Today I am so pleased to share with you this adorable and simple project brought to you by Dana, of Studio Danale. Dana is a mom of twin three year old girls, and has a cute shop on Etsy here, where you can purchase some delightful nursery/kids decor items. And Dana also lives in Israel!
Since polymer clay is more my daughter's expertise than mine, I'm really happy to have Dana here to show us how to use it with great professional looking results!
You'll Need:
- a square wood base
- small picture hangers
- pink and creme acrylic craft paint
- polymer clay (Dana used pink, light blue and green)
- a small craft rolling pin
- a floor tile (optional)
- epoxy type glue
- varnish (Dana recommends Fimo brand varnish for polymer clay)
How To:
Step 1: Paint your base. Dana painted hers creme with a pink frame. (You could also make a border with cute ribbon!) Glue picture hanger to base if necessary.
Step 2: Above left: Roll out polymer clay to at least 1/8" or a bit more, with a smooth surface and a consistent thickness. As you can see from the photo, Dana uses a plexiglass roller and works on a piece of floor tile which she then sticks directly into the oven. (This is a great idea to keep your shapes perfect.)
Cut out your shapes with cookie cutters. Yes, even those small flowers are made using cookie cutters!
Step 3: Bake according to instructions on the package.
(And yes, there are kashrus concerns with putting this in a oven you use for food. If this applies to you, kasher your oven after baking a batch. I use my small toaster oven for this, and anyone who uses polymer clay frequently should consider dedicating a small toaster oven for this purpose only.)Step 4: Above right: Once clay has cooled, attach shapes to one another with strong stinky glue in a well ventilated area.
Step 5: Above: Add any details with acrylic paint. Dana painted white dots on her small blue hearts.
Step 6: Once paint details have dried, apply a coat of varnish.
Step 7: Once varnish has dried, attach shapes to your base with that stinky glue. (Hot glue would probably work well too)
Step 8: Once it's really dry (I'd give it 24 hours unless you're using that 3 minute epoxy or hot glue.) hang or wrap up for a cute gift!
Wasn't that easy? While you're at it, so make a whole bunch to have on hand for shower/baby gifts. And wouldn't this be great for making personalized baby mobiles and even an alphabet themed piece of art? I'm not usually so attracted to polymer clay, but now I'm getting inspired! I'm seeing a collage of sorts with ribbon, scrap booking paper, buttons, maybe some burlap? A shell or two? Hmmm. My daughter's polymer clay stash is now in danger of disappearing! I'll keep you posted. Thanks so much Dana!
