Witches Hat Earrings

With Halloween approaching, I wanted to make something fun to go with my Halloween Costume… and what better way to add to a costume than jewellery! Makin's Clay® is lightweight and durable to make fun themed earrings and jewellery pieces. Any guesses to what I am dressing up as? 

Materials:

Makin’s Clay®- Black, Plum Wine and Yellow

Makin's Clay® Roller or Clay Machine 

Makin’s Professional® Cutting Mat 

Makin's Professional® Ultimate Clay Extruder®

Makin's® Texture Sheet Set C - Weave

Makin's® Clay Tool Set - Chisel

Clay Blade

Circle cutter 3cm diameter

Triangle cutters (optional) 

2 Micro square cutters, one approx. 1cm and 0.8cm 

Micro Circle cutter approx. 1cm

Tacky glue 

Black coated jump ring 1.2cm

Surgical steel earring posts 0.5cm

Pin Vice Drill

Jewellery pliers 

Instructions:

Roll out your Makin's Clay® black to the thickest setting on your clay machine, then cut two, 3cm circles. Smooth edges of the circle with your fingers. Lay aside and cut two triangles to fit each circle. I used a diamond cutter and then used the same circle cutter to do a curved cut in the middle of the diamond, then trimmed it to fit the circle. 

Lay the triangles on top the circle bases, use a touch of water or tacky glue to attach them.

Extrude Makin’s Clay® - Plum wine with the help of Makin's Professional® Ultimate Clay Extruder® and the single circle extruder disk, to make the witches hat ribbon. 

Place the strip of clay around the base of the point hat tip with water or tacky flue. Smooth the edges down slightly.

To make the witches hat buckle, roll out your Makin's Clay® Yellow to the 3rd thickest setting on your clay machine. Cut a little square using the larger of the 2 square cutters, then in the centre of that square place the smaller square cutter and cut out the square, leaving a square outline use as a buckle.

  

Place the put line square onto the hat ribbon using tacky glue or water, I placed them a little off-centre to add interest. 

Roll out your Makin's Clay® Plum Wine to the thickest setting on your clay machine, then cut a 1cm circle, using a micro circle cutter. Smooth edges of the circle with your fingers. At this point, you can put a hole towards the bottom of the circle and towards the top of the Witches hat point, for later on jump ring attachment. or I used a pin vice drill, later on, once dry to put the holes in.

Set aside the Hats and circles to dry for 24 hours. 

This next step is optional.

Roll out your Makin's Clay® Plum Wine to 3rd thinnest setting on your clay machine, then Lightly dust, dusting powder (cornstarch) over the clay. Place the Makin's Clay® Texture Sheet Set C - Weave on top of the clay, using your fingers press and roll over the texture sheet, pressing the impression into the clay. Does not have to be a perfect impression right around, it is to give an organic feel.

Use the same circle cutter used to cut the base of the hat, cut a circle out to place on the bottom of the hat base. Adhere it with some tacky glue. Smooth edges with your fingertips.

Allow to dry for 24 hours. 

Place holes using the pin vice drill (if already haven’t) drill holes in towards the bottom of the circle and towards the top of the witches hat point. To finish the earrings off, attach jump rings to attach the hat and circle. Then glue earring posts to the back of the circles.

Hope you have fun making and wearing these Witches Hat Earrings!

Happy Halloween! 

Witches Bat Necklace

Design Team Member Naomi Scarparo recently shared this cute yet creepy bat necklace just in time for Halloween.  Naomi made her necklace with Makin's Clay®.

Boo! Spooky Altered Paper Clips

Design Team Member Naomi Scarparo recently shared these spooky Halloween themed altered paper clips made with Maki's Clay®!  

These are for an altered paper clip swap which we think is a fun idea! 

Witches Hat Ring Holder

Witches Hat Ring Holder by Naomi Scarparo

With my one of my favourite holidays approaching, I wanted to make something practical and have a Halloween theme to it… I don’t know about you, but I am always taking my rings off to do sculpting or any messy crafting fun. What a spooky way to store your rings on this Witch’s Hat Ring Holder, that you can make yourself...

Materials:

Makin’s Clay®- Black, Plum Wine and Yellow

Makin's® Clay Roller or Makin's Professional® Ultimate Clay Machine® 

Makin’s Professional® Cutting Mat 

Makin's® Texture Sheet - 

Makin's® Clay Tool Set - Chisel

Small Dish (I used a 10cm diameter size)

Circle cutter to fit your dish 

2 square cutters, one approx. 1cm and 0.8cm 

Instructions:

Roll out your black clay to the thickest setting on your clay machine, then cut a circle to fit a small dish (10cm diameter size). Smooth edges of the circle with your fingers. Lay the circle clay into the little dish, making sure there are no air bubbles.

Roll a large sausage shape of black clay then roll tampering the top into a point. Widen the base by setting it up with the pointed end upwards. Slightly making the top half crocked so a ring can sit there. Tip - test it the width with a ring.

Place it in the centre on top of the clay dish, using a touch of tacky glue or water to adhere to the base of the bowl.

Extrude Plum Wine clay with the help of Makin's Professional® Ultimate Clay Extruder® and the wide flat extruder disk, to make the Witch’s Hat ribbon. 

