Clay with Type A

When Mandy emailed me and asked me if I’d like to do a guest tutorial on her blog, I could reply yes fast enough! I love her blog, she’s wonderful. Thanks Mandy for this opportunity to meet your friends.
So here it goes. Hi, My name is Tammy and my blog is Type A, and yes I’m pretty sure I have some form of OCD. I’ve been obsessed with closets for the last week, but when I’m not cleaning out a closet, under the sinks or just good old cleaning. I’m decorating and redecorating my home. My hubby left for the middle east in December 2009 and the only furniture in our home that is original from then are the mattresses and the couch. Everything else is “new” to me. Mostly craigslist, thrifty stores, garage sales, and misc home stores like HomeGoods and Hobby Lobby. I also love to crafy and have done a ton of my own projects. Okay enough about me.
My tutorial is about clay. You can do so much with clay and it comes in a zillion colors. It’s very easy to work with and affordable. I used Fimo clay to do these products but you could use any brand you like. I actually used an air drying variety and a bake clay this time. Prepare for the longest tutorial in history!

First up my baked clay buttons. I used Fimo Effect Silver, kind of looks like pewter. A little goes a long way too. I made a ton of projects with this block.

Here are some of the tools I used to cut, shape and hole punch the clay.

I used this green mat to emboss the clay with a very cool lace effect.

This little clay cutter is 1/2 inch flower. See how cute the buttons are starting to look? I punched two little holes into them, and baked them at 230 degrees for 30 minutes.

I figured I should make something cute with the buttons, just to give you an idea of what you can do with them. I used my Sizzix Big Shot to cut out some felt flowers. I used two shades of pink and an ivory to make the flowers, and then two shades of green to make the leaves.

Head bands, bought off Etsy.

Hot glue and gun to stick it all together. I did thread the button holes with some cute hot pink embroidery thread, just to add some cuteness, and make them look more like buttons.

Everything is assembled and ready to glue to the head band. I also added a piece of felt to the underside, so it wouldn’t stick to Lauren’s hair.

Ta Da! Cute flower headband with clay buttons. Even my model was happy!

Okay, so what else can you do with clay? Next up clay pendants that I stamped with brass wax seals.

I have the alphabet, and a few random symbols.

I took a good size pinch of the clay and rolled into a ball, used a stamp to emboss it and threaded it with an eye pin. Baked it in the oven for 30 minutes at 230 degrees. It came out of the oven like this.

I used another eye pin to add a pearl or two to the bottom, and a jump ring to add the ribbon necklace. You could do a leather cord or a silver chain, I really like vintage seam binding and have about 150 yards of it, so you see where this is going. Look at all my pretty pearls.

End result, I added some white glaze to the letters to make them appear older and more like real silver than silver clay. I also make these with real silver clay, but that requires a kiln, and not very cost effective if you only want to make a couple charms.

The fun with clay continues. Next up, a pennant banner. Yep you read that right. I know you can make these with paper and fabric, but did you ever think of clay?

These are the steps, first you roll the clay out, then cut it into a triangle shape and emboss it with any pattern you like. You can be very creative here, you could even you cookie cutters and make seasonal shapes.

Make sure you make the wholes big enough to string ribbon or twine through. Just like the other bake projects, you bake these at 230 degrees for 30 minutes.

I used a simple gross grain ribbon in a peach color to string these up. Again, you can be as creative with this step as you like, make it your own, have fun.

Here it is in place, I hung in on my daughters bed, thought it would be cute. What do you think?

If you have made it this far, you are a trooper! lol Last mini tutorial, pinky swear. I thought, wouldn’t it be fun to embellish a simple frame with clay. This is where the air drying Fimo comes to play.

I rolled the clay out, air drying clay is easier to roll, and a much softer clay. I placed the frame on top and then cut off the extra clay.

I had a lot of left over clay, I just put it in a zip lock baggy, hope that works. I’ve never used this type of clay before, so not real sure on how to store it. Worse case, it doesn’t work and I’m out a couple of bucks and a baggy!

I used a large baggy under the clay so I wouldn’t get my counter dirty, and the I used my handy dandy embosser on the clay. I love these, you can buy them at Joann’s and Michael’s, they come in a two pack, great deal to if you use a coupon. I let it dry over night.

The next day I had a little surprise waiting for me, the clay shrinks! Not to fear, it still worked out, but now I know to cut the clay a little bigger next time. I used an epoxy glue to attach it to the frame. Doesn’t look like much right now. I primed, painted and glazed it.

Finished product! I think it was still a successful project, even if the clay did shrink. I haven’t put a picture in it yet, but this will be living in my office.

Thank you so much for making it through my clay tutorial. I hope it gives you some great ideas to make your own clay project. I would love to see what you come up with!

Thanks Mandy for this wonderful opportunity to show of some of my crafty ideas!

Happy Crafting!