Oh Christmas Tree Pendant

Iris Rodriguez recently shared a tutorial for this pretty Christmas Tree Pendant made with Makin's Clay® here on her blog. 

Festive Holiday Stars

Festive Holiday Stars by Bea Grob

The holidays are coming... 

Time to do all kind of coordinated decoration for cards, for the table and for the tree. So join me to make some cool embellishments in any color you like, it doesn't have to be that light blue/teal I have used. You can match to your interiors.

Supplies:

1 pack of white Makin's Clay® (60g)

Acrylic paint in the color you like

Glitter, rather chunky glitter works better

Gel pen in gold

Rhinestones

card base and mat 

Tacky Glue

Tools

I used the Makin's Professional® Ultimate Clay Machine®, but you can also use the Makin's® Clay Roller

Star shaped cutters in different sizes 

Wet towel

Instructions:

To make the stars, we are using Makin's Clay® in white straight from the package, no conditioning needed.  Simply form a sort of an oval shape and add a bit of paint. No exact measurements here. I applied/added in rather small quantities and mixed it up before I added more.

I then grabbed the oval and folded the edges in, so that the paint was captured in the middle. From experience I knew, that still some might squeeze out, so I decided to wear gloves. Mainly because I knew I had to make pictures for you guys and didn't want the paint on my camera....🤣

I also switched between adding the glitter and adding the paint until I was happy.

Once I was happy with the color I, I rolled it out a bit and then ran it through the Makin's Professional® Ultimate Clay Machine® on the number 1 setting, which is the widest one.  Then I continued running it through the following sizes until the number 4. The sheet looks like this at this point. 

I placed the rolled clay on some baking paper and started cutting out the stars. 

The glitter tends to give it a bit more work to take apart, as the cutters only cut the Makin's Clay® but not the glitter, simply lift the stars carefully from the left over rolled clay.

Once all the stars are ready on the baking paper I use another sheet of baking paper to cover up,

and put a really heavy book on top, to make sure that they stay flat while drying. I let them dry over night before proceeding.

The next morning I did doodled on some of my stars with a gold Pen.

Don't worry if you make a mistake or are not happy with your design, just keep a wet wipe ready and you can easily remove the gold, while it is still wet.

My last step was to add some holes with a simple hole punch, I have one with rather smaller holes.

Now I have a bunch of embellishment, which I can use for cards, or on parcels as name tag, some I going hang in the tree and others are going go on my table, together with other elements for a festive holiday table.

I wish you all Happy Holidays.
- Bea

4th of July Polymer Clay Embellished Patriotic Vase DIY Video - Makin's Clay® Design Studio

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In this DIY episode from the Makin's Clay® Design Studio from our MakinsClayUSA YouTube channel, Cindi McGee shares how to do a simple technique to create blended clay for your projects.  She uses the Makin's Clay® blend, along with our Makin's® Star Clay Cutters and Stars Texture Sheet, to make decorative stars for a festive 4th of July upcycled centerpiece.

Statue of Liberty Bottle Cap

Design Team Member Patricia Krauchune recently shared this altered Patriotic bottle cap.  Patricia used the Makin's® star texture sheet to create her background.   Find out more about Patricia's bottle cap here on her blog.

Patriotic Star Earrings

Patriotic Star Earrings by Cindi McGee

Be ready for the 4th of July with these super easy, sparkling star earrings.  

Materials:

Makin's Clay®- 60g White, Red, Blue 

Makin's® 

• Clay Tools
• Clay Cutter Set - Mini Geo 

Makin's Professional®

• Cutting Mat
• Professional Clay Tools 

Krylon® Silver Leafing Pen 

Clearsnap® Smooch Glitz™

Silvertone jump rings, silvertone chain, earring wires

Jewelry pliers 

Instructions:

Roll small amount of red, blue and white clay to about 1/8" thick. 

Use star cutter from Mini Geo set to cut several stars. You will need 6 white, 2 blue and 2 red for these earrings.  I cut extra for future projects.

Use fine point tool from kit to create hole in the top of each star for jump rings.  Apply silver leafing pen to 4 white stars.  Apply Smooch Glitz to remaining red, white and blue stars.  Let dry.  Repeat on opposite side.  Let dry. 

Let stars dry 24 hours.  Add jump rings to each star.  Add chain to earring wire. Skipping the first link, and starting on the second, attach stars in desired pattern in descending links of silver chain (chain should have 6 links total.)

Halloween Plaque with Makin's Clay®

Halloween Home Decor
Designed by Irit Shalom

Hello my dear crafty friends and welcome to my Halloween Home Decor project.  This is a tall decorative piece made over the recycled chipboard piece of packaging, but then every single piece of it is made with Makin's Clay® and arranged into this Halloween scene.

Products Used:

Makin’s Clay® 

• White, Plum Wine, Black, Neon Yellow Clay
• Cutters-3 pc Round
• Halloween set- 12 pieces
• Texture Sheets- Set D- Stars, Woodgrain

Makin’s Professional® 

• Roller and Cutters set
• Cutting Mat

Chipboard base 

Beacon™ 3-in-1 Adhesive 

Glaze

Gold glitter 

DecoArt® Media™ acrylic paint - orange

Permanent pigment crafters ink

Heat tool 

Background rubber stamps for adding details to cut shapes 

Die cutting machine

Halloween dies - spiderweb and haunted house 

Instructions:

So here is my step by step tutorial for you:

1. Add a bit of orange acrylic paint to white clay to make the orange colored clay. 

Add paint to clay

Blend to combine

Just blend the clay and paint to get the real color orange as seen on the second photo.

