Easy Flower Rings - A Kid Friendly Craft

Easy Flower Rings by Cindi McGee

Someone recently asked me if there was a simple polymer clay project she could do with a group of young girls at an upcoming birthday party.  I knew Makin's Clay® was the answer. Non-toxic, safe for all ages, soft and easy to work with for little hands, stays flexible, air dries so no oven needed, etc. Perfect for kid's crafts. Then it was time to think of a project. I stumbled upon this post by Mark Montano on Facebook, and immediately knew - this was the answer! Flower rings. Ring blanks are inexpensive, and adjustable for various finger sizes which is another benefit. Often, when I'm working with Makin's Clay® I will use "extra" clay with a variety of push molds to make embellishments for future projects. Among my favorites are the floral and leaves push molds. Versatility to the max. If you had extra pre-made flowers, they could also be used for this project. In this case, I thought she could let the kids to the molding themselves also. So, they molded, let their flowers begin to dry a bit, then added the finishes. An adult helped with gluing the flowers to the ring blanks.  Then they just needed a little patience to let their rings completely dry before wearing them (that was the hardest part, assorted 6 year old girls being expected to have PATIENCE!).

Materials:

Makin's Clay® - Assorted colors
Makins'® Floral Push Mold
Adjustable ring blanks
Beacon 527 Adhesive (for adult use)
Optional:  metallic or glittery paints or rub on finishes - what's better to a group of young girls at a birthday party than SPARKLE?

Instructions:

Open the selected colors of clay. Store any unused clay in an airtight container with a damp paper towel or moist towelette to help ensure freshness for future use. Push the clay into the selected shape. You can trim away excess clay after removing the flower from the mold, but I find it easier to try to be sure there is little excess before removing from the mold.  Being that Makins'® push molds are clear, you can see exactly where your clay is on both sides of the mold.  These molds are flexible, so simply bend and pop your image free.

 

Let the flowers begin to dry slightly, just to ensure there isn't distortion when adding the finishes.  We just used fingertips to apply a light coat of the chosen finishes to the surface of the flowers.  

The adults then added a touch of Beacon 527 adhesive to the top of the rings and mounted the flowers. Once they were dry, the girls were thrilled! 

Embellished Gift Tags

Design Team member Steph Ackerman recently shared these festive holiday gift tags with Makin's Clay® accents! She used Makin's Clay® and the Makin's® Christmas Decor and Christmas Nature push molds to create her embellishments. Pretty enough to be saved for tree ornaments for years to come!

Four Seasons Bottle

Four Seasons Bottle by Patricia Krauchune 

For my February Makin's Clay® project, I turned a small bottle into a four seasons decoration for my desk. I love recycling and turning a bottle that would have gone into my recycle bin into a fun ornament. 

Supply List:

Makin's Clay® in White       Small four sided bottle                                    1" Square Cutter

16 Eyelets                             Small Crown                                                    Loctite Epoxy®

Beacon Tacky Glue™          Yellow/Red/Green/Pink/Brown/Gold Paint     Burnt  Umber Oil Paint

Recommended Makin's® Tools:

Makin's Professional®                          Makin's® 

                        

      Ultimate Clay Machine®                Push Molds:  Snowflake/Leaf/Flower
      Professional Mat                             Clay Cutters - Sun
      Clay Tools

Instructions:

The bottle I used was about 3" tall. I coated the bottle with a layer of Beacon's™ Tacky Glue and let it dry overnight.

 

Using the # 2 setting of the Makin's Professional® Ultimate Clay Machine®, I rolled out enough white clay to cover the bottle. I then stippled the clay using the ball tip attachment of a Makin's Professional® tool. Let dry overnight.

Using the Makin's® Push Molds, push some white clay into a snowflake shape, a leaf shape and a flower shape. Let dry. I rolled out, on the # 3 setting of the clay machine, a small piece of white clay. Then using a Makin's® Clay Cutter in the sun shape, punch out one small sun shape. Let dry.  Unmold the shapes and paint using colors of your choice.  I rolled out, on the # 3 setting of the clay machine, some more white clay. Use a 1" square cutter to make 4 "panels" which you will then attach the shapes to using a little Beacon's™ Tacky Glue. Next you will attach the panels to each side of the bottle, again using the glue.  I drilled a little hole in the corner of each panel and glued a small eyelet in each hole.  Paint the panel background blue.  I then painted the bottle in gold. When dry, I glued on the words: Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall to their respective panel.  I used Loctite Epoxy® to glue a small crown to a cork and glued it into the bottle opening.  Finally I applied burnt umber oil paint to the bottle and then immediately wiped it off with a paper towel. There you have it, a 4 Season desk ornament. Enjoy!

Christmas Gift Tags

Christmas Gift Tags by Steph Ackerman

Getting ready for Christmas, I realized I needed tags.  Makin's Clay® was a great choice to create fun, dimensional accents! 

