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...

Magical Mushroom Pendant

Design Team Member Naomi Scarparo recently shared this adorable stamped mushroom pendant made with Makin's Clay®.  Check out Naomi's blog to see more of her fun enchanted creations!

Mosaic Boxes Boho Style

Today, I'm here with some cool Mosaic Boxes in Boho Style. I had this cardboard boxes since a while and thought it is time to pretty them up.

Materials:

Makin's Clay® - Black

Makin's® Clay Tool Set

Makin's Professional® - Ultimate Clay Machine®

Makin's Professional® - Cutting Mat

Makin's® - Square Cutters
Tissue Blade

Metalic Paint Lumiere by Jacquard

Sponge Dabber

Stamps

Bling

UV Resin and lamp

Instructions:

I started with painting the box in gold and let it dry completely.

Next, I started rolling out about half of a 60 g package Makin's Clay® - black. This is of course also depending on the size of your box and how many mosaic tiles you need. I used the Ultimate Clay Machine® on the setting one which is the thickest setting.

 

Then I sprayed some water on the rubber stamp and the clay and did dab it back slightly, I only want it a little bit wet but no big puddles of water.

Now it is time to make some impressions. I uses the roller from the Makin's® Clay Tool Set and rolls over from one end to the other and making sure to give a good pressure. I don't recommand to go back and forth, but rather one heavy roll. You risk to have double impressions when you go back and forth.

You should get something like this.

To cut the large mosaic tiles I use the tissue blade.

A wet wipe is handy to smooth out the edges.

The leftovers you can simply smoosh together and run again through the Ultimate Clay Machine®.

Here you can see the second patch, which gonna be the smaller tiles and I going use the Makin's®  - Square Cutters.

A little trick here for you. I use an acrylic block on top of the cutter. This way I get more pressure to have a clean cut and it doesn't hurt my hands.

To test how many small tiles I need I placed the big ones the way I wanted them onto the in the meantime dry box.

After having so much fun with the first box I decided to make another batch, this time with rather smaller tiles, there are so many variation how you can make them...

                                                                                                                                                     I let the tiles dry overnight and now it it is time to paint them. I do use the Metallic paint for some extra sparkle.

As a first step I apply a color with a brush to make sure that I get into the crevices.

While the paint is still somewhat wet I take again a wet wipe and wipe off some of the paint on the surface, leaving color mostly in the crevices.

 Next I add other colors on top, sometimes it is a back and forth applying color taking away until you are happy with the result.

They looking quite good already, but I want to go a step further, so I go for some UV Resin next.

I usually start by applying along the edges and then add a blop in the middle and start spreading around. I also do at least 2 layers which I cure in between.

Now that they are cured, I glue them to the box with some tacky glue.

Think Pink Medallion Polymer Clay Necklace - DIY Video

Cindi McGee shares how to create this extruded and stamped bead necklace with Makin's Clay® and the Makin's Professional® Ultimate Clay Extruder® and Clay Core Adaptors® in this Makin's Clay® Design Studio video now live on our MakinsClayUSA YouTube Channel!   

Mini Clay Book

Design Team Member Bea Grob recently shared this tiny clay book she created with Makin's Clay®. This would also make a fun and unique pendant!

Be used foiled and stamps sheets of white Makin's Clay® for the pages of her book.  The cover is made with black Makin's Clay®, using a lion's head mold from her collection, enhanced with a bit of acrylic paint.