Tutorial Texture Sheet

Hey there :)

Today I want to show you my version of a texture sheet for texturing polymer clay.

First I made a leave stamp. For that I took a bit of clay (I used air-dry clay but you can also use polymer clay).





Then I rolled it into a small log.




I shaped it into a leave by pinching the sides into points.
The leave only needs to be at the end of the stamp, the other part I rolled into a handle. To flatten the stamp I pressed it onto my working surface and pinched it again to correct the leave shape.


Then I cut into the leave to have a vein. You can also make more veins but I wanted to keep it simple. Press it onto your work surface again to make it even and then let dry or bake.


For the texture sheet I rolled out a sheet of scrap clay. It also works with air-dry clay.
Don't make it too thin.




Finally, I made some lines with my dotting tool, they don't have to be straight. I then stamped with my leave stamp at both sides of the lines to create my leave pattern.
Remember to not make it too shallow, otherwise it won't stamp well. So press in the stamp pretty deep. Mine on the picture for example is too shallow... So I made another one (see below).
Then bake according to the instructions on your clay package.


Now you can use your texture sheet just like that but you'll need to put on some release or it will stick to your project. You can use water (not if you have used air-dry clay) or something like flour or baby powder.

Leave Texture Sheet

However, it is much easier to use if you make a silicone mould from it. For that you need two-part silicone which is mixed together in equal parts and then pushed evenly into your texture sheet. The advantage of using this is also that it will be a flexible texture sheet.
I suppose you could also use hot glue which you spread over the sheet and peel off afterwards but I haven't tried that, yet.

Here my finished silicone mould. It didn't come out perfectly and has some flaws  but I don't mind. They are hardly noticable once you have applied it to your project.

Leave Texture Sheet

That's it for today. I hope it was useful for you. Let me know if you like it in the comments and if you have any suggestions what I could have improved or made differently :)

See you soon

Tutorial Photo Tree Clay

Hey there :)

Because my family has sort of grown a significant bit over night (which I'm so happy about, but I don't want to bore you with private details :D) I decided that I needed something to put on all of my photos of my new (and old) family members.

I wanted to make a photo tree. Once because I love trees and nature and also because it reminds me of a 3D family tree :)

Firstly I made a base from wire, then added clay and painted it.

Materials:
Wire
Painter's tape
Clay ( polymer or air-dry)
Tools for the tree bark and soil (like wire brush, tooth brush, toothpicks, etc.)
Roller
Needle nose pliers
Paint

Tutorial Photo Tree

I first cut off some pieces of wire about 20-30 cm long. The number really depends on how many branches you need.
I twisted a few together in the middle and left a bit for the roots untwisted and a larger part for the branches.

I wrapped around a few more pieces but you can also add more later.

Then I twisted 2 or 3 together to make the  branches and left them untwisted at the ends.

I curled the ends inwards with needle nose pliers and then used my fingers to create spirals for holding the photos.

On the left you can see how it's done.

Some of the wires were a bit too short, there I added more wires by twisting them around the existing branch. It doesn't have to look very neat as it's gonna get covered anyway.

Add as much wires in as you need and that you feel look nice.

Once I was happy with the number of spirals on the branches and had enough for my photos I wrapped the whole tree except the very ends of some twigs, the spirals and the roots, in painters tape. If you're planning on using polymer clay, make sure it's oven safe.

Tutorial Photo Tree

Now onto the clay part. I first cut the roots a bit shorter and bent them downwards. I then took a bit of air-dry clay and stuck the roots in there and pushed down. Then I covered the wires with more clay and added more at the bottom to give it a solid base. Make sure that you push it down to your work surface so the tree can stand on its own. 

Remember when using air-dry clay you have to keep your project moist until you're fully done. I always use a small spray bottle for that. Once I notice the clay getting harder to work with and I see some parts drying already, I spray everything with water and can continue.

I shaped my base as a little hill and textured it using my homemade toothpick tool (see picture), a brush tool and sandpaper. You can also just use a regular toothpick and for example an old toothbrush. 

When you texture something with several tools always use the one that makes the biggest marks first and then move onto the smaller ones. This makes it more natural.

Now cover the tree itself.

For that I rolled out a  sheet of clay and then cut thin strips to wrap around the tree. This probably doesn't work with all brands of air-dry clay. If it doesn't, simply take small pieces of clay and push them on your tree to cover it up.

