Think Crafts Blog - Craft Ideas and Projects - CreateForLess

Air dry clay is often thought of as a child’s art and craft supply, but it’s so much more than that!  If you enjoy polymer clay, you’ll also enjoy paper clay.  You don’t have to bake this type of clay as it air dries. 

Materials

• Paper clay (also called air-dry clay):  This clay air-dries, no need to heat or bake.
• Rolling pin:  To evenly flatten clay if necessary for your project.
• Wax or freezer paper
• Rubberstamps, clay tools, molds or texture sheets:  To make patterns or images into the clay.
• Craft knife, NuBlade^TM, tissue blade (or other thin cutting tool).

Step by Step

1. Wash your hands thoroughly and make sure your work surface is clean.  Clay picks up every dust or particle on the work surface and your hands.

2. Roll clay out to about ¼” thickness or thickness desired.  Stamp an image into the clay with a rubberstamp or press clay into any type of mold and remove.  Trim with cutting tool if needed.  You can also hand form or sculpt the clay.

3. Place on wax paper to dry, turning every few hours for even drying.  To avoid curling you might want to weigh down the clay after a few hours of drying.

4. You can also use this clay to sculpt.  It easily can be colored, painted, inked, chalked, glittered, and otherwise embellished. 

Using an air dry clay, Helen Bradley created this watch for Jewlery Creations #2 Magazine (CK Media) using a clay from AMACO.

Tips

• Clay adheres to most surfaces with a dab or two of glue.
• You can cut this clay while still wet or when it has dried. 
• Use a wet fingertip to smooth rough edges while clay is still wet.
• Use a fine sanding paper or emery board to smooth clay edges once clay has dried.
• You can paint, ink, or chalk a dry piece of paper clay.
• You can add paint, ink, or chalk to wet clay to color it!
• Make an embellishment for the front of a scrapbook, diary or journal.
• Another wonderful way to use your rubberstamps.  You can make buttons to coordinate your designs and projects.
• Store unused clay in an airtight container like a zip-lock plastic bag.  You can’t add water to clay to restore, once it dries out, it’s not re-useable!
• There are wonderful cutting, shaping, and design tools on the market for clays, but don’t forget that toothpicks, paper clips, cookie cutters, and pencils are handy tools too.

I found some great sites with fun projects:

Colorful Fun

Earthy Heart Pendant

Upscale Designer

Another wonderful design by Helen Bradley for AMACO. This design was also published in Jewelry Creations #2, CK Media.

Earlier this week I posted about dimensional paint and thought I’d show off some great Halloween projects I found at Duncan’s Website.  Dimensional paint can be used to outline, add depth, add sparkle, and even adhere!  It’s a product that you should spend a little time practicing with before you start using it on your crafting surfaces, but it’s time well spent.  Feel free to share you dimensional paint projects and your Halloween crafts!

You can find the instructions for all these fun projects at Duncan’s Website!

Dimensional Paint is formulated to keep it’s thickness and shape providing a 3-D effect, rather than acting like a typical paint that is flat and follows the form of the surface, it is brushed or sprayed on or behaves like markers and pens.  You can draw, outline, write and embellish with dimensional paint.  Bottle tips do vary, but dimensional paint comes in a bottle that can be held like a pencil in your hand.

Step by Step With Dimensional Paint

1. Always practice on scrap paper or surface you are going to add the dimensional paint to, so you can get a feel of how the tip and surface work together.

2. Don’t shake the bottle.  You don’t want to add any air bubbles to the paint.  Tap paint down to tip gently.

3. Hold bottle upright with tip down just as you would a pen or pencil.  Allow tip to lightly touch the surface to be painted.  Gently squeeze and begin to draw or write onto the surface.

4. Lift tip away from surface before letting go of your hold.  If you stop squeezing, you may let air bubbles into the tip and bottle. You may want to wipe tip clean between drawing lines.

