Game Pieces

Recently, we were at a beach house on vacation.  Unfortunately, it was a rainy day so we were stuck inside.  There were plenty of games at the beach house but the Backgammon game we wanted to play had no pieces.  Where they went we had no clue but in order to play we needed the games pieces and a set of dice.  What do you do when you are a crafty mom and you don’t have what you need?  Well, you make it.  I just happened to have some Makin's Clay® and tools with me so I could work on some projects.  I rolled out the clay, cut out the pieces, made a pair of dice and we were ready to play!

Flower Pendant Earrings

Did you check out my Makin's Clay Flower Pendant on the Makin's Clay Blog?  Well, these are the earrings that I made to go with the necklace.  It's nice to have a matching set.

To make the earrings I followed the directions on how to make the flower pendant except I made two smaller pendants.

The only things I did different were:

1)  I used the medium size Makin's Clay oval cutter for the background piece
2)  To create the smaller pendants I used a smaller portion (one flower and a few leaves) of one of the flower arrangements on the Makin's Clay Hearts Push Mold

I put everything together with matching pearl beads and earring findings.  Another easy, fun project!

Makin’s Clay® Bow made with the Bow Genius™

Recently, I received a Bow Genius™ from Offray®.  With a Bow Genius™ you can make all sorts of bows, big and small.  Of course, bows are normally made from fabric ribbon.  Not mine!  I love making my bows from Makin’s Clay®.  Why?  Well, they are easy and fun to make, they keep their shape, and I can decorate them. 

I simply ran Makin’s Clay® through the Makin’s Professional® Ultimate Clay Machine from the largest setting down to the #7 setting to make a 36” ribbon.  I impressed the strip with the Makin’s® Stripes Texture sheet to make the clay look more like ribbon and then trimmed the sides with scissors.  I made the bow by following the directions for making a 4 Loops Tail Down Bow (found on YouTube), added crystals for decoration, and then a hair clip to the back to turn it into a cute hair bow.    

Check out my Treat Container project which can be found on the Makin’s Clay® blog for another example of what I used a clay bow for!

Makin’s Clay® Faux Ceramic Four Leaf Clover Pin and Earrings

For my last Makin’s Clay® project I created a Faux Ceramic Pendant which can be found on their blog.  I really enjoyed mixing and matching Makin’s Clay® cutters and texture sheets with different colors of Tim Holtz® Adirondack® Alcohol Ink mixed with JudiKins Diamond Glaze™.  Since St. Patrick’s Day is coming up, I decided I would re-visit the first project I designed as a Makin’s Clay® Design Team member, St. Patrick’s Day 4-Leaf Clover Pin, and make a pin with a faux ceramic appearance. 

 

I followed the instructions in the Makin’s Clay® Four Leaf Clover Pin project up to the point where the three clovers and the base were made.  Then, I followed the steps in the Makin’s Clay® Faux Ceramic Pendant project to mix the alcohol inks and glaze and paint the tinted glaze on the clovers, finishing up by following the directions to put the pin together. 

 

Of course, after I finished with the pin, I had to make matching earrings by following the directions in the St. Patrick’s Day 4-Leaf Clover Earrings project.

Bottle of Hope

 

The challenge for the Makin’s Clay® Design Team this month was to create a Bottle of Hope.  What is a Bottle of Hope?   

Bottles of Hope are small glass bottles covered with polymer clay and given to cancer patients. They symbolize a wish and a hope for health.  This project was started in 1999 by a Rhode Island cancer survivor and has spread internationally. Bottles are made by artists, students, survivors, seniors and many more who volunteer their time and love.   Learn more about this worthwhile project, see a gallery of many creative bottles and more here on their website. 

 I wanted to create a bottle with bright colors so I picked colors from Makin’s Clay® Multi Neon Pack.  I used a plastic bottle.  Because Makin’s Clay® is an air-dry clay, plastic is okay!  No baking involved.

