Winter Card by Martha Lucia Gomez

Design Team Member Martha Lucia Gomez recently shared this cute winter themed card here on her blog.   Martha used Makin's Clay® and our Christmas Decor push mold to make her mitten embellishment.

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Flowers of Gratitude Magnet by Kim Hale

Design Team Member Kim Hale recently shared this floral, stamped magnet made with Makin's Clay® here on her blog.   Rubber stamping on Makin's Clay® is easy when fresh or dry - just use a permanent ink pad.

Shamrock Jewelry - Version 2 by Lisa Haney

Design Team Member Lisa Haney liked the technique she shared with us this month for faux glazed ceramic clay jewelry, that she created a new version of the very first project she ever shared with us - this time using the new technique.  We think both versions would be a fun addition to add a little "luck" to your fashion!

 

Shamrocks - 2.0! 

The "Originals" 

Romantic Photo Collage Frame DIY When Creativity Knocks Video featuring Kristi Parker

Makin's Clay® is a sponsor of the 2016 When Creativity Knocks All-Star Designers Winter Series.  In this week's episode, Designer Kristi Parker shares her mixed-media Romantic Photo Collage Frame project.  Kristi created Makin's Clay® heart embellishments for her frame.   

"Earthtone Rainbow" Necklace by Andrijana Katavic

EARTHTONE RAINBOW NECKLACE

by Andrijana Katavić

Hello everyone!

I know! Rainbows traditionally contain a completely different color scheme than the earthy palette I used for this necklace. But, I used colors that I prefer more and which are better harmonized with my wardrobe. Chalk it up to artistic freedom. You are also free to use your favorite colors. I would like to see all color schemes that you used to make this necklace following my tutorial, so it would be nice if you send me a photos of your Rainbow necklace creations. You can send me photos in the message on the Makin's Clay® Facebook page.

MAKIN’S® MATERIALS LIST

Makin’s Clay® Earth Tones Colors Package (Peach, Olive, Straw, Persimmon, Light Adobe, Adobe Brown)

Makin’s Professional® Ultimate Clay Extruder™ (disc 5 + O-ring)

Makin’s Clay® Core™ Extruder adapters (2mm)
Makin’s Professional® Cutting Mat

OTHER NECESSITIES

Sharp scissors or X-Acto knife

Pliers

12 wire guardians

12 crimp beads

12 crimp beads covers

6 large jump rings

2 small jump rings

2 cord ends caps with loops

Leather cord

Jewelry wire

Magnetic claps

Duct tape

Beacon’s™ Quick Grip Permanent Adhesive

INSTRUCTIONS:

STEP 1.

This is my technique for using the Clay Core Adaptors - Place Makin’s Professional® Cutting Mat on your working table. Unscrew the handle of Ultimate Clay Extruder™ to make enough space inside tube for the clay log. Unscrew end cap, and insert disc 5 in it, then place O-ring, and finally adapter (needle toward the opening of the end cap).

STEP 2.

Unpack Peach Makin's Clay® and made a log. Place log in the extruder, and screw back end cap with disc, O-ring and adapter. 

STEP 3.

Extrude clay by twisting handle of the extruder. This way you'll get round tube of clay with a hole inside. Repeat whole process for other clay colors.

NOTE: It is important to clean the extruder (as well the disk, O-ring and adapter) after each color. Click HERE to learn how to do this.

STEP 4.

Leave hollow clay tubes to dry separately for about 12 hours. Then use sharp scissors or X-Acto knife to cut the part of tubes that come out first from the extruder (cracked ends).

NOTE:  It is important to dry clay tubes to avoid ruining the holes inside.

STEP 5.

Place all tubes of clay on the Cutting Mat following the arrangement of colors that you want, but so that the cut ends are aligned to one another. Bend all tubes in a U-shape and cut the other end of tubes in line with the first one.

NOTE:  Even after drying clay tubes will be flexible, so you'll bend them quite easily without fear that you will destroy the inner holes.

STEP 6.