Place the strip of clay around the base of the point hat tip with water or Tacky Glue. Smooth connector ends, blending them together.

Set aside. 

To make the witch’s hat buckle, Roll out your yellow clay to the 3rd thickest setting on your clay machine. Cut a little square using the larger of the 2 square cutters, then in the centre of that square place the smaller square cutter and cut out the square, leaving a square outline use as a buckle.

Place the put line square onto the hat ribbon using tacky glue or water. 

Set it aside and allow to dry for 24 hours in the dish to keep its shape.

These next steps are optional.

Roll out your Plum Wine clay o 3rd thinnest setting on your clay machine, then Lightly dust, dusting powder (cornstarch) over the clay. Place the Makin's® Texture Sheet Set C - Weave on top of the clay, using your fingers press and roll over the texture sheet, pressing the impression into the clay. Does not have to be a perfect impression right around, it is to give an organic feel.

Use the same circle cutter used to cut the base of the hat, cut a circle out to place on the bottom of the ring base. Adhere it with some tacky glue. Smooth edges with your fingertips.

Extrude black clay with the help of extruder, and the small single extruder disk, make an edging for the rim of the dish. Adhere it with Tacky Glue.

Again Extrude more black clay using the extruder  and the tiny hole extruder disk and make tiny strands of clay. Place in between the first extruded rim clay, just to tidy areas up, this step is certainly not a necessity. 

Allow to dry for 24 hours.

Fairy/Dragon Door

Design Team Member Naomi Scarparo shares this incredible "Dragon Door".  Naomi used the Makin's® Borders Push Mold and Wood Grain Texture Sheet to help create the door.

Spring Bloom Polymer Clay Magnets

Spring Bloom Magnets by Naomi Scarparo

Spring will be here soon in Australia. I already see the first signs of flowers blooming in my garden and it inspired me to make these colourful flower magnets for my fridge and to remind myself to stop and smell the flowers...

Materials:

Makin’s Clay® - White

Makin's® Clay Roller or Makin's Professional® Ultimate® Clay Machine 

Makin’s Professional® Cutting Mat 

Makin's® Clay Push Molds - Floral Item #39005

Small, Soft Tip sculpting tool

Black Stamp Inkpad

Stamp with Quote - used ‘Have a Blooming Good Day’

Circle cutter 5cm diameter

Soft small tip paintbrush

Lumiere By Jacquard 573 Pearlescent Magenta, 557 Halo Violet Gold, 571 Pearlescent Turquoise, 554 Sunset Gold, 572 Pearlescent Emerald Green

Weldbound glue

Magnets 

Instructions:

Roll out your Makin's Clay® White, to the thickest setting on your clay machine, put some plastic wrap on top of your sheet of clay and press down firmly with the Circle cutter. This will give you perfectly rounded edges… (which I forgot to do, oops… but no big deal… just smooth the edges with your fingertips).

Ink your saying stamp ‘Having a Blooming Good Day’, then gently press the stamp into the clay and remove it leaving the stamp impression (don’t worry if the ink did not press into the clay clearly).

Using the Lumiere paints, Starting with the lightest colour - 571 Pearlescent Turquoise dab with a slightly damp small brush apply over the whole circle. 

  

Then using Lumiere - 573 Pearlescent Magenta, dot along the edges of the circle as if a blooming branch is leaning over.

Apply Lumiere - 554 Sunset Gold with a fine tip paintbrush in the impressed stamped quote. Then apply Lumiere - 572 Pearlescent Emerald Green around the base of the circle as though there is bush or shrubs around.

Allow the pain to dry. As the paint for the Quote magnet paint is drying, start making the flowers using the Makin's Clay® Clay Push Molds - Floral Item #39005. 

To use the molds

Lightly dust the push molds with cornstarch, shaking the excess off. This will help to keep the clay from sticking to the mold. Using the white clay, roll into a smaller size ball than the mold. Press the clay into the mold starting in the centre and working towards the edges. 

Tip - the clear view mold can be turned over to check for any air bubbles that need to be pressed out and to make sure that the areas are all filled.  

Remove excess clay that overlaps the edges of the mold. Remove the moulded flower gently by pressing the mold from the front side or use the clay chisel to help lift the mold out. You can clean up the edges using your fingertips and a soft pointed tip sculpting tool. 

Set some of the flowers in an arrangement that you like, an example of what I used is in a photo below. I used a mix of the 3 vine leaf and Roses (opened flower and bud). Place then together using some tacky glue or if still slightly damp a spritz of water. 

Paint the flowers using the Lumiere By Jacquard paints. I painted the flowers individually and once touch dry, I added 554 Sunset Gold to highlight areas like the centre of the flowers.

 Cut the clustered flower (pictured below) using the circle cutter, to add the top and bottom decoration, attach them sing tacky glue, and reshape if needed using the Soft tip sculpting tool.

Paint edges of the flowers and allow to dry for 24 hours.

Once dry turn over and paint the backs of the flowers. Allow to dry. 

Attach magnets to the back of the flowers with tacky glue. 

Tip - Check which side of the magnet is magnetic and ensure that it is glued facing out. 

Makin's Clay® is light weight and perfect to make magnets with as I didn’t have to worry too much about what strength of magnet is needed. I used an old business card magnet, cut into strips. 

Enjoy making your magnets to pretty up your fridge...