5. Paint should be allowed to dry for 12-24 hours to completely set. 

Did You Know?

Dimensional paint can be used as an adhesive.  Apply a dot of paint to adhere buttons, paper roses and other embellishments.

A fine metal tip is available to get a very fine line of paint.  The metal tip is placed onto the bottle’s plastic tip and pressed firmly onto it. 

Dimensional paints vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.  Some dimensional paints dry tacky while others dry hard.  Experiment to see which is best for your projects.

Dimensional paints bond to many surfaces including paper, fabric, and wood.  Always read packaging and labeling to see what the dimensional paint will bond to and if it needs to be heat set.

A wide variety of colors and effects are available.  Some paints are ultra glossy while others are metallic.  Check out the variety available.

Always securely cap your bottle of paint after each use and clean any additional tips you may have used.  If some paint does dry in the tip use a fine needle to unclog.

For thicker lines of paint, hold the bottle at a slight angle to the surface, this allows more paint to flow and the result is a thicker line.

Leaf Pin/Pendant by M. Isabella for CreateForLess.com (Jewelry Creations, Issue No. 2) 

Materials:

Feltworks wool felt leaf embellishments

Blue Moon mini bead mix: light and dark amber

Ladybug bead or button

Large eye beading needle or beading needle

Green Floss

Scissors

Felt glue

Plate for beads

Pinback

Instructions:

1. Select a leaf (you have a variety of hues). 

2. Mix light and dark amber mini bead mixes together on a plate.

3. Thread needle and knot end. Bring needle up through back of a leaf (I started near bottom at center of stem). You want to leave about 1/8 allowance as you bead around the leaf edge. String on 6 mini beads in random order and bring needle down into the felt.  Bring needle back up between third and fourth bead and bring thread through fourth, fifth, and sixth beads again. String on 6 more mini beads in random order and repeat the backstitch. Continue until you’ve outlined the leaf with beads.

4. Now bead on the center vein of the leaf with same process as used in Step 3. The backstitch secures the string of beads making it more stable. When done knot off.

6. Adhere ladybug to front. Adhere pinback to back of felt leaf.  You can wear as a pin or use the pinback to attach leaf to a necklace!

Published with permission from CK Media.  This project and many more are all available in Jewelry Creations magazine available at craft stores and newsstands now.

I love fall and best of all, Halloween.  There is nothing better in life than getting to dress up as you please and get candy at every door you knock on!  Come on, that’s just “sweet”!

As a child my whole family got involved to celebrate Halloween.  My older brothers dressed up as policemen, women, and werewolves!  They went to school parties for Halloween, but I got to go with my friends door to door collecting treats. We carved pumpkins, spun spiderwebs from polyfil, hung pillowcase ghosts on the front yard trees.

I remember my homemade costumes well.  My mom used to help me.  One year I wore lederhosen and pretended to be a German gnome.  That one was easy as my mother was German and even made me a felt mustache! Another year I went as a hobo with my treat bag attached to a long wood branch.  I also was a princess one year and the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. But the best was a fairy with a magical wand of dowl rod, construction paper star, and glitter.  I loved waving the wand as neighbors dropped a piece of candy or two in my fairy dust bag!

CreateForLess is having a Halloween Costume Contest! Here’s the scoop!

What’s your all-time favorite handmade Halloween costume you’ve ever created?  That one you’re most proud of because you made it by hand, instead of buying it at the costume shop?  From kids to adult costumes, funny to scary, we want to see your creativity.  Enter our Handmade Halloween Costume Contest for your chance to win one of these amazing prizes…

• 1st Place: $150 CreateForLess Shopping Spree 
• 2nd Place: $100 CreateForLess Shopping Spree 
• 3rd Place: $50 CreateForLess Shopping Spree

Click here for details on how to enter.  Contest deadline is Nov 2, 2008.  I’d love to see some handmade costumes posted here too!  Come on, share!