It worked fine with my clay, so I wrapped around the strips on the trunk up to the branches and even the little twigs. Only the spirals have to be left as they are. This wrapping technique helps distributing the clay evenly and is a very fast and easy way to do this. 

On the very small twigs it was sometimes better to roll a little sausage, stick it on there and then roll it until it covered the wire completely and looked like a tree twig.

Afterwards you need to smooth out all of the lines that appeared through the wrapping. If you use air-dry clay this can be done very easily with water and your fingers or with a flat tool. 

It doesn't have to look perfect as it's a tree after all and we will add texture anyway.

Now the texturing. For that I used my toothpick tool first and scraped it carefully down the trunk to create lines. Then I used my wire brush to make finer lines - so again working from big to small. This wire brush is really amazing for creating wood texture because you have all these fine wires next to each other which saves a lot of time compared to a needle tool (which of course you can use instead). I also used it for my faux wood stars.

Once you're happy, let it dry or bake if you're using polymer clay.

You can also bake (some) air-dry clay to quicken the drying process but be prepared to have some or a lot of cracks in the clay as it's not supposed to dry that quickly. 

Of course I couldn't wait and baked it :D

So here is my tree all cracked:

Tutorial Photo Tree

However, this is not a problem. You can add more clay afterwards to fix the cracks. In order to do this, wet the tree (with your spray bottle or your hands) and then take a bit of clay with your fingers and push and smear it into the cracks. You might have to moisten the soft clay too, to make it really smeary and help blend everything together. 

Smooth out any huge bumps (small bumps in the right places give the tree a natural look) and texture the areas where you had to add clay again like we have done before.

Then let everything dry and hope for no more cracks :D

I still had one crack in the middle of the tree as this seems to get a lot of pressure from the top and the bottom. I glued it with super glue.

Of course if you're using polymer clay you probably won't have any cracks.

After drying (or baking) you can give your piece a nice tree colour or even paint it blue or red or anything if you prefer. I usually like my trees natural and painted it a solid brown first including the wire spirals. You might need several coats of paint, especially on the wires as they don't take it as nicely.

The hill got a mixture of green and brown.

Then to highlight the cool texture we have created, I mix some darker brown (or even black) and thin it out a lot with water. I paint this on and make sure it gets in all the little cracks and low spots.

If you haven't thinned it out enough and you get some on high areas you can carefully wipe it away with a paper towel. I also got some paint on my hill when it drippled down but that wasn't a big deal, I just spread his out and used it on the hill as well.

Finally we do some dry-brushing. I mixed a very light brown and wiped my brush on a paper towel so that there was hardly any paint left. Then I lightly went over the tree. This highlights the raised areas and helps to add even more texture. You can also use a bit of green to make the tree look mossy.

Let everything dry completely and seal it with some glaze (especially if you have used air-dry clay) to make it water and scratch proof. Especially the spirals need to be sealed otherwise the paint will scratch away.

Here my final result:

Photo Tree from Air-Dry Clay

Then just shove your photos onto the spirals (the several rings hold the photo tight) and you're done!

Thank you for your attention, I hope you liked this a bit more detailed tutorial. If you did let me know and leave me a comment, and feel free to ask any questions.

See you soon

Tutorial Polymer Clay Friendship Shamballa Bracelets

Hello there,

Today I want to share with you my new version of a very cool friendship bracelet.

Materials:

Polymer clay
Cookie cutter or template of the form you want your charm in
Roller or pasta machine
Blade
Dotting tool or anything else to carve your design
Acrylic paint
Glaze
Cord
Lighter

Tutorial Clay Charm

First roll out your clay in the colour of your choice and cut out three pieces of your desired shape using a cookie cutter or a template you made from paper. I chose an oval form. They need to be as identical as possible as they will make one charm.



Here I smoothed them out, so they look neat.

In one of them you will need to cut two lines horizontally and remove the clay in the middle to create a sort of channel for the string to go through later. This is the middle part of the bead.
On another of the three pieces you start tracing your design. You can try it out on paper first if you're unsure. I chose to write monograms and then draw something the person who will wear it likes. In my case birds and music notes. You can indent your design with a needle tool, dotting tool or even a toothpick but I found that a thin dotting tool worked best as the clay didn't tear this way but was pushed aside leaving clean edges.

