Lynda's April Tips - (late)

I apologize for the lateness of this post - my days/weeks have gotten away from me!!!  I have enjoyed playing with Creative PaperClay this past year - and have learned much about this fun stuff!  So, I have a few tips to share with you from this past year - things I have learned along the way!!!  

• Don't be afraid to play!!!  If something is not turning out the way you want it to, it's
  
  just as easy to put it back in a ball and start over again!
• Look at what supplies you do have - before you spend money!  I have a ton of scrapbook templates that help me make perfect one of a kind embellishments for my scrapbook pages and albums!  
• Before you even start - clean your surface really good, especially if you happen to have pets!  
• Have your basic supplies in one area/space...  I put mine in a drawer with everything I need to be able to create something in a pinch!  
• Look at every day items you can use as a base instead of throwing things away.  My snowman was made out of a creamer container!!!  

Out of anything - have fun with this fun stuff...whether you are making a large project or something small!  Get inspiration where ever you can - and simply HAVE FUN!  If something isn't turning out quite the way you want it to - start over!  Watch sales - grab coupons, and go to the web site for specials they might have!  
I wanted to say thank you to each and every one of you - being a part of this team has been one of the best things for me personally!  I am learning much from the others on the team - and though my flair is more scrapbooking and "craft" related - I hope you enjoy what projects I bring you!  

Until next time,

Lynda Jeffs

Creative PaperClay Design Team

and Memories in Tyme

Easy Butterfly Spring Mobile by Gloriann Irizarry

 

Welcome Back to the amazing Creative Paperclay® 

Is me once more Gloriann Irizarry a great tutorial to celebrate the starting of the spring.

Spring is finally here so lets celebrate by crafting a cute little mobile.

With the help of my little one we decided on butterflies. These cute butterflies will fly around with the warm breeze and make you smile every time. Ready! Ok them, lets begin.  

Materials

1 bar Creative Paperclay®

Sakura 3D Crystal Lacquer pastel pens

(Pastel Blue, Green and Pastel Pink)

Acrylic Paints 

(Pearl pastel blue, Gold, Yellow, Purple)

Clay texture sheets

Butterfly Cutters 

Flower Cutter

Lace Border Cutter 

1 Spool of  1/4 wide Ribbon 

Glass bowls 

Drill Tool

Needle Tool

Clay Roller

Flat Toothbrush

Solar night lamp

and the Top and drill template.

Sized to your desired mobile and print 2 to copies.

Cut one for the Top of the mobile and cut the other to know where to drill the holes 

Roll a clay sheet to a 1/4 thickness large enough for the template to be trace and cut off. 

After the template is cut use your border cutter to give a nice shape. 

Use your clay texture sheet and roller to give it some character.

Place your clay sheet over the glass bowl and give it a little shape and let it dry overnight.

Now choose your favorite butterfly style cutter.

Stamp and cut 15 mobile pieces.

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Use your needle tool and open the holes. 

You can use a single hole or the double hole depending on your taste.

Fold them in half and let the butterflies dry over night.

Cut one of each size of the flower.

Lets now grab the dried mobile top and use the template to mark the placement of the holes.

Use your drill toll to mark each one and  drill the whole 1/4 thick sheet. 

Make you you clean the holes out.

Grab all yours dry clay pieces and it is time to pain.

I use the pastel blue to paint an even layer and let it dry.

To give it an aged look I watered down the gold tone paint and added  to the already

 painted blue mobile top and removed the excess with a damp paper towel.

I wanted to give the mobile top some texture so I watered down some of the acrylic purple.

Use a flat toothbrush and use the splatter technique all over the mobile top.

I used the bright yellow and painted all the butterflies and the purple for the flowers

I added some veins and details to the butterflies with the Sakura Crystal Lacquer 

3D Pastel blue and Pastel pink pens.

I added some accents to the button of each flowers with the green  3D crystal lacquer pen.

And used the Pastel Blue and Pastel Pink for detailed the tops of each flower.

I wanted to crate a contrast on the mobile top so i used a Purple Crystal lacquer
3D pen and started to free hand drawn on the border.

Cut 2 long pieces of ribbon for you to thread so your able to hand your mobile .

Now choose your desire length size so you can cut the ribbons out and tight the butterflies to each end. 

My little one is afraid of the dark so I decided to add a special feature to her to enjoy this mobile at night too. I purchase a outside solar power lamp to give her a ever after light. 