Supplies:

Makin'sⓇ Clay - Light Adobe Brown, Concord Blue, Red, White
Makin's ProfessionalⓇ Cutting Mat
Makin'sⓇ Clay Push Mold - Christmas Décor, Christmas Nature
Makin'sⓇ Clay Cutters - Christmas, Christmas A, Christmas C
Makin'sⓇ Clay Roller and Cutters Set
Beacon Adhesives - 3-in-1
Joy Clair stamps
Memento Inks
Whisker Graphics Twine
Cardstock
Pattern Papers

Instructions:

I rolled out the clay on the cutting mat.

Using a variety of clay cutters, I created an assortment of clay elements.  I used the push molds to create additional embellishments. 

 

Look at all these amazing clay elements that can be used for a variety of projects.

Now it was time to create my tags.  Using left over scraps, I assembled my tags, I used Beacon Adhesives to adhere the clay pieces.   The pinecones were inked with brown ink and the ornament was inked with red ink.

The mitten was inked with black ink before adhering to the tag.  A snowman was added to the other tag.

Both sizes of pointsettias were created from red clay then added to the tags.  Sentiments were then added.

Makin's Clay® elements are light weight and add almost no weight to a project.   They were perfect to add to my tags.

What do you think?

Signs of Spring Cards

Springtime Greeting Cards by Steph Ackerman

Hi everyone, Steph Ackerman here today and we are still waiting for signs of Spring.  In order to remind us that Spring is on it's way, I created some cards.  Makin's Clay® is a great way to embellish paper crafts as it is lightweight, flexible and acid-free when dry.  It can be push molded, rubber stamped, and even die cut or cut with paper punches when rolled thin and allowed to dry.

Supplies:

Makin's Clay® - Red, White, Black, Earthtones Makin's® Push Molds - Gardening Tools, Florals Spellbinders dies                                       Clearsnap Ink                                                   Hero Arts Stamp                                              Beacon 3-in-1 Adhesive™

Makin's® has a wide variety of push molds that are quite detailed.  Once you remove your clay, those details are quite visible.   You can easily add your clay to the molds in specific areas, like I did to make these multi-colored gardening tools.  There are two ways to mold - simply push the clay into the mold, remove, and then trim around your shape.  Or, since the molds are flexible and you can see through them, it is easy to ensure that the clay stays within the shape itself while molding, therefore eliminating the need for trimming afterwards.  Simply flex the mold and you can remove the molded shapes while the clay is still fresh.  I kept the gardening tools in the colors I used to mold them, but decided to add color to the flowers with ink.

I love creating shaker cards and decided to use some small flowers in the shaker.  Behind the window I stamped a Spring Phrase then placed the flowers inside.

I stamped some stems and added the flowers, then placed the gardening tools in the corner.

For my next card, I repeatedly stamped the sentiment to create the background.

I die cut an oval for the center of the card then placed gardening tools and flowers on top.  I used Beacon 3-in-1 Adhesive™ to mount all the elements. 

Is it Spring yet?

Steph

A Fairy Door

Design Team Member Irit Shalom recently shared this charming fairy door on her blog.   Irit used Makin's Clay® to make her fairy accents.

Autumn Birds Tags

Design Team Member Irit Shalom recently shared these "autumn birds" mixed-media tags with push molded Makin's Clay® accents.   Makin's Clay® is a great accent for paper crafts as it is lightweight, flexible, and is acid free when dry.  

Christmas Magnet Ornaments

CHRISTMAS MAGNET ORNAMENTS

by Martha Lucia Gomez

Hello dear friends, Martha Lucia here with you. Today I want to share a set of Magnet Ornaments that I made using two of my favorite Makin's Clay® push molds with traditional colors for Christmas: red and green with a few touches of yellow. For this project I only used the pushed molds: Christmas Decor and Christmas Nature, which are both perfect for this season. Let me share with you how to make these.

Product list:

Makin’s Clay®

• Red, Green and Yellow Clay

Makin's®

• Christmas Decor Push Mold
• Christmas Nature Push Mold

Makin’s Professional®

• Cutting Mat

Beacon™ 3-in-1 Advanced Craft Glue. Deflecto Magnet Sheets.

Instructions:

Take a small amount of the color of your choice of clay. I chose red for the poinsettias and cherries, green for the leaves. Smooth it with your hands to create an uniform ball. Press the clay into the mold starting in the center and working toward the edges.

Remove the excess clay that overlaps the edges of the mold. If you want you can cut this with scissors when all the pieces have dried.

Now it's time to assemble the small pieces to create the wreath and and cherry accents.

To assemble and paste all the pieces I used Beacon™ 3-in-1 Advanced Craft Glue, it dries clear and very fast.

If you want to intensify the color of the flowers to have a vintage look, you can ink these using distress ink or any other ink or paint.  On the next photo you can notice this. I used Ground Espresso Distress Ink.

Now cut small pieces of magnet sheets and paste these with the same adhesive on the back of the ornaments and let the glue dry.

Your ornaments are ready to use and perfect to fix your memory messages on your fridge or boards!

I hope my project inspires you. Makin's Clay® has a lot of push molds and clay cutter designs that you can use for the season to create special decorations. Thank you for stopping by and see you soon!

Martha Lucia