Good day ladies! I have a step by step tutorial on how to make holiday clay tags here on my beach kissed blog and I have done some winter embellishments to steal your heart. I’m starting early this year and I suggest you do the same if you want to avoid last minute rush. I kept myself off craft for sometime for a change of apartment was on the cards. However the man decided to continue with our present abode by the creek (now a warm brown with bare headed trees marking autumn), which means I can get my crafting voodoo bag out and craft up a storm without having to wonder where I’ll spend my Christmas. Woohoo!
❤
Last week I made it to HobbyIdeas and picked up 6 packages of air drying white modeling clay and 4 teeny metal ice skates in baby pink and powder blue. Honestly, they were part of a scrapbooking kit and all I wanted was them. The rest of the stuff inside was rubbish. But hey, this is consumerism at its best. So I had to buy the whole thing but hopefully the other rubbish will find use in bigger rubbish which will make it to my blog.
I made clay tags last year too but they were pretty raw. I had no cutters and skewers, the outlines were uneven, the holes were not on center, the finish was not good- there were several problems with them which I rectified this year. In our lingo, this time, I got my chops in place. Lol.
So here’s how to make perfect clay tags
You’ll need
Air drying clay
Cookie cutters
Stamps/holiday embellishments
Skewers
A sheet of thick clear plastic/cellophane
Knead your modelling clay as per instructions- if you are buying artists clay, you’ll need to mix mediums. If soft clay, you’ll need to simply knead and shape it. You can choose the color, texture, form- there are several kind of clay available in the market including sandstone textured, cork textured and stone textured. Can you believe it? How cool will it be to take cork textured clay and make bottle stoppers?
With a rolling pin, roll your clay out on top of a polythene sheet to about 1/2″ thick
Now, using your cookie cutters, cut shapes out. (TIP: Cut the patterns as close you can to the former. This will ensure maximum use of clay)
If you are using accents/embellishments, attach them now. Just press it firmly on the wet clay and it will dry hard with the embellishment!
Let them dry as per instructions- some clay needs about 12 hours and some only an hour and half. I used artists clay so it was an overnight affair.
Once completely dry, peel them off from the plastic sheet and sand it down a bit on the sides to give it a rounded and smooth texture.
Stack it, stock it and decorate your home this Holidays with handmade Clay tags!
Well, that’s about it. Love those tiny iceskates. Do you?
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