Candy Apple Jars by Erin Reed

Design Team Member Erin Reed recently shared these fun candy apple goody jars here on her blog.  Erin used Makin's Clay® and our Leaves push mold to create her dimensional leaf accents for her "apples".

"The Golden Girl" Altered Bust by Lucy Reese

"The Golden Girl" Altered Bust 
Designed by Lucy Reese

SUPPLIES:

Ceramic Bust
Makin's Clay® - White or any light color - "leftover/scrap" clay is fine for this project
Makin's® Professional Cutting Mat
Makin's® Professional™ Ultimate Clay Extruder™ - small hole disc #7
Makin's® Professional™ Clay Tool Kit
Makin's Clay® Lg. Texture Sheet - Floral
Makin's Clay® Push Mold- Leaves & Floral
Martha Stewart Mold- Butterflies & Buttons
Heavy Gesso
Art Alchemy Paints- Steampunk Copper, Pink Blush, & Vintage Rose
Clear drying adhesive

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Begin by giving the bust a coat of heavy gesso.

2. Add Makin's Clay® at her bust line to build a dress, then impress with the the Floral texture sheet for added design.

3. Now grab all your molds a build her a beautiful headpiece with Makin's Clay® molded elements, mixing and layering your assorted flowers & butterflies.  If you mount your elements while the clay is still fresh, additional adhesive is not needed as fresh clay will stick to fresh clay without additional adhesive.  Applying the pieces while the clay is fresh also allows you to more easily mold the different flowers & butterflies over and around each other, lift the wings of your butterflies and petals of some of your flowers or dimension, etc.

4. To add even more interest to the back of her head, use the Ultimate Clay Extruder™and multi-hole disc #7 to extrude clay, apply a touch of adhesive and mount extruded strands around the back of the headband.

5. As a final accent to the front of the bust, make a necklace by using the button mold to form a pendant and your extruded clay strands to form the chain.  Mount with a touch of adhesive. 

6. After all the clay has dried (approximately 24 hours under normal atmospheric conditions), give her another coat of gesso and cover the entire piece in the Steampunk Copper paint. At this point you can leave her as is or give her headpiece and necklace some highlights with the other paints as I did here as finishing touches.

I hope you all enjoyed this project. I must give a big shout out to the creative ladies at Polymer Clay T.V for my inspiration on this piece. Remember you can always find me at tecniquefreak.wordpress.com or LReneeDesigns on Instagram. I would love to hear from you!

~Lucy

Makin's® Miniatures & More! Check out our Pinterest Boards

So many inspiring projects, so little time!  Find a wide variety of creative projects made with Makin's Clay® and Makin's® tools  - Like this miniature model of a model making table by Artist Dorothy Chan - on our Pinterest Boards!

Autumn Mixed-Media Canvas by Irit Shalom

Design Team Member Irit Shalom recently shared this lovely Autumn mixed-media canvas project with Makin's Clay® accents.    Irit used the Makin's® Christmas Nature push mold to create her pine cones and acorns.

Abeille Mixed-Media Canvas by Cindi McGee

Cindi McGee is sharing the instructions for this "Abeeille" mixed-media canvas today on her blog.  Cindi used Makin's Clay® and our Honey Comb texture sheet to create the mat beneath her main bee image, and created a molded Makin's Clay® bee accent for her flowers.

Minecraft™ Creeper Faces Zipper Pulls by Erin Reed

"Minecraft™ Creeper Faces" Zipper Pulls
Designed by Erin Reed

My boys love the game Minecraft™, and they both also love to have fun little fobs to place on their backpack zippers (also called zipper pulls).  They both got new backpacks this school year and I though it would be fun to make them a cute little something to hang on one of the zippers. Now since I made by boys something, I had to make an extra one for my daughter, can't leave one out!!

Materials:

Makin's Clay® - Olive, Green, Neon Green, Black & White 

Makin's® Cutting Mat

Makin's® Clay Tools

Makin's® Ultimate Clay Extruder™ - Disc #20

Beacon™ 3-in-1 Adhesive 

Craft knife, ruler  

Key rings, yarn or string

Instructions:

1) Insert square disc #20 into the Professional® Ultimate Clay Extruder™. I used Olive, Neon Green and Green Makin's Clay®, and also mixed some of each shade with White to create 3 lighter shades, for this project.   Extrude portions of each of the six colors of clay, and extrude some using Black clay also.  Let dry for a bit then cut into cubes a little less than 1/4" in thickness.   

