Back to School! A No. 2 (wink wink) Pencil!

"No. 2" Pencil Topper by Carole Monahan 

This project is down and dirty and pretty much makes itself!   

"Poop" Emogies are everywhere these days - magnets, pillows, keychains, stickers....... to name a few.  They just seem to make people laugh and are more "poopular" than ever could have been imagined! 

Materials:

Makin's Clay® - Brown, Black, White (amount of brown clay needed will depend on desired number
of finished pencil toppers)
Makin's Professional® Ultimate Clay Extruder® - Disc #4 - Medium Circle
Kemper cutters to cut 3 circle sizes  (1mm, 2mm, 3mm)

Instructions:

Load Ultimate Clay Extruder® with brown clay.   Insert disc #4 and extrude the clay.  Wrap the extruded clay around the pencil top, starting from the "bottom" where the metal holding the eraser starts.  Make sure it is snug so it will stay put.  (Optional:  add a touch of glue to hold your topper in place permanently.

"Tweek" your poop (yup... I just said that!)

Roll white clay to about 1/8" thick.  Now, with a 3mm Kemper cutter cut out a circle of rolled white clay for the mouth and cut it in half.

With the 2mm cutters, cut 2 circles for the whites of the eyes.

Roll black clay to about 1/8" thick.  Use 1mm cutter for the black pupils.   Place the eyes and mouth accordingly on your happy little poop!

And here is my poop group!

Easy Magnets - A Kids Craft

Easy Magnets by Donna Budzynski's Granddaughter

March is Youth Art Month so when my granddaughter wanted to create magnets for her school locker I thought it would be a perfect project for Makin's Clay®! 

Materials Needed:

Makin’s Clay® - Color of choice - We used Olive & Persimmon

Makin’s® -

   Clay Roller
   Clay Cutters  – I used the 3 piece Round & Oval sets
   Texture Sheet Sets  
Makin’s Professional® Cutting Mat

Magnets

Beacon Power-Tac Adhesive™

Iridescent by Ann Butler

Instructions:

Use clay roller to roll clay to about 1/8" thick. 

Place texture sheet over rolled clay and apply even pressure with roller to transfer texture to clay.

  

Use clay cutters to cut desired shapes.  Let dry 24 hours. 

Apply Iridescent to the clay, rub off lightly.

Adhere magnet to the back of each clay piece using Power-Tac adhesive. 

That’s it you are done!

School "Treat" Bags with Makin's Clay®

Apple Themed School Treat Bags
Designed by Steph Ackerman

Design Team Member Steph Ackerman recently shared these fun treat bags for back to school!  What a fun way to make someone's day special - students or teachers!  Steph used Makin's Clay® to create her dimensional leaves and apple seeds.  

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".

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.

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! 

Pretty Paper Clips by Donna Budzynski

Design Team Member Donna Budzynksi shares these pretty embellished paper clips with a bit of a country feel.    Makin's Clay® is very versatile - it can have a rustic or vintage feel, or be bright and modern.