Still looking for a gift for mom? Look no further than your craft supply stash! Here's an easy way to make a matching card and necklace -- perfect for Mother's Day or any other time you need a quick handmade gift. The card features a bottle cap button embellishment made from polymer clay, and the necklace features a matching pendant.
Continue reading "Quick Bottle Cap Jewelry & Card for Mom" »
Finally, a crafty answer to that age-old question: Are the dishes in the dishwasher clean or dirty? This project takes a recycled can lid and turns it into a dishwasher magnet with a reversible Clean/Dirty indicator.
Continue reading "How to Make a Polymer Clay Magnet from a Recycled Can Lid" »
My guild had an excellent speaker this past weekend, a breast cancer survivor who's helping us get more involved in the Bottles of Hope program. I put together this information for our meeting & wanted to share it with you too.
Bottles of Hope are polymer clay-covered bottles that are given to cancer patients to share hope & cheer. The Bottles of Hope (BOH) program was started in 1999 by cancer survivor and polymer clay artist Diane Gregoire. She covered empty medicine bottles from her treatment and took them to other patients, telling them to write a wish and put it inside. The program grew, and now polymer clay artists worldwide create the bottles to give to cancer patients.
You can cover any kind of bottle, or even other "vessels" like PVC pipe. But if you're going the traditional route and covering a medicine bottle, here are a few tips to help you prepare it for use:
Use pliers to pry the lid off from the bottom edge. You may need to go around and pry a few spots for this to work.
Boiling: You can also boil the bottles (as long as you remove the lids first). This has the added advantage of eliminating any contamination concerns.
Removing Labels: Paper-based labels are easier to remove after soaking. The plastic labels remove easily even before soaking. Just use fingernails or tweezers to lift an edge, after which the label should peel right off.
Looking for the perfect candy heart saying for your sweetheart this Valentine's Day? Don't waste time searching through candy bags! Instead, use polymer clay and image transfers to make your own customized conversation hearts.
Continue reading "Say I LUV U with Polymer Clay Candy Hearts" »
Polymer clay artists are likely to think of something completely different when someone mentions putting the turkey in the oven! This polymer clay turkey would be a fun addition to any Thanksgiving festivities -- even more fun when you come up with creative ideas for your own personalized signs. Here's how I made my turkey -- no basting required!
Candy corns are one of those candies -- like marshmallow eggs or candy canes -- that are definitely seasonal. Around here, it just doesn't seem like autumn til we've bought that first bag of candy corns. It's a yearly tradition.
Another yearly tradition is when I take a few of those candy corns up to my craft room to use as a model for my yearly batch of polymer clay candy corns. These are easy & fun to make -- and they can be turned into any number of things (earrings, thumbtacks, etc.). Course the best thing about the polymer clay version is they're not sticky & they won't ruin your diet!
Here's a quick tutorial on how to make your own batch of candy corns out of polymer clay:
To wrap up my pumpkin series, I wanted give you a few tips & tricks -- things that didn't fit anyplace else...
Personalizing your Pumpkin Patch. If you're making a patch full of pumpkins, consider making a sign to stake your claim (or if you've got little ones, they'll really love seeing their names on the sign!). It's easy to do...
Q: How many crafters does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Just one -- but you better believe she's not just gonna throw away that old light bulb!
Burned out light bulbs can be a wonderful base for making rounded vessels. Today I'll show you how to cover a light bulb with polymer clay to make a cool light bulb pumpkin.
Your kids will love switching out the interchangeable eyes, nose & mouth on this refrigerator magnet jack-o-lantern -- but I'm betting you'll have just as much fun making it as they will playing with it!
Polymer Clay: Orange (< 1/4 pkg) for pumpkin, plus assorted other colors for facial features. I strongly recommend not using "Sculpey" clays for this, since the all handling & poking may cause it to tear. I prefer Premo, but other strong brands like Fimo or Kato would work too.
Making polymer clay pumpkins is simple -- and they make for a quick & easy Halloween decoration. This week, I'm going to give you a few tips on creating your own pumpkins, starting with the basics:
Materials
Instructions
Polka Dot Creations just posted a tutorial I wrote on how to make a "Thank You" card with polymer clay and alcohol inks. Check it out here.
While you're there, check out the rest of their tutorials (all free!) here. Lisa from Polka Dot Creations has also set up a Flickr group for projects related to the tutorials, so you can see some of my variations there & upload your own. Hope you enjoy!
I love my local polymer clay guild -- wouldn't miss a meeting unless I had to! But I have to say I wasn't sure about our last project. Granted, I was eager to learn about how to use Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE) with clay. But the project itself was a photo album, and I just don't do photos. Or at least, I don't do printed photos. All my photos are the digital kind, and I'm happy that way.
Guild members Penni Jo Couch and Sue Kerr did a wonderful job teaching. I enjoyed the UTEE, and had a couple of "a-ha" moments with the project itself. But when I brought home my covers, all ready to assemble into an album, it was my husband who offered the "a-ha." Why didn't I make it into a notepad instead of an album, he asked?
I've been needing a notepad for my car ever since my PDA died -- so that's what I did. I made me a notepad. Well, three actually. And I took a few pics of the process in case you want to make one too. (Be sure to check out Penni Jo's original instructions here as well.)
There are things I love about my house -- it's comfy, it's spacious, it's got a nice big backyard. And then there's the things I'm not so crazy about. Like the tiny kitchen and its stuck-in-the-70's vibe. And while the red brick walls in my kitchen & family room fit more in the not-so-crazy-about realm, there's so many more important things to do that I know I'll be living with them for a good while longer.
