Makin's Clay® Mixed-Media Topiary Class

Makin's Clay® attended the recent Craft and Hobby Association show in Anaheim, CA.  Along with sharing our products with attendees in our booth via product displays, project samples, and make & takes, we hosted a Mixed-Media Topiary Class.

Ann Butler & Cindi Bisson shared the broad range of applications of Makin's Clay® and Makin's Brand® products with attendees, while teaching them a new Graffiti Clay technique to decorate their topiary pots.

Our thanks to Smoothfoam, Darice, May Arts Ribbon, Beacon Adhesives, Earth Safe Finishes, Westcott, FM Brush, and KellyCraft Innovations for their support of our workshop by donating product.   Special thanks to Lisa Rojas for her assistance in setting up and cleaning up after the workshop.

Makin’s Clay® Mixed-Media “Graffiti” Topiary 

Sponsored by Makin’s Clay®

Designed by Ann Butler & Cindi Bisson 

Materials: 

Makin’s Clay® (www.makinsclay.com) 

Makin’s Brand® Clay Cutters, Clay Roller, Wavy Cutter 

Makin’s Professional® Ultimate Clay Extruder

Makin’s Professional® Ultimate Clay Machine® (optional) 

Smoothfoam™ Cubes, Balls (www.smoothfoam.com)

Darice® paper mache pot, Spanish moss (www.darice.com) 

EarthSafe Finishes Iridescents™ by Ann Butler Designs™ (www.earthsafefinishes.com) 

Ann Butler Designs™ EZ-De’s™ stamps & alphabet by KellyCraft™ (www.kellycraftinnovations.com) 

Beacon Adhesives® Tacky Glue (www.beaconadhesives.com) 

Westcott® Scissors (www.westcottbrand.com) 

May Arts® Ribbon (www.mayarts.com) 

FM paintbrush (www.fmbrush.com)

Wooden skewer, craft knife 

Instructions: 

Paint cube with Iridescents™ and let dry. 

Remove Makin’s Clay®  from packaging.  Place excess clay in zip-lock baggy with damp paper towel.  Roll clay to approximately 1/8” thick.

Stamp monogram 4 times onto rolled clay, allowing space around each letter to cut a square approximately 2 1/2” x 2 1/2”. 

Use wavy cutter to cut square around monograms.  

Paint letter indentation with Iridescents™.  

Mount monogram letters to four sides of cube using Beacon Adhesives glue. 

To create graffiti clay, roll clay to approximately 1/8” thick.  

Extrude thin strands of clay in 2-3 colors of choice using Makin’s Professional® Ultimate Clay Extruder.  Create a freeform design on the rolled clay with extruded pieces (flowers, swirls, letters, zig-zag, stripes, etc...) allowing some strands to overlap.  Press strands just enough to adhere to base clay.  Roll clay again (if using Ultimate Clay Machine®, begin by rolling on a 1, then on a 3, then on a 5) to embed the extruded strands into the base clay, creating a effect similar to graffiti on a wall. 

Cut piece of clay to cover sides of Darice paper mache pot, with about 1/2” folded to cover inside top rim of pot, and overlap on base of pot.  Mount, pressing base to flatten clay.  

Cut Smoothfoam™ ball in half, mount inside bottom of pot. 

Using a dab of glue at beginning and end, wrap skewer with May Arts® ribbon.  

Place skewer into ball, place cube onto top of skewer.

Add Spanish moss to cover base. 

Clay Wreath for Fall

Last week I shared the steps for creating a Makin's Clay® Mask using the Earth Tones Clay and the Leaves Push Mold.....well you are not limited to Mask....be creative and see what other home dec items you can create using this easy technique.....

Here is a Makin's Clay® Wreath for Fall which I created the same way as the mask only instead of gluing the leaves to a mask I glued them to a 9" DIY Wooden Craft Ring....again quick and easy!

Check out Craft's n things Weekly

Here is a Stamped Makin's Clay® Necklace that I created for Craft's n things Weekly. Creating beautiful jewelry and ART pieces is so easy with Makin's Clay®.  This started out as white clay and was colored with Clearsnap Crafter's Ink and the shine was created using Earth Safe Finishes Eco Epoxy.....check here for full instructions!

Memory Frame How to

Here are some simple directions

for making one of 

Makin's Memory Frames

Memory Frame Kit Baby Design

Makin’s Clay has a great selection of Memory Frame Kits so that you can create your own One of a Kind design.  When my first grandchild Blake was born I could not think of a better way to capture that memory than with one Makin’s Memory Frame Kits.  I was able to make an impression of his feet into the Air Dry Polymer Clay for his parents to treasure forever; (for this I waited until he was about 3 months old).  The kit comes complete with Frame, Clay, Mini Clay Roller, Mat Frame and Acrylic.  Add your favorite scrapbooking papers and pictures to get started on making your own Original Memory Frame.

Read through all instructions before starting.

Materials: 

Makin’s Double Turning Memory Frame Kit (www.makinsclay.com)

Hot Off the Press Heritage Papers (www.hotp.com)

Beacon Tacky Glue (www.beaconcreates.com)

Beacons Zip Dry Paper Glue (www.beaconcreates.com)

Picture of Choice

Black Cardstock

1 Mat Board 5” x 7”

Scissors

Cleaning Cloth

Instructions: 

1.       Open Memory Frame Kit remove protective paper off acrylic.

2.       Roll clay out and place one foot into it then trim, do this for each foot.  Let dry 24 – 48 hours.

3.       Cut 4 background papers to 5” x 7”.

4.       Cut letters for words then glue to black cardstock; cut again leaving 1/16” – 1/8” black showing.  Glue words onto 2 of background papers.

5.       Glue picture to 3^rd background, frame with scrapbook paper if desired.

6.       Glue last background paper to Mat Board.

7.       Assemble Memory Frame placing picture and date back to back on one side and name and mat board back to back on the other.  Use a generous amount of Beacon Tacky Glue to secure clay foot prints to mat board background paper.  Lay flat with foot prints facing up to dry 12 – 24 hours.

8.       Wipe acrylic with cleaning cloth then insert in frame.

Scrapbooking with Makin’s Clay®

Letters and numbers are made using Makin’s Clay® Alphabet Cutters

the embellishments in the corner are done with 

Makin’s Clay® Push Molds

The bottom of the page is done with

Clearsnap Roller "It's a Girl"

Clay Buttons so easy!

Pictured above is a Mixed Media Art Quilt I created for a demo-nar I taught at the CHA Winter Show in January.  The buttons on the left side of the quilt were made from Makin's Clay® oh  so simply.....I rolled out white clay to about 1/4" thickness then used my new line of stamps from Unity Stamp Company to create an impression.  Then I used the Makin's® Circle Cutters to cut the to the size I wanted, I used a tooth pick to create the holes and let them dry.  After creating the ART Quilt I inked up the Makin's Clay® buttons and sewed them in place, they were the perfect accent to this ART Quilt.  Then use the Velcro® Brand Removable Picture Hangers to hang your ART Quilt if desired.

Makin's Clay® Memory Frames

Makin's Clay® has these great Memory Frames

which make a perfect gift....

While this project is not complete....

I want to show you how the process

and how Velcro Brand Adhesive makes it easy to finish

when the time is right!

There are several Memory Frames to choose from

for this one I choose the Double Turning Frame

Each kit comes with a package of 

Makin's® No Bake Polymer Clay

so that you are able to capture

a foot print, hand print or 

to create something for the frame.

I rolled out the clay.

I used footprint rubber stamps

to create temporary footprints

for the Memory Frame,

I will take the real foot impressions

when my grandson about 3 months old

and his feet are  a bit stonger

to be pressed for a good impression.

These are small so there is enough left over clay

to use for the real foot impressions,

just be sure to keep the left over clay in a 

zip lock bag to keep it from drying out. 

Let these dry completely 

which can take about 48 hours 

depending upon thickness.

Once dry I used Velcro Brand Press and Close Fasteners

on the back of the clay impressions.

and also on the fabric which I used as a backdrop

in the frame.   By using the Velcro 

it will be easy to change out the 

rubber stamped impressions for 

the real ones once they are made!

Here are two sides of the frame,

if you follow my blog you may recognize

that the lettering and background

match the curtains and boarder

I made for the nursery ...

The letters here were made from left over

Donald Duck pictures I had.

Here is another way the frame can look,

the picture side is not finished yet,

since it in a shadow box, I want to find

a small Donald Duck to put in there at the

bottom to go with the theme of 

the nursery.

Here is another way the frame can go,

of course the real footprints

will take up a bit more room than these

which will fill up this side of the shadow box better.

Here is another way the frame can go.

This photo shows how easy it is

for the frame to turn.

These make great gifts....

check them out!

Quick and Easy Clay Beads

Create chunky beads for jewelry easliy with Makin's Clay® by rolling clay into logs the thickness you want and placing a skewer (or large tapestry needle) through the center, let set for a couple hours and pull the skewer out, let clay dry completely.  Then apply inks in the colors of your choice and slice the logs into desired length to create your jewelry.....so quick and easy!

Makin's Clay® How to Video "Clay Pins"

Create quick and easy pins with Makin's Clay® see how easy with this how to video!

Blended Clay Flower Pot

My favorite technique with Makin's Clay® is my Blended Clay Technique as it can be used for so many things and always with wonderful results......

As you can see with this Flower Pot....again another quick and easy project with Makin's Clay®!

Be sure to share what your making with us on our Facebook Page we would love to see what your up to!

Springtime Headband

Headbands are so popular right now and the perfect accessory everyday.

