Once you have a forest full of Christmas trees you need something to decorate them with...That's where sculpey clay comes in. Sculpey clay is pretty much awesome. You can get it in lots of colors, in regular playdoh-esque modeling clay form, in air-dry form, and in my personal favorite: oven bake.
This clay is readily available at your local craft/big box store and the instructions are right on the box...
rolling pin
cookie cutters
paint
ribbon or string for hanging
What you do:
Step one:
Pinch off a good size ball of the clay from the large hunk. We used maybe the top 1/4th of the package.
Step Two:
Enlist your children to do the rolling- it is tough work and you need to not just roll forward and back but press down hard and rock the pin to start flattening the pieces. Flatten so that each piece is about 1/8th to 1/4th inch thick (the package will recommend the size in the baking instructions)
Step Three:
Using your cookie cutters press firmly into the clay, it is easiest to attack this like making cookies, get all the cutters on there like a puzzle so you waste none of the clay. OR cut one by one and reroll the extra clay pieces to make a new flat disk.
Step Four:
Put all the ornaments on the cookie tray, they don't expand so you can just leave a little space in between. We made snowmen, wreaths, candy canes,presents and sheep with out cutters. We also made some balls for garlands and some backs for earrings.
DON"T FORGET TO POKE HOLES IN THE ORNAMENTS!!
Step Five:
Bake according to package directions, let cool then paint with regular acrylic paint. You can Mod Podge over for a glossier look, or leave as is. String some thread or ribbon through the holes that you didn't forget to poke and hang them up for all to see. We also used some as gift tags on things like teachers' gifts and gifts for the neighbors.
Cost:
Clay: for a pound of clay the cost was roughly $4
Paint: I bought a "group" pack of holiday acrylics on sale at AC MOORE for $1. The pack has 6 sets of 8 colors (including gold and white glitter!) and the regular price was $2.99.
String: I used some leftover yarns I had in my stash.
Total cost: $2 for about 12 ornaments (using only 1/4th of the clay)
2 comments:
have 3 kids under 6 coming over on Saturday (plus mine) - this seems like a great activity. I'm a little nervous now that the sculpey clay I got was not the pretty white that yours is - it's kinda just a boring neutral. Erin
as long as it says oven bake it is fine!- it gets a little unpearly in the oven but the paint covers it up. be prepared to help them flatten it out though!
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