I removed the top were the light with the solar panel was located and discarded the rest. 

Place it on top of the mobile and feed the light down from a carved hole .

Now she will have a everlasting mobile night light.

It will go on automatically every night and will last enough to put her to sleep. 

Looks very good at night too. 

Now that this project is completed you are ready to have a nice piece that will guard

 any kinder gardener dreams. 

My friends thank you for reading this tutorial and feel free to leave us any comments,

 Questions or suggestions at the button of this screen

Have a bless day and like always happy crafting. 

Sincerely

 Gloriann Irizarry

Email Gloriann@byglori.com

Using the unexpected for a drying holder - Tip #6 by LeeAnn Kress

Hi Everyone!

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend.  Thanks for stopping by the Creative Paperclay® Blogsite.  My tip today comes from an artist and dear friend of mine, Carly Smith of Boggy Bottom Bayou.  We were talking about drying our sculpted Creative Paperclay® heads in a low temperature oven and how we have to prop them up in various ways.  Carly shared the below pictures with me and I thought that I would pass this tip on to you.

It is such an unexpected holder ... a cardboard drink tray from a fast food restaurant.  Who would have thought that such a simple thing could work perfectly to hold your sculpted heads in?

Here you can see how Carly used this tray.  She is sculpting her sweet bat heads for Halloween and using the tray to hold the heads in place for drying.

Now, I would not suggest putting anything paper in your oven unless you are going to keep a good eye on it.  This oven was set at 150 degrees ( a very low temp as to not burn up the holder).  These heads were baked for 1 hour to dry.

If you don't want to bake your paper clay heads, you can still get one of these handy drink holders to hold your heads while the clay dries naturally.  It is really a perfect tool to prevent any smashing of facial features.  

In the above picture (the two heads in the back) - the facial features are already dry, so Carly turned them face down to dry the backs of the heads.  The head that is face up had some cracks repaired to the facial features, so it is turned up. 

Off in the oven they go at the low temp of 150 degrees.

 

Here is Carly's finished bat head.  To see more of Carly's work go to www.boggybottombayou.blogspot.com   Thanks for letting me share your tip, Carly!  

Just goes to show that you can find tools to add to your Creative Paperclay® toolbox just about anywhere!  Keep your eyes open for them.

To find out more about me and my Charmed Confections made from Creative Paperclay®, please visit me at www.charmedconfections.com

See you soon with a new tutorial!  LeeAnn

Tip: Another Surface Technique

Hi, there!! Carole here to share an exciting discovery. I've found yet another color surface treatment for Creative Paperclay!! I'm going to be using it in an upcoming project, but couldn't wait to share it with you.

Here's a quick step-by-step:

1. Select an image that you want featured on your finished clay piece.
2. Bring the image into your favorite photo printing software.
3. Reverse or mirror image the original. This is especially important if your image includes text.
4. Load an inkjet printer with USArtQuest studio paper. Studio paper is glossy on one side, and this is the side the you want to print onto.
5. For extra vibrant coloring, select the highest quality photo printing option on your printer.
6. Be careful when handling the studio paper as the ink is wet; it's just resting on the surface of the paper, and isn't absorbed the way it would be using regular paper.
7. Lay your prepared clay piece, right side down, on top of the image.
8. Let the clay rest for a few hours before re-positioning, and allow the clay to dry thoroughly before proceeding with your project.

In a couple weeks I'll be back to show you what I've done using this surface coloring technique.

Carole

On Creative Plaperclay® Modeling Material

Hi there! It is Susan from TheBoredZombie.com with April’s tip… errr, April’s reflection. It has been six months since I’ve started with the Creative Paperclay Modeling Material Design team. Something about those anniversary type dates that put me in a reflective mood. 

I feel very fortunate to have joined this team when I did. I considered myself a Polymer Clay artist. It is a medium I’m quite comfortable with and have learned a lot about it in my time using it. Terri and the rest of the design team have been so supportive as I learned the ropes of the new to me medium, Creative Paperclay® Modeling Material. Many of the tricks I knew for Polymer translated perfectly, some did not, and Creative Paperclay® modeling material can do many things polymer can’t. It begs the questions – Is one medium better than the other and which is my favorite?

The answer: I’m thrilled to have them both in my artist toolbox. Where Polymer Clay falls down, Creative Paperclay® Modeling Material fills in the gaps. There’s a whole world of options open to me now that aren’t even a consideration when working solely with polymer. Recently, I had to make a decision between polymer and Creative Paperclay® Modeling Material and found my own decision process interesting and thought you might too. 