Once you are happy with your work you can assemble the charm.
Put the third cut out piece on your work surface, stick the middle parts on there, so that you have a small valley and then put the part with your design on top facing upwards.
This way you have created a hole large enough to fit three strings in there.
Now you can either smooth out the clay on the sides or cover them with some more clay to give it a smooth look.


Stick a toothpick inside the hole to make sure it doesn't collapse.

Bake the charm according to the instructions on your clay package on a piece of paper.

You can also roll beads from clay for your bracelet. Either for knotting them into the bracelet or just for the ends.

I was to keep it simple and so I only made some for the ends using red clay.
Evenly roll out some clay and use a small cookie cutter or a lid to cut even portions. This way all the beads have the same size. Roll the cut-out pieces in your hands until you have an evenly round ball and carefully pierce it with a toothpick. Bake them on paper.

After baking the charm I painted the indented areas black and let it dry. Then with a q-tip and nailpolish remover I carefully rubbed of the raised areas to remove the black that had gotten on there accidentally.

I glazed the charms and beads afterwards.

Then you need to start knotting your bracelet.
The frugal crafter has a very nice tutorial on this which is very detailed and easy to follow :)
So watch it and come back :)

You can add some beads every few knots or just knot until you reach where you want the middle and then add your created charm. You do this by feeding all three strings through your charm and pulling tight.
Then you just continue knotting. It doesn't matter with which string you start to knot again. It will look amazing anyway :)

I have done a bracelet before were I inserted eyepins at the sides of the charm. This seems easier when creating the charm itself but it will give you trouble while knotting because you'll have the strings behind the charm which also doesn't make it as pretty. Also it fell apart this week and I have to fix it... So trust me, this is the better way ;)

Finish off by putting your created beads at the ends of the bracelet so the closure doesn't come off and make a knot. Burn the ends with a lighter so the knots don't come loose and you're done.
Remember make two if you want them to be friendship bracelets ;)

Polymer Clay Friendship Shamballa Bracelets

You can make them for you and your friend or give both as a gift. Or just make one for yourself. Whatever you like.

I made them for my brother and his girlfriend. They wanted something plain but nice and they really like how the bracelets turned out. For myself it would have been a lot more colourful and floral ;D

I hope you liked this and you could follow my instructions. Leave me a comment if you did and your questions if anything was unclear.

See you soon

DIY Colourful Snails Polymer Clay

Hey guys :)

today I want to tell you how to make some colourful snails. You can use them to decorate your home or for example as a gift for someone.

I had these pretty shells collected over the time and I really wanted to turn them into something cool.


Some of them I painted lines and dots on in complementary colours. For the very small dots I used dotting tools (you can get those really cheap on ebay, for nail art)

I rolled out some clay in nice colours that go with the shells and started forming the snail. For that I simply rolled a sausage and rolled it thinner on one side so that tapered into a point. This is the 'tail'.

For the antenna on the head I took my fingers and sort of pinched the clay a couple of times in various angles at the top of the head, on both sides to produce these antenna. You can alsoe add the antenna from seperate clay but using my way you make sure that they are secure and don't fall off. I did the same below the first ones to make the smaller antenna.

Then I pressed the shell into the body, removed it again, added liquid clay and put them back. You can also glue them on after baking if you don't have liquid clay but make sure you press them in once for the indents.

That's it, here are the ones with painted houses:

Polymer Clay Snails with Painted Houses

I also left some houses unpainted because I wanted to make a bit more colourful bodies. To achieve a kind of marbellised effect use complementary coulours of clay like greens and yellows or reds and oranges and roll them into snakes. They don't have to be the same thickness and number. The thicker you make the snakes of one colour the more dominant this one will be. Then put the snakes together randomly forming a sort of log. Roll the log on your work surface with your hand to make it longer, then fold the ends together and roll it again. Do this as often as you like until you have your desired effect.

After that roll out your snail as above. The pinching of the antenna also helps in preserving the pattern here. Otherwise it would look cut off.

Here are the marbellised snails:

Polymer Clay Marbellised Snails

I hope you liked this small DIY. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions in the comments and tell which snails you like best :)


See you soon

Medieval Clay Crafts

Hello there :)

I wanted to share with you my middle ages inspired crafts. I made all of them for my brother because he loves these kind of things :)

Last year I first created a castle pen which was inspired by sandrartes who made this amazing castle bottle I fell in love with. I changed the project a bit and made a pen.
You can take out the refill if it's empty.