This headband is made from 

Makin's ® No Bake Polymer Clay

As you can tell better from the above photo

the clay is blended; here you can see the 

pink to a shade of peach....

it is the same technique I used 

to make the Blended Postcards

pictured above...

directions for this technique can be found

by clicking here

I hope you enjoy this fun and easy Technique!

Remember March is

National Craft Month!

Take time to enjoy your favorite craft.

craft with friends, teach someone a craft

or learn a new craft;

you will be happy you did!

Makin's Clay® on YouTube!

Did you know Makin's Clay® has a YouTube channel?   New videos will be added to the channel featuring tutorials on using Makin's Brand® tools and sharing projects featuring Makin's Clay® & Makin's Brand® tools.   Here's a link to one of our first videos featuring Ann Butler & Annie Mangelsen discussing the History of Makin's Clay® - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si1qhN-Mazs

Makin's® to the rescue!

Woody from Toy Story is one of my grandson's (Blake)

favorite toys.....and the hat is a 

very important part 

which on occasion tends to get lost.

So I took some brown Makin's Clay®
and used the exiting hat as a pattern,
rolled out some brown clay very thin

and created a spare hat......

I should have put a coin in the photo
because the hat is actually about
6" as it is for the large Woodie and you
can not tell that by the photo.....

Makin's Clay® Charms

Create charms with Makin's Clay®

as shown below in this photo

Sneak Peak at CHA Workshop

Ann Butler and Cindi Bisson are teaching a Makin's Clay® workshop at the upcoming CHA show in Anaheim, CA.   We've been busy creating over 1,000 foiled clay beads for the class kits - and are excited to show the participants how easy it is to work with Makin's Clay® and get GREAT results!   

Creating with Makin's Clay® and Sizzix

You can do amazing things with Makin's® No Bake Polymer Clay just look at this house that was created using Eileen Hull's ScoreBoard Pro House die and Makin's® No Bake Polymer Clay!

I made this using the following:

#65279; Sizzix Scoreboards Pro Die - House, 3D, by Eileen Hull

Sizzix 12x12 matboard, white

Sizzix Big Shot Pro die cutting machine

Makin's® No Bake Polymer Clay Earth Tone's

Makin's® Texture Sheets Set A & Set D

Makin's® Ultimate Clay Machine

Makin's® Ultimate Clay Extruder

Makin's Clay® Tool Kit

Beacon's Felt Glue

Above is a close up of the detail where you can see the texture of the clay that was achieved using the texture sheets.  You could make several houses and create a wonderful Christmas Village for the upcoming holidays! - Ann Butler

Earth Safe Finishes Eco Epoxy on Makin's Clay®

I textured a piece of Makin's ® No Bake Polymer Clay with a stamp, added some Earth Safe Finishes Metallic Powders and left it with Nancy at the Earth Safe Finishes Studios.

Now....Look at that shine....Nancy was testing how Earth Safe Finishes Eco Epoxy would brush onto surfaces and brushed some onto the clay piece I had left, look at that shine....so easy and beautiful!

-Ann Butler

Mixed Media with Makin's Clay®

Use Makin's Clay® to create this Quick and Easy Mixed Media Collage pictured below:

The supplies you will need are:

Makin's Clay®: 1 package black; small amount natural

Makin's Brand® Texture Sheet (your choice)

Beacon Adhesives Felt Glue

Earth Safe Finishes Metallic Powders

Makin's Brand Roller

Makin's Brand Rectangle Cutters

Westcott Brand Non Stick Scissor

Magic Mesh

Mulberry Paper

Picture Frame

Face Stamp from Stampers Anonymous 

Black Archival Stamp Pad

Mat Board to fit Frame

Micro Beads (Optional)

 

Instructions:

1.     To make domino from clay roll out natural clay to 1/4” cut with largest rectangle cutter, let dry 24 hours, turn as necessary.  When dry stamp face or other stamp of choice.

2.     Roll out black clay to 1/8” place texture sheet on top and roll to make an impression.   

3.   Fold clay up on one edge and tear the other edge.

4.     Use your finger to apply powder to black clay, set aside.

5.     Tear mulberry paper to desire shape then glue to mat board.

6.     Glue magic mesh on top of mulberry paper.

7.     Glue black clay on top of mulberry paper and magic mesh.

8.     Glue domino by folded edge of black clay.

9.     Add glue next to domino sprinkle micro beads and press into glue.

- Ann Butler

Mixed Media ART

Canvas with Makin's® No Bake Polymer Clay,  Earth Safe Finishes Shimmers and Powders!

 

- Ann Butler

Scrapbooking with Makin's Clay®

Scrapbooking is so easy with Makin's Clay® and you can have great results.....

 

This was done by adding texture to Makin's Clay® letting it dry and then using Sizzix Serif 2" Alphabet

- Ann Butler