Here are some the things I think Creative Paperclay® Modeling material excels at and the situations I would choose it over polymer:

•  It’s super strong, even with small pieces. If the finished sculpture is going to be handled a lot or by small hands, this is a clear choice. Other than one incident with the dog, I have not damaged or otherwise broken a dried Creative Paperclay® Modeling Material sculpture. Some of them, like the custom game pieces have been put through the ringer! 

  

  See this project here

•  If my daughter and I are working on a project together I'd choose Creative Paperclay Modeling Material. Polymer is not dangerous in any way, but I do like the more organic feel of Creative Paperclay® Modeling Material. I don’t worry about her handling it. Also, since it isn’t baked, I don’t worry about burns either.

  

  See this project here

• Creative Paperclay® Modeling Material opens a world of materials to use for armatures. Wood that expands and contracts, Styrofoam and plastic that would normally melt in the oven, and glass are all viable armature optionswith the air dry material.

  

  See this project here

• Creative Paperclay® Modeling material dries to a nice bright white which is ideal for painting with no primer required. Of course, it can be tinted too.

  

  See this project here

• Creative Paperclay® Modeling material is very light when is dry. Perfect for costumes and other wearable embellishments. 

  

  See this project here

      I’m loving the world that Creative Paperclay® Modeling Material has opened for me. I’m also proud to tell you that I’ll be on the design team for another four months! You’ll see a new project from me in two weeks then I will be back in July with some great new costuming projects. Look out Dragon*Con, here comes TheBoredZombie.com with lots of Creative Paperclay® Modeling Material costume embellishments!

Heart In Hand For Mom by Diane

Hello creative friends!
 It's great to be back this month to share a fun and easy project with you.
This would be great for a Mothers day gift and can be tailored to your Mother's specific style and colors.

Heart In Hand Picture...

Getting started, you will need to gather a few supplies;
Creative Paperclay®. to purchase click here or go to any Hobby Lobby or Michaels store.
Basic sculpting tools.
paintbrush.
Hot glue or E6000.
Saran wrap.
Sharp knife or toothpick.
Scissors.
Your desired paint colors.
Your desired heavy cardstock.
A piece of paper for a template.
An old doily (optional)
styrofoam.
Frame
and Composimold ( if you want to make several molds of hands). to purchase Composimold go here.
Baby powder if using a mold.

This step is optional:
Because I wanted to use this frame for many projects, I decided to create a mold using ComposiMold.

Using a sharp knife, I cut out a piece of Styrofoam and placed it snuggly in the center of my frame.

I created my mold according to the directions on the ComposiMold product. However, in using the ComposiMold several times with other projects, I have found that using your mold release generously gives excellent results. For one of my tutorials using ComposiMold, where I go more in depth visit here.

After I created my mold, I made a cast using Creative Paperclay®. ( keep in mind, you will want to dust your mold with baby powder before you push your clay into the mold ).

Allow the clay to set about 10-15 minutes before removing from the mold.
Then, off to the oven at 200 degrees, turning over if needed to prevent curling or bending.
Bake until dry.

While the frame is in the oven,
Make a hand template and cut it out. I drew this hand, but it would also be so cute to use the outline of a childs hand.
 Roll out your clay on a piece of saran wrap to about 1/4-1/2" thick. place your template onto the clay and cut out with a sharp knife or toothpick.

With a wet paintbrush smooth and round out your edges.

With a toothpick create the fingernail on the thumb, and the cuff. then set aside.

Roll out more clay and cut out a heart using your toothpick or you can use a cookie cutter if desired. It can be as small or large as you like, you can judge by looking at the hand you just made.

Using a toothpick, I did a quick free hand design on the heart, then smoothed a bit with water.
Then, off to the oven for the hand and heart.. 200 degrees until done, turning if needed.

After the pieces were dry and cooled, I painted them using acrylic craft paint, then sealed each of them with a mod podge sealer.

Putting it all together, I created the back by making an oval backing using heavy card-stock, then cut and attached my desired colored card-stock to the heavy card-stock. I then cut the doily to fit and glued it onto the colored card-stock, then attached the hand and heart.

As you can see this quick and fun project can be done in so many fun and cute ways, this is just a basic design and tutorial that I've made, but your creativity and colors will make it your own.

Thanks for stopping by!
~Diane
Dianie Mac Designs