String each tube on separately jewelry wire. Place wire guardians, crimp beads and beads covers on and leave to dry for another 12 hours. Bend tubes occasionally to stay curved.
both ends of wire. Place clay tubes close to one another

STEP 7.

Connect two clay tubes with one large jump ring (place jump ring through two wire guardians). Repeat the process to connect jump rings to other ends of tubes. String the leather cord on jump rings. Connect all ends of the leather cord with duct tape. Squeeze a small amount of Beacon’s™ adhesive in cord end caps with loops, and insert the ends of leather cord. Leave glue to dry, and then using small jump rings place the magnetic claps on loops. Your Rainbow necklace is ready to brighten your days.

 If you want to see other pieces that I made visit my blog 

http://www.studioartesania.com/2017/12/15-diy-projects-makins-polymer-clay.html

It Takes a Village by Patricia Krauchune

Design Team Member Patricia Krauchune recently shared this charming village piece created with wood and polymer clay here on her blog.  Pat used Makin's® Texture Sheets in the creation of this project.

That silly Butcher, Baker & Candlestick Maker - 3 men in a tub!

LUCKY Necklace by Irit Shalom

LUCKY NECKLACE

Designed by Irit Shalom 

Hello my dear crafty friends!

Irit is here again with my Makin's Clay® Lucky necklace.
I think that anyone needs a bit of luck. And games, any kind of them, are the most common way to get some luck together with a lot of fun. So I made a fancy 3 colors only necklace with Makin's Clay® using many different possible techniques.

Supply list:

Makin’s Clay®

White

Black 

Red

Tools:

Makin's® Ultimate Clay Extruder™- Disc #28

Makin’s Clay® Cutters –Mini Geo cutters set

Makin’s Clay® Professional Clay Tools® 

Makin’s Professional® Ultimate Clay Machine®

Makin’s Professional® Cutting Mat

Makin’s Professional®Roller and Cutters set®

Other products:

Glaze- DecoArt®

Acrylic paint- DecoArt®

Jewelry parts and beads- craft shop

Materials:

Let me show you all of them techniques used today:

1. Use the Ultimate Clay Extruder™ with large square disk #28 with white and black Makin's Clay® to make this charm that looks like a chess game board.   I used a piece of thin red clay that was rolled to #6 setting on Makin’s Professional® Ultimate Clay Machine® and dry to make the base for the extruded squares.

2.Make a free hand  game cube from black clay and making the dots with Makin’s Clay® Professional Clay Tools®  top as shown.

3.Stamp with black permanent ink over fresh clay rolled with Makin's Clay® roller.  I used a Rubber Dance stamp to make this playing card Queen image.

4. Stamp with bare stamps into the fresh white clay. I used Rubber Dance stamps again and in my final project the Bingo card was not used after all. But I did use the domino piece as you can see. All pieces were hand cut with a cutter from the Makin’s Clay® Professional Clay Tools® set.

5. Use Makin's® small cutters of playing cards signs from Mini Geo cutters set to make the small pieces for the necklace.

7. Make a mold using a molding compound and a real chess game piece and cast the chess game piece with black clay.

8. Cover all dry pieces with glaze. The Domino piece dots were painted with black acrylic paint.

The cube dots were all painted with white acrylic inside the dots.

And this is my finished pieces added to a fancy multi strings necklace.  I added the word Lucky over the chess board with stickers and then covered the stickers with glaze again.

So are you Lucky? I hope you are and if not - make this necklace for some extra luck!

Shimmering Shamrock Clay Jewelry Set DIY Video by Cindi McGee

Today we share this DIY Video from Cindi McGee - Cindi shows you how to use Makin's Clay® and Makin's Brand® tools to create this reversible, shimmering shamrocks jewelry set not just for St. Patrick's Day, but of any day of the year where you want to add a little luck to your outfit. 

Faux Leather Tags by Madeline Arendt

FAUX LEATHER TAGS

Designed by Madeline Arendt

This month we were asked to look through the Makin's Clay® Pinterest  board titled Tutorials and Techniques and choose one technique and create something using it.  The variety of techniques were many and all interesting enough to want to try with Makin's Clay®.