Here it is:

Polymer Clay Castle Pen

If you do this, make sure everything is oven-safe. To avoid melting plastic I always make some pen cylinders. I either use air-dry clay which I wrap around the refill, let it dry, take the refill out and then cover the air-dry clay with my design. What works even better for me is bending a strip of metal into a cylinder and then covering this.
I can make a tutorial on creating a whole pen if you like :) Let me know.

To go with this I later made pen holder from air-dry clay.
For that you need something to put underneath so it doesn't collapse. I used a Pringles container which didn't work out so great as it has this little rim at the bottom which makes it almost impossible to remove without breaking it (it did break...) It's probably better to use a jar underneath but you should put a piece of paper between the clay and the glass so that it's easier to remove. And make sure that the glass isn't bigger at the bottom. Otherwise, you won't be able to remove your piece at all.

I got the idea from Pinterest where they made Clay Castles around paper towel tubes. However, as I wanted a pen holder, mine needed to be thicker. The Website shows how to make the castles very easily.

Here is my creation. I painted it grey after drying and added some brown and green as well to make it look old and mossy.

Clay Castle Pen Holder

For this Christmas I then made a dragon plate for my brother where he can put in his keys or any other small 'treasures'.
I created the plate from air-dry clay with the help of a deep glass plate to help it keep its shape. I rolled out some clay, put it on the plate, trimmed it to size and added decorations using sheets of stamped clay which gives it these pretty patterns. I also added some decorations with polymer clay, it takes the stamps much better. After painting everything, you can't tell the difference. I painted it a bronze colour and added black in the deep areas to make it look old and weathered.

The dragon was made from black polymer clay. I shaped the body and added the head and legs. I had some problems with positioning the legs. It looked really weird at first and then I realised, I had the wrong angle and corrected it. I textured it using a wood carving tool to make all of these scales, added the eyes and with my finger i carefully brushed on gold pigment to highlight the raised areas.
I placed it on the plate and baked it. Then I added details like horns and claws with Liquid Fimo and put gold on those, too.

Here he is on his plate:

Clay Dragon Plate

He even already guards a little gold treasure :)

Clay Dragon Plate

Let me know in the comments what else I could create that is medieval :)

See you soon

DIY Cat Zentangle

Hello again and happy New Year :)

Today I want to show you my first Zentangle piece. I'm not really a great painter or anything but after watching some amazing videos by Ashley Picanco and Jessie Chou I decided to give it a try. I don't know if I mentioned it before but I have a cat, her name is Frieda. As I already have some amazing art of my old cat created by my friend, I thought it would be time to add some pictures of our new family member. So I made a cat Zentangle.
It wasn't as hard as I thought to be honest but I also cheated a little ;)
So I think you can recreate it easily :)

At first I chose some pictures of Frieda where she looks into the camera and made some sketches. As I said I'm not really good at drawing, so I cheated. I resized them on my computer and traced the outline of the cat faces in pencil, at first on a very small scale. Then I used a marker to trace them in black. I then practiced and filled in the first cat face with patterns.

Here are my first attempts:

sketches for my zentangle drawing

I decided that the first face looked best and therefore chose to use this one for my drawing.

This is the photo I used. Look at her, isn't she cute? :)

our cat Frieda

I enlarged the photo on my laptop and traced it again on a larger scale that would fit my frame.

Here is my drawing in pencil. I hope you can see:

I then drew some lines like I did above in my sketch to divide the face into sections. I tried to use the natural lines in her face.

Then I filled in the sections with patterns. After watching all of the Zentangle videos by Jessie (ZentangleWithJessie) and Ashley (Zentangle For Beginners) I had practiced the patterns I liked in my sketch book to use them for projects later on.

Here an example of my sketches:

zentangle practice

I then used my favourite patterns in my drawing. Here I cheated again (of course :D) and drew everything in pencil at first. I know that real Zentangle artists are not supposed to do that but since I'm not really spontaneous when ist comes to those things and since it's my drawing after all I did it in pencil first. After that I traced everything again with a black pen and made the outline of the cat a bit darker.

And here is the final result.
I really like how it turned out, it's exactly how I wanted it :) I was even allowed to put it up on the wall :D

Zentangle Frieda

Leave me a comment of what you think if you like :)

See you soon