 

I simple covered the bottle with orange clay and textured it with the sand texture sheet from Makin’s® Set A Texture SheetSet.  I cut flower petals from the yellow clay using the two smallest teardrop shaped Kemper cutters; six petals for the larger flowers and five for the smaller ones.  I bent them around a needle tool to give them shape.  They were glued together then crystals were added to the center of each.  I did the same for the leaves from the green clay; two for the big flowers and one for each of the small flowers.  I also made extra leaves to go on the flower stem which I extruded from the green clay.  The stem was glued to the bottle first then the flowers and leaves.

CHA Mega Conference and Trade Show 2016

 

Last week I had the opportunity to check off an item on my bucket list which was to attend a Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) Mega Conference and Trade Show.  Many years ago I would watch the Carol Duvall Show and every year she would film from CHA.  It always looked like a neat event to attend.  It definitely was!

Picture by Marie Segal

I arrived at the airport in Anaheim, California on Friday and immediately met up with my Makin’s Clay® Design Team Leader, Cindy Bisson McGee, at the airport.  We took our shuttle to the hotel, dropped off our luggage, and were out the door to meet Tom Volz from Makin’s Clay®.  He gave us a ride to the convention center where our whirlwind week began. 

I must admit, since I knew nothing about what to expect, I stuck to Cindi soaking up any information she deemed important enough to share.  When she was too busy with duties where I couldn’t follow, I walked the convention center floor.  There were booths and booths of wonderful craft products.  Beads, paper, glue, bow makers, paints, stickers, die cuts, ribbon, pens, books, flowers; the list goes on and on.  Basically, if you could craft with it, it was there. 

Picture by Marie Segal

I got to meet some of the other Makin’s Clay® Design Team members, Candice Windham, Irit Shalom, and Steph Ackerman.  We were all pleasantly surprised to receive a Makin’s Clay® Professional certification for learning and performing a variety of skills using the Makin’s Clay® and Makin’s tools.  Along with Cindi, we all took turns working in the Makin’s Clay® booth teaching different make and take projects each day (projects attendees could make at the booth and take with them so they could try some of the manufacturers’ products).  

 

Bow Genius

In my free time, I could also walk around and do make and takes at other booths.  I visited the Berwick Offray LLC booth twice because their product was not only fun but easy to use.  Their product was the Bow Genius™.   I made a diaper cupcake topped with a bow and a patriotic wand.  Both projects used the Bow Genius in different ways.  I would love to see what I could do with Makin’s Clay® and the Bow Genius™.  I’m pretty sure I could make a clay bow with it!

 

When I got home, my daughter saw the diaper cupcake I had made with the pretty pink bow on top and said, ‘What did you make THAT for?’  Lol, I told her not to worry and that she would be my only baby.  I was glad to be home with my family but also glad that I could cross ‘Attend a CHA Convention’ off my list.  I had a great time and would seriously think about going again next year to the convention in Pheonix, Arizona.

 

 

 

 

 

Met Emi Fukushima from the Carol Duvall Show!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Makin's Clay Napkin Ring

Need some quick and easy napkin rings?  Makin’s Clay® is just for you!

 

Use Makin’s Clay® Push Molds Christmas Nature and Floral and white Makin’s Clay®.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For each napkin ring make one big poinsettia from the Christmas Nature mold and three leaves from the Floral Mold.

 

 

 

 

 

Wrap a strip of clay around an oval cutter (or an empty toilet paper roll) to make the napkin ring band.

 

 

 

 

 

After everything has dried, cover with burnt umber oil paint and immediately rub off to antique them.

 

 

 

 

 

Add a dab of red oil paint to a paper towel and rub on the poinsettia.  Do the same with yellow oil paint for the center of the flower.  Apply green oil paint to the leaves.

 

 

 

 

I added red, yellow, and green glitter for a little sparkle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glue the leaves to the flower.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glue the flower to the napkin ring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add your napkin and you are ready to go!  Quick and easy.