Bunting Ornament

So I was hanging our ornaments and came across the cute polymer clay snowmen that I made last year – I was impressed with myself (did I actually make that cuteness?!).  Then I came across a polymer clay Mary/Joseph/Baby Jesus that I made at a Super Saturday craft activity the year before.  And so I got to thinking, I need to make a polymer clay ornament for 2010.   I tried to think what was “the thing” this year in the craft world – fabric flowers, yes, but I’m aiming for clay – – so I thought, PENNANTS – perfect:

The two above-mentioned projects are the only other time I’ve done something with polymer clay, so I’m no expert at all – I just went for it.  I got the clay out and it was super crummy – I wondered about microwaving it but then the package said in big bold letters DO NOT MIRCOWAVE so I decided against it (anyone know what happens if you do??).

Just keep kneading and working with the crumbs and soon it will turn clay-ish – trust me.  Then you can roll it out like so:

I cut triangles – a couple of hints from a beginner (you probably know all of this):
–don’t use a butter knife – it has a bumpy edge so it’s not a clean cut
–do the red last – it turned my hands colors, so if I touched the white or green with red hands, they’d turn red
Next think of a holiday word – I considered “joy” “hope” “faith” “love” but settled on “believe” even though I thought it was a little long.
I hand-cut all of my letters – drew with a toothpick and then used the knife to cut into my tracings.  The thought crossed my mind, “I wonder if the Silhouette will cut a sheet of polymer clay” – I didn’t want to ruin my machine with the experiment, but if anyone tries it, let me know!

I then set the green triangles on rolled-out red clay and cut slightly bigger triangles.  I got these metal wire things (for jewelry – I don’t know what they are) and some had loops on the end – those I twisted a little for the end hooks.

The other ones I cut in half.  I then shoved one end into a pennant and then shoved another pennant on the other end.

At this point you’ll want to etch out “2010” on the back – I am kicking myself because I forgot!  Here’s a sample of how I did it last year:

Then bake according to the clay package.  For you polymer-clay-pros, can you burn it?? I left mine in for 40 minutes or so – just wondering….
After baking I added some glitter for that extra fab – it looks more glittery in real life than in pics, but you can kind of see it here (the red and the white have glitter – I left the green plain):

Since I added glitter I sprayed it with a quick coat of clear spraypaint so the glitter wouldn’t flake off – I’m sure my husband appreciated that I sprayed it right on our garage step:

That’s it!  It was really fun and surprisingly easy – I want to do more things with polymer clay!! (next up, these little flowers!)
 Hang on your tree and enjoy your creativity!

Oh, and this is a really thrifty project – each pack of polymer clay at Michael’s was about $1.30 – I didn’t use even half of each pack – I think you could make 3-5 ornaments with only purchasing one white, one green, and one red clay block. (And obviously even more for a shorter word.)