small sections at a time, making sure you get it into all those wonderful details. Gently wipe off with a damp cloth or sponge before it dries. I use a makeup sponge for this. They work great and are soft enough that they don't pull of any of the other dried paint. This helps pop out your details.

You can spray a protective coating on your pin after it is completely dry. I used a matte finish by Krylon.

I hope you enjoyed my Thanksgiving Turkey Pin tutorial. I had fun creating it for you!