Bags & Tags by Linda Hess

Wow! It has been a whirlwind of activity in my household and life over the past 2 weeks.  Sadly 2 funerals in 1 week, first my father-in-law at Arlington National Cemetery and then the best man from my parent's wedding, one of those life long friends (60 yrs!).  We also had our middle child graduate from James Madison University (2 graduation ceremonies in 2 days) with her degree in Engineering...GO Katie bird :-)  Add to that my normal life as an Art Teacher and my after gig as a polymer clay teacher and I am ready for a break.  Only 3 weeks until Summer (wow).

The end of the school year used to have me making thank you gifts for all of the teachers.  With one out of college, one in college, and one entering her senior year of high school I don't give as many teacher presents as I used to, but why not come up with an easy peasy project that could be used as a gift or a tag or a card topper??  Naturally I pulled out the Creative PaperClay and set to work.

Materials:
Creative PaperClay®
texture sheets of choice
Pinata Inks
assorted cardstock (for cards)
assorted ribbons and trim (for tie-ons)
plastic bag (to protect work surface from inks)
Sandits™
optional: heart shaped cutter, Kemper© circle cutter or knitting needle

Procedure:
1) Pull or cut off a bit of the Creative PaperClay (I used about 1/8 of the block).  Rewrap any leftovers tightly in plastic wrap to prevent drying.
2) Separate the piece into smaller pieces and then roll each into a ball (mine were each about 1" round). 

3) Place 1 texture sheet on your work surface with the texture facing up.  Place one of the balls of clay onto it.  Place a second texture sheet or rubber stamp on top of the clay ball and press (think clay sandwich). 

 

Remove textured piece and repeat with other clay balls.

4) If desired, use a knitting needle or the circle cutter to put holes into the pieces.  This will allow you to easily tie components onto bags or card tags.

5) Place all clay pieces onto a plastic bag.  Time for coloring.  Drip Pinata Inks over the clay "shards" until you are happy with the look. I love how the inks flow into the nooks & crannies easily. 

If too much color is applied, dab with a paper towel to remove some of the ink.  Once complete, set aside to dry....OR pop the pieces into an oven (remove from plastic bag obviously!) and bake at 275° for ~20 minutes (NOTE: drying in the oven will not completely dry the piece...air drying will complete the process)
6) If you used a heart cutter as I did, the edges may be rough.  Edges are easily cleaned up by using a cool little tool called Sandits™.  Just rub it along the edges and voila! all the jagged bits disappear quickly.

 

7) Now the clay pieces can be added to cards, bags, boxes, etc.  The heart could even become a gift with the addition of a jump ring and lanyard hook! 

I hope you have enjoyed this project.  I think you can see with a few simple steps anyone can achieve WOW results that will have the gift recipiants wondering "How did she do that?!"

 

Christmas Gift Tags

Thanksgiving is a memory. Now it's on to Christmas, far and away Chloe's favorite holiday. She loves being part of the gift scene—from shopping to wrapping to giving. So this year we decided to make gift tags just for Chloe to use.

I selected Delight™ because it is so light weight and its pure white color. We rolled out a ball of Delight™ very thin—less than 1/16 inch—and cut rounds. You could use any shape. Cookie cutters are great for this step. However, I don't have any Christmas themed cookie cutters, so I cut the bottom of a water bottle. Worked great!! The plastic is thin so cuts cleanly through the Delight™.

After the blank rounds were dry Chloe and I began decorating them. There are so many ways to decorate these!! Here are our favorites.

For this tag we cut the word and holly leaf motif out of vinyl. Chloe selected the design; I cut the vinyl. The edge was heat embossed with silver embossing powder. Chloe embossed; I operated the heat gun.

The star on this tag was dry embossed and the gold edging was added with a gold Krylon leafing pen.

The third tag was stamped using dye ink and a rubber stamp. Chloe did the stamping; I inked the edge. We found that dye ink delivers a crisper design on the Delight™ than pigment inks, which tend to blur. The edge was inked by rolling the tag directly on the surface of the stamp pad.

Our last tag was made by pressing the Delight™ into a clay mold. The design features and edges were colored with water-based markers. Chloe did the berries; I did the holly leaves.

We punched the ribbon holes with a Crop-a-dile after the rounds were dry, but you could also pierce the blanks before drying. We're planning to use the reverse side of the tag to write the to/from information. It's so easy to write on these with markers!!

So, here's our finished collection. Hope Chloe puts one of these on my Christmas gift. 

Design Note: I love the whimsical, curvy way these tags dried, but if you prefer flat tags, you can dry them under a weight. The drying time will be longer, but the tags will be flatter :)

Carole	Chloe
Table Cell	Table Cell

Paperclay Gift Tag/Ornament

By Amanda Marks

My daughter was invited to a "Princess Themed" Birthday Party a couple of weekends ago.  I always try and do something handmade for the kids.  I honestly don't know how many people really appreciate this but I know if my child got something like this I would cherish it.  My daughter has a Princess stencil (cheap plastic wall stencil) that had a good size crown on it about 4" width.  I decided I had to make a gift tag/ornament for my daughter's friend with my daughter's help of course.

Materials:
Paperclay
Rolling Pin (Fondant Roller)
Exacto Knife
Princess Stencil
Paint
Brushes
Sharpie (Purple in my case)
Sealant

1.  Roll out Paperclay to approximently 1/4" thickness.

2.  Press stencil into paperclay to get an impression of the stencil in the clay.

3.  Cut or the stenciled piece out.

4.  Place stencil back on paperclay piece matching up the lines.  Press harder so the clay comes up through the stencil.  Remove stencil carefully.

 5.  Refine edges and let dry for 24 hours.

6.  Paint - we used Liquitex Iridescent Medium and Liquitex Soft Body Pink Paint for a base, then used Extreme Glitter to add the appropriate bling for a princess.  I let my daughter write her friend's name on the front and a To: From: and the date on the back.  Seal with a sealant.  Add ribbon for hanging.

Back of ornament - I also added the year.