Materials:

Makin's Clay® - Brown, White
Makin's Clay® Cutting Mat
Makin's Clay® Tools - Roller, Cuttng Knife
Makin's® Clay Cutters - Flower, Scalloped Shapes
Makin's® Ultimate Clay Extruder™
Aluminum Foil
Rubber Stamps
Metal Embossing Tools
Acrylic Paint
Brush
Paper Towels

Instructions:

Roll out a portion of brown clay on the clay mat with the roller to approximately 1/8" thickness.

Crumble a piece of aluminum foil and smooth out; repeat again to form smaller creases into the foil.
Place the foil onto the clay and press with fingers or use the roller to impress the clay with texture.

Use a tag shape or cutter to form shapes.  Cut a whole with a small circle cutter or by placing a tag over the clay and cut with a cutting knife.

With rubber stamps, impress a design or names or letters into the clay.  Use tools or stamps to create
designed edges to the clay tags.

Create strings for the tags by passing clay through the extruder tool using the flat disc.

Allow all the clay pieces to dry 24 hours.

Choose paint color of choice or combine 2 or 3.  Thin the paints to create a wash and brush onto the dried clay pieces and wipe quickly with a paper towel.  If desired, continue to add more layers of color, wiping between coats.  Optional: Finish pieces with a matte coating.

The link to the website where the tutorial for creating a faux leather look is - polymer clay web -

Madeline Arendt DESIGNER, AUTHOR, INSTRUCTOR madelinejean@me.com http://madelinesthoughts.blogspot.com/

Big Wish Altered Jar by Steph Ackerman

Design Team Member Steph Ackerman recently shared this fun altered wishing bottle here on her blog.   She used Makin's Clay® to create a unique covering for her bottle.  Wish on!

Dreamy Pastel Statement Necklace by Carole Monahan

Dreamy Pastel Statement Necklace

By Carole Monahan

I hate paint……… There I SAID IT!!

That is one of the reasons why I love clay so much. There is NO paint for me to spill and get everywhere!

But when I saw Helen Breil’s Video on using Pan Pastels on polymer clay,  on the Makin's Clay® Tutorials & Techniques Pinterest Board, I was creatively captivated!

Oooh something I CAN’T spill!!!

Since I had a gift card from Christmas burning a hole in my pocket I HAD to get them.

Here is my first project using this fun neat: and compared to good paint pretty economical.

Materials

Makin's Clay®  2oz White

Pan Pastels

2 brass grommets

1 Swarovski Crystal

Matching leather cord

Brass findings for necklace

Beacon® Tacky glue

Tools

Makin's Clay® Ultimate Clay Machine™

Makin's Clay® Texture Sheet Set H - Abstract A

Makin’s® Cutting Mat

Makin's Clay® Professional Tool Kit - The plain cutter wheel was used

Altered Art Source unmounted rubber template

PYMII (to seal the piece )

Instructions

Quick and easy - roll out 2oz of white clay in the Ultimate Clay Machine™ to setting #2.

Lay the sheet out and cover with the texture sheet. Since the sheet is clear you can

see where you have the proper and even texture as you press it into the clay.

I then used one of Barbara Mcguire’s rubber templates from her Etsy site Art Source.

Just press the template in around the outside edges ONLY so you don’t lose any of the texture.

Remove the template and then color with the Pan pastels.

The Pan pastels can be layered and blended.

Add your accent Crystals and then seal with PYMII to protect the pastels.

Add the grommets with some Beacon Tacky Glue for extra support since thick leather cording was used.

Add the cording attach all the findings and get ready to SHOW this piece off!

Here are the links to the items I mentioned and some of my other pages and products

http://www.helenbreil.com/pan-pastel-tutorial.html

https://www.etsy.com/listing/12100958/wedge-necklace-unmounted-rubber-stamp?ref=shop_home_active_13

http://www.panpastel.com/

https://www.facebook.com/CuriousClayCreationsbyCarole/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel

https://www.flickr.com/photos/compelledclaycrafts/

http://curiousclaycreations.com/