2) Glue the little dried clay cubes on a sheet of square paper in the shape of a "Creeper" face.  Once the clay has dried for 24 hours, sand the top to help level it out and make it a more uniform surface. 

3) Use the clay roller to roll out a section of Green Makin's Clay® and cut it to squares about 1/4" bigger on all sides than the Creeper faces, cut smalls squares from each corner, and fold the edges up on the side of the Creeper faces to make a smooth edge.  Use 3-in-1 Adhesive to glue in place on bottom and left and right side.  Insert loop of string on the top edge, add key ring,  and then glue side in place.  

4) To seal the top and fill in some gaps, pour a generous amount of 3-in-1 Adhesive  to give a resin feel to the top of the fob.  Let  dry over night.

Here is a complete video tutorial from start to finish of this entire process - https://youtu.be/OfdKgDSDGwQ

Now my kids have a fun little Minecraft™ creeper fob to hang on a backpack zipper for school.

"Lady of the Lost" by Carole Monahan

Design Team Member Carole Monahan created this very unique "Lady of the Lost" figure with a combination of oven bake polymer clay an Makin's Clay®.  The unique flexible, lightweight nature of Makin's Clay® when dry was a perfect choice for Carole to make the dress for her doll.

Bee & Hive Clip-On by Donna Budzynski

Bee & Hive Clip-On
Designed by Donna Budzynski

Materials:

Makin’s Clay®

 *Earth Tones 120g multi-pack - Persimmon

 *Yellow

 *Black

Lobster Clasp

Jump Rings

Tools:

Makin's® Professional™ Ultimate Clay Extruder® - Round Disc #5

Pliers

Wire

Beacon™ 3-in-1 Adhesive

Instructions:

Gather all supplies. 

Place Persimmon clay from the Earth Tone multi-pack into the Ultimate Clay Extruder™.

Place round Disc #5 into cap, replace cap and turn handle to extrude clay.

Coil clay into hive shape.  

Cut a small amount of wire and make an eye loop. 

Add a bit of 3-in-1 Adhesive to end and insert into the top of the hive while clay is still fresh.  

Make a small impression in bottom coil to appear as an opening of hive. 

Roll a small amount of black clay and gently press into impressed area for hive opening.  (If clay is still fresh, no additional adhesive is needed.  If dry, add 3-in-1 adhesive to mount). 

Mix Persimmon clay with a small amount of Yellow clay.  Roll in your hands and make a head and body. 

Roll two small strips of black clay and wrap around body to make stripes.  Make a small stinger from black clay and mount on end of body.

 

Make a second eye loop from wire.  Add a bit of 3-in-1 adhesive and insert into top of bee body while clay is still fresh. 

Cut two small pieces of wire for antennas.  Roll out two small balls if black clay to put on the ends of wire for the tops of the antennas.  Add a touch of 3-in-1 and mount balls to top of wires, then add a touch of 3-in-1 and insert antennas into the head of the bee while the clay is still fresh.  

Let hive and bee dry 24 hours. 

Add jump rings and lobster clasp and hook to a back pack, or a gift bag.  This would be an adorable accent for a gift basket with honey! 

Makin's Clay® at Mangelsen's Big ART Event

Makin's Clay® was proud to sponsor make & take projects at the recent Big ART Event at Mangelsen's in Omaha, NE.   Here are a few photos from the day -

Happy participants show off their book marks!

Tom Volz and Annie Mangelsen ready to lead participants through creating their own book marks!

Ramona Mangelsen, Annie Mangelsen and friend "Cookie"!

Tom Volz in action! 

BEE HOPEFUL! Hearts of Hope by Cindi McGee

BEE HOPEFUL Hearts of Hope 
Designed by Cindi McGe

BEE HOPEFUL!  Cindi McGee just completed these Hearts of Hope which will be shipped off tomorrow to prepare for their journey to Serbia. 

Former Makin's Clay® Design Team Member Anya Artesania​ is coordinating this campaign - here is more info:   Every day, one child in Serbia is diagnosed with cancer. Every week, one child in Serbia dies of cancer. More than 500 children in Serbia are treated for cancer during the year. Join me, make FIMO HEARTS OF HOPE to help children with cancer in Serbia. For more info about the campaign and how to participate click on this link.

Note: Cindi's hearts are not made with FIMO, but with Makin's Clay® - But Anya did state that although those coordinating this effort suggest using FIMO,  other clays were acceptable if artists were more comfortable working with them.