Roll to blend clay pieces

2. Roll black, plum wine and the mixed orange clay until it is very thin.  Just tear the rolled clay pieces and arrange them totally randomly over the chipboard then roll again to adhere all shades together over the chipboard.

Add textures 

3. Use two Texture sheets from set D (Stars and Woodgrain) to make the texture over the rolled clay. Use wooden texture on the bottom and star texture on the top of your piece. Let the background dry.

Cut assorted shapes

4. Use Clay Cutters from the Halloween set,  cut a few Halloween shapes using white, black and orange (blended) clay. In this photo you see more shapes than those finally used on the project. Let them dry.

Stamp your shapes

5. Stamp textures with background stamps over the dry cut shapes as shown. I used pigmented crafting ink and my heat gun to  make the ink permanent.

Die cut dry clay sheets

6. Roll a very thin piece of black clay with the roller, and let it dry.  Then die cut with your dies.  

7. Arrange your die cut and cut shapes over the background.

Arrange your elements 

As you can see I added a mixed clay circle under the funky moon shape (mixing plum wine and neon yellow clay together and using round cutter.  The I arranged the moon over the circle. Add a thin layer of neon yellow clay under the haunted house shape as shown before you glue the house over the piece.

Layer haunted house over neon yellow clay

Arrange  all other stamped shapes and glue them over the background using Beacon™ 3-in-1 Adhesive.

8. Cover the whole piece with glaze and add some golden glitter around the shapes and over the piece.

Hang your finished Halloween plaque

Patriotic Pinwheel Pins by Donna Budzynski

Patriotic Pinwheel Pins

Designed by: Donna Budzynski

Materials:

Makin’s Clay® VINEYARD TONES

Tac Pins

Tools:

Makin’s Clay® Cutting Mat

Makin's Professional® Ultimate Clay Machine®

Makin’s® Cutters - Square, Stars

Makin’s® Roller

Beacon Power Tac Adhesive

Instructions:

Gather all supplies needed.

 Using Makin's Professional® Ultimate Clay Machine® roll out Makin’s Clay® beginning on setting #1 and ending at setting #3.

Cut Concord Blue clay using Makin's® large square cutter from 3 piece set. 

Roll Merlot and Natural clay in Ultimate Clay Machine® to setting #3.  Cut into strips approximately 1/4".  Cut stars from Merlot clay.  (Hint:  Strips are small and will begin drying quickly, cover with a damp paper towel to keep your work from drying out before you are finished).

Use Merlot and Natural strips in an alternating pattern to cover the Concord Blue square.  Fresh clay will stick to fresh clay without additional adhesive.   Let dry for a couple of hours.  

Once the clay has begun to dry, find the center and cut as shown (this picture is my first attempt, not great.  Things don't always turn out as planned!) 

At alternating cuts, fold to center.  I used Beacon Power Tac adhesive to adhere to the center.  Adhere the stars to the centers of each pinwheel. 

Adhere the pin backs with Power Tac.

Stars & Stripes by Patricia Krauchune

STARS & STRIPES

Designed by Patricia Krauchune 

Living in Liberty House, I am very fond of all things patriotic. Here's my Makin's Clay® "flagpole", my interpretation of stars and stripes forever.

Supply List:

Makin's Clay® Red / White / Blue	Metal Tape
Statue of Liberty Mold	Small brass rod
Large paint stirring stick	Adirondack® Alcohol Ink Pitch Black
1 1/4" Smoothfoam Ball	Gold Cordage
Krylon 18K Gold Leafing Pen	2 Gold Tassels
Beacon™ 3-in-1 Adhesive	Green/Gray/Red/Blue/Silver/Gold Acrylic paint

Recommended Makin’s® Tools:

Makin's Professional®Ultimate Clay Machine®

Makin's® Clay Cutters: LargeStars

Makin's® Texture Sheets: Stripes, Stars (Set B and Set D)

Makin's® Cutting Mat

Instructions:

I had a small silicone mold I made from one of my Statue of Liberty figurines.  Push some white Makin's Clay® into the mold and allow to dry overnight.

Unmold when dry, trim away excess clay and paint green and gray.  I used a Krylon 18K Gold Leafing Pen on the torch tip.

Next roll out red, white and blue clay using the Makin's Professional® Ultimate Clay Machine® on the # 1 setting.

The Makin's® Clay Cutter, large stars set, has three sizes...start with the largest and cut out a red star, then a medium star from the white clay and the smallest will be cut from the blue clay.  With the Makin's® Texture sheet, Stars, impress into the white clay.

Now use the Makin's® Texture sheet Stripes and impress the red and blue stars.  Cut out a small square, 3/4", in the center of the blue star.

Cut the handle off a paint stirring stick.  Use metal tape to cover the stick.

 I wanted a steampunk kind of look to the flagpole so I scored some segments on the staff. I then used the pitch black Adirondack® Alcohol Ink to "antique" the  texture I had embossed.

Cut a 1 1/4" Smoothfoam ball in half then coat with the Krylon 18K Gold Leafing Pen.

Attach the "ball" to the top of the flag pole using the small brass rod.

 I used the Krylon 18K Gold Leafing Pen to outline each star.

At this point I used the Beacon's™ 3 in 1 Adhesive to glue the Statue of Liberty to the red star.

I painted the star impressions red, blue, silver and gold. The blue star has the cut out section.

Now glue the stars in place with the Beacon's™ 3 in 1 Adhesive. I had a small red glass star bead and I glued that in the center of the blue star.

I got some gold cordage from Joann's Fabric and weaved it around the stars and added the tassels to the bottom. So here you are, stars and stripes forever!  God bless America.