One thing that always bothered me more than the bricks themselves was the gap in the bricks. When we moved in, there was an ancient avocado green metal GTE Starlite phone hanging on the kitchen wall. We replaced it fairly quickly -- but when we took it down, we found that the bricks had actually been set around the phone... so not only did we have an ugly old silver phone jack cover, we also had big gaps around the phone jack.
This video goes along with my bamboo skewer polymer clay pen tutorial. The video is 6.5 minutes long, and it shows how to cover a bamboo skewer to make a polymer clay pen.
Okay, you've covered Bic and Papermate pens, and you've covered pen kits. What's next?
What if you could ignore that whole "oven-safe" thing & convert every pen in your house to polymer clay?
I came across this bamboo skewer pen idea on Glass Attic while I was getting ready to teach my guild's pen lesson. And while this pencil tutorial was helpful in figuring out how to do it, I still had to do a little trial and error -- so I wanted to share my experiences here.
Materials
This video goes along with my pen kit tutorial. The video is 6.5 minutes long, and it shows how to cover the Amazing Twist Pen sold by Boston Clay Works. It also shows some alcohol ink basics.
We've "covered" the basics of pen-covering... now let's take it to the next level.
Pen making kits are more expensive and involve a little more work than your more basic pens, but the nicer results may make it worthwhile. Traditionally used in wood-turning, these kits basically consist of hollow tubes that you cover then assemble. There are several places online to buy these, with a wide variety of pen types available. While you can buy a pen assembly press for around $40 to assemble these, you can usually hammer them together with a rubber mallet and a little patience. (Upper-body strength doesn't hurt either!)
Of course, if you're interested in that slightly nicer, cross pen-style look -- but not interested in all the work -- you might like the Amazing Twist Pen. These are still harder to assemble than a Papermate -- but they're much easier than pounding with a rubber mallet. And while there's just the one style, they do look really classy.
So here's how to do it:
Buy the pen. As far as I know, there's no major craft stores that carry these pens, so it may require an internet order. The pens will come individually wrapped in little plastic baggies -- and if you're anything like me, you may be a tad intimidated the first time you see one. At this point, they really don't look much like pens at all. Don't worry, though. The other thing they should come with is assembly instructions -- and as long as you have those (and this tutorial!), you'll be fine! <g>Continue reading "How To Make Polymer Clay Pens Using Pen Kits" »
Here's another video that goes along with my basic pen covering instructions. The video is 4.5 minutes, and it shows how to cover a Bic Round Stic pen with polymer clay. Background "music" courtesy of my doggie. <g>
Here's a video that goes along with my basic pen covering instructions. The video is 4.5 minutes, and it shows how to cover a PaperMate FlexGrip Elite pen with polymer clay. Aside from the one I won't get to see til next year, this is my first "talkie" -- so suggestions are welcome!
With all the craziness, I forgot to mention it here -- but I taught this month’s lesson at Central Oklahoma's Polymer Clay Guild. Our topic was covering pens with polymer clay, and while I've put a few notes on the guild's site, I thought I'd go a little more in-depth here...
I really enjoy covering pens with polymer clay. It's fast, it's easy, and it's practical. It was one of the first polymer clay projects I did where I was actually happy with the results!
In this series of posts, I'd like to share some of the mechanics of covering pens. I'll start today with how to cover some basic pens with polymer clay -- including Papermate's Flexgrip Elite and Bic's Round Stic. Next, I'll discuss some of the more advanced options -- like using pen blanks and bamboo skewers. Even if you've never covered a pen before, I hope this series will show you that you too can cover a pen and be happy with your results!
Note: Since this tutorial's main goal is to talk about the mechanics of covering these pens, I've used a very simple one-color design. As with any polymer clay project, the possibilities for colors, textures, and design are practically limitless.
Papermate FlexGrip Elite. I get mine at Office Depot and they cost about $0.75 each. If you can find them, the Papermate Flexgrip Ultras work great, too.Continue reading "How To Make Polymer Clay Pens: The Basics" »
Here's how to turn your boring-looking, utilitarian clipboard into something that's great to look at and totally useful. While I was specifically thinking about hemp projects when I altered my clipboard, there's no reason this wouldn't work just as well for paper crafts or anything else you want to take along with you.
We're a week into the new year -- how are those resolutions coming along? If you need a little reminder to keep you on track, try these easy polymer clay resolution reminders. Make them into magnets, bookmarks, or whatever works best for reminding you about what you want to do.
Continue reading "How to Make Polymer Clay Resolution Reminders" »
Want to give someone (or yourself!) a nice journal this Christmas? Covering or "altering" composition notebooks is an easy way to make an attractive journal.
I've talked about making basic bottle cap jewelry and liquid clay bottle cap jewelry. Now I want to share a few ideas for using polymer clay with bottle caps, by putting the clay either inside OR outside the bottle cap.
Continue reading "Other Ideas for Polymer Clay Bottle Cap Jewelry" »
In my previous post, I talked about the basics of making bottle cap jewelry. Now I'd like to tell you how to make jewelry using liquid polymer clay:
Just a couple of notes:
Continue reading "How to Make Bottle Cap Jewelry with Liquid Clay" »
Our library system has some of the best classes! Last night I went to a Bottle Cap Creations class taught by local artist Kiona Millirons, where the library provided us not only with free instruction -- but also free bottle caps and all the free supplies we needed to make a belt, bracelet, pin, pair of earrings -- or whatever. How cool is that?
I decided to make a couple of magnets (the blue ones in the picture) and a couple of pins (the "Art" and "Crafts" collages). They were fun and very easy to make. Here are the basics:
