Snowball Ornament

Hello, Ann here from the Creative Paperclay® Design Team and the blog: Annmakes.  Today I have a fun altered project for you.  Here it is:

To make this glittery snowball tree ornament I actually rescued a broken tacky christmas decoration from last year.  By itself the gold plastic ball looks, well, blah.  It was part of a very nicely decorated gift wrapping, once upon a time.  Now, it was going into the bin or I was going to save it and transform it into a usable ornament for a Christmas Tree.

So, I started with this gold plastic ball.  I covered it with Delight™ and purposely left the bumps so it would look more like a real icy snowball.  The kind you make on a wet snowy day.  Yes, here in Canada we have names for the several varieties of snow we get.  LOL.

I also made a new hook by inserting half of a paperclip into the top part and secured that with a dab of glue.

Once the Delight was dry I covered the top part of the snowball with some shiny sealer that already has a golden glitter incorporated into it.

Once the sealer dried I glued on some acrylic snowflake table scatter, a piece of gold ric-rack and a bow.

Finally, I strung a piece of ribbon through the hook to hang the snowball from the tree's branch.

I hope that you are inspired to make some ornaments or other winter decorations of your own.

Supplies used:
Repurposed tacky gold ball/decoration (my own)
Paperclip (Staples)
Ric-Rac in gold (my stash)
Acrylic snowflakes (my stash)
Piece of white and gold cord (my stash)
Glitter Mod Podge (Plaid)
Glue (Tombow)
Delight™ (Creative Paperclay®)

Please stop by my blog at: http://annmakes.blogspot.com some time and check out my other projects.

Thank you for stopping by.  Happy Holidays.

Tip Time

Hello, it's Ann from The Design Team and from Annmakes with a quick tip.  Did you know that Creative Paperclay® is very much like paper when it cures!  Well, if you make it thin it can be cut with scissors.

 I love doing this when working on a project, and then finishing off the piece to make it look like hard clay or marble, even metal.  You can use this Creative Paperclay® to achieve so many faux finishes.

So, back to the paper quality.  Not only can you cut Creative Paperclay® with scissors, or a craft knife, but you can also punch holes right through it with a regular hand held paper hole punch!  How neat is that?  Imagine all the possibilities.

In a previous post I talked about how you can color on Creative Paperclay® just like you can on paper. I have used many different mediums to color my projects from: colouring pencils,

crayons, pastels, paints, inks etc.

The properties of this awesome product are, well, awesome!  Once Creative Paperclay® dries it is so light weight and easy to alter into just about anything your heart desires.  Go on give it a try.
To see more of my other projects visit my blog at:  http://annmakes.blogspot.com.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hooliday Gift Tags

Hello, it's Ann here today with an early Holiday Season How to for you.  I hope you like my Hooting Owl Tags!

So these tags are made from Creative Paperclay®.   First you roll out some of the Creative Paperclay® on a non stick surface.

Then using a template that you can make or already have, trace and cut the clay.

Let each clay tag dry thoroughly.

Using any stamp and some ink, stamp on the desired image and saying.  Let dry.

Colour the image with colouring pencils.  If you would like you can use some dimensional paint for the pom pom and fluffy brim of the hat.

To make these tags hangable just make holes at the top with a regular paper hole punch.

Cover the tag with clear glitter, and add chunky gold glitter to the edges.

Now you have some really cute tags to use on gifts and that can be used as ornaments.

I hope that you are inspired to make some handmade gifts this year.

Thank you for stopping by.  Please visit my blog at : http://annmakes.blogspot.com to see more of my projects.

The supplies used in this project:
Creative paperclay®
Pretty Pearls 3D Paint by Craft Medley
Faber Castell Art Grip Colouring Pencils
Stamps Owl For You BMC 0025 from Spiced Sunshine Stamps
Tag Template from Arnold Grummer
Stamping Ink in Black from Ranger
Chunky Glitter Glue in Gold Craft Medley
Golde Crochet yarn (my stash)

How To Save Some Time

Hello, it is Ann here today with a quick tip.  I like to have "play" sessions where I pull out some Creative PaperClay® and my box of moulds and just make a whole batch of embellishments.  It is fun, therapeutic, and gives me some extra time.  It is kind of like Batch Cooking!  Except I call it Batch Claying!

Working this way gives me some extra time to focus on other aspects of my projects , and also means I have some ready made embellishments to just add to my creations.

By working in Batches I make a mess once, and clean up only once too.

I let my clay embellishments dry over night.  The following day I just gather up my pretties and store them in a container, to be used at a later date.

Just a quick tip to save you some time.  I hope that you find this useful and enjoy making more projects.  For more tips and How To's, please come over to my blog at:  http://annmakes.blogspot.com.

Thank you for stopping by.

"A" is for Apple

Today's How To is about making some Apple Ornaments for your favourite teacher!

Hi, it's Ann (from the blog at:  www.annmakes.blogspot.com) here today to share with you my latest Creative Paperclay® Project.  I was inspired by the Back To School Theme.  I still have one Teenager who is attending a new to him school this year, and with that came a lot of excitement and anxiety.  Now that the house is just a little bit more quiet and things are starting to calm down, I found some time and thought I would get a head start on some School Theme Ornaments.  Here is what I did:

First I dug out one of my kids' old plasticine making molds that looks like an apple.  I dusted the inside with some talcum powder, pushed in some Creative Paperclay® Modeling Material, and popped the apple piece out.  I repeated the process over and over to make a few apples.  

As the Creative Paperclay ® was air drying I inserted a paperclip into the back of each apple.

Once the apples were dry I smoothed out any roughness with an emery board, and I brushed off the excess dust.  I then Painted the apples in Red, and in Green.  I made some brown for the stems by mixing some red and green together and then painted the stems. 

As a final top coat I brushed on some Glossy Sealer.

I used some red and white twine for the small bows and as cords for hanging the apples.

The supplies I used:

Creative Paperclay® Modeling Material

DecoArt Crafter's Acrylics in Christmas Red, and Christmas Green

DecoArt Glue, Sealer, Finish in Gloss

Twine (Stash)

Paper clips from Staples

This is a fun and easy project that can be done with children.  I hope that you are inspired to make some fun ornaments.  To see other crafty goodies please come visit my blog at : http://annmakes.blogspot.com.

Thanks for stopping by.

Coloring Creative Paperclay®

Hi, it's Ann here today from Annmakes and the CP Design Team with a quick and fun tip for you.  Did you know that you can use colouring pencils to colour the dry Creative Paperclay®?  Well, yes you can.  Isn't that just wonderful?  I think it is.

So, I have been playing with my pencils and some embellishments I made a while back.  I like to make embellishments and pieces to use in my mixed media in quantity so I am ready to go when I want to make a larger piece of Mixed Media, especially a canvas.  I went and coloured a dolphin, starfish and a fish.  I found that by using wooden coloured pencils on the dry clay (CP) pieces smoothed out any of the rough texture of the clay.  It reminded me of soap stone when I was done colouring.  I also noticed a pearl like finish once I was done colouring, and I found that to be very cool!

Furthermore, after rolling out a piece of Creative Paperclay® and letting it air dry, I used some Archival ink and a stamp on the clay .  It stamped just like on paper.  I then used my coloured pencils to colour in the image and it worked beautifully.

That's my tip for today, I hope that I have inspired you to look at your own art supplies in a new way and encourage you to give it a try.  Thank you for stopping by.

Ann from the blog at: http://annmakes.blogspot.com.

Sticky Tip

Hello, I m Ann from The Design Team here at the Creative Paperclay® Blog  Design Team, I also have a blog at : http://annmakes.blogspot.com.  Today I have this fun tip to share.


Did you know that Creative Paperclay® sticks very well to chipboard and card board?  Well, I have tried it several times and it has worked well for me.  I have turned flat chipboard into dimensional embellishment by adding and sculpting Creative Paperclay®.

I found that by adding generous amounts of clay that go over the edge of a flat piece and spritzing with a bit of water  ensures success.  Once the project piece is dry then it can be enhanced in anyway. My preferred method is to use acrylic paints.  Such projects tend to be very light weight also making it easy to adhere them to a lot of surfaces: paper, card, and canvas especially.

So go through your own collection of forgotten chipboard pieces, or die cut some cardboard and transform them into clay embellishments.  Have fun!

Thank you for stopping by today.  Don't forget to pop over to my blog and see what other things I have to share.  I am here.

Supplies:
Creative Paperclay®
Chipboard pieces (from my stash)
Acrylic paints by DecoArt®

Tip Time: How to fix...

Hi, it's me, Ann , from the Creative Paperclay® Design Team and the blog Annmakes (http://annmakes.blogspot.com).  Today I want to share with you how I was able to salvage some of my crafting mishaps with Creative Paperclay® and turn them into WOW projects!

I sometimes make batches of embellishments to have ready for any project planned or impromptu.  I was looking in my collection and noticed that several of my pieces looked less than appealing.  I was a bit bummed about that and I thought well what if.... and I have nothing to lose anyways...

So here I had this piece which had warped in the drying process, and the corner was chipped, and then it cracked when I tried to flatten the warps.  Normally, this would be discarded but that stubborn streak in me said, try something!  So I tried spritzing the piece with some water and patiently (important part) applied pressure to slowly yet surely flatten the piece.

Some water, a lot of patience, some heavy weight and we are off to the races.  Well at least to my work table.  I also took it a step further and added a generous coat of Decou-Page (glue and sealer) to the back and covered it with a scrap of scrapbook paper.  I find this gives the whole piece a sturdier base.

Once all the repairs were done my piece was ready to be decorated and used in a project.
My goal here is to show you that  sometimes what we see as a failure might actually turn out ok, and even great, with a little or a lot of patience.

Enjoy this tip and all the other tips, how to's and ideas my team mates and I have for you here on this blog.  Come see how I handle other crafty situations over at my blog.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Art Doll

Hi, it's Ann here today with a new project, a Creative Paperclay® Doll.  I call her Wanda and she tends to get lost just like Waldo!

I am pleased to say that Wanda is made with some recycled pieces such as an empty pill bottle, some foil, and a new styrofoam ball.  Here she is:

To make her I started with the head which is essentially a styrofoam ball covered with a layer of clay. I rolled out several different sizes of balls to make the eyes, nose, lips, and ears.

I used a spray bottle filled with some water to adhere the pieces of rolled clay together.

The body of the doll is an empty pill bottle that I also covered in clay.

I formed the clay into a cup shape at the top.  By crumpling up foil I was able to insert that into the cup part to solid the neck and shoulder part.

I attached the head to the clay over the foil neck with extra rolled coils of clay and water.
I also usem spritzes of water to smooth out the doll as much as possible.

Once Wanda was dry I used a sanding sponge and some Sandits tools to even out any rough edges.

I used a collection of craft paints to colour Wanda.

For her hair I used ribbon and a hot glue gun.

Supplies:
Creative Paperclay® Modelling Material
Empty pill bottle (from recycling bin)
Styrofoam ball (Dollar tree)
Aluminum foil (Recycled pieces from my kitchen)
Sandits (thank you)
Acrylic Craft Paints "Craft Decor" from Multi Crafts:  Christmas Red, White, Flesh.
Pigma Micron pens in black and green.
Brown Ribbon Stamping' Up!

To look and find where Wanda has gone please stop by my blog : http://annmakes.blogspot.com, and try to spot her!  Also stop by for more FREE project how to's.

Thank you for stopping by today!

Tip Time With Ann

Tips for working and saving some money.  Hi, I am Ann and today I wan't to share a few tips on how  I and you can save some money on some of the materials and even tools that help in working with Creative Paperclay®.

I like to shop for disposable tools and some materials in stores other than the traditional craft stores.  For one, the good craft stores are at least a 45 minute drive away for me and I do not get out to them as much as I would like too.  I have found  that while running errands and shopping for my family and household some pretty neat and inexpensive materials at dollar stores.  Here are just a few of my recent finds:

A rotating cupcake decorating stand (to allow me to spin my project as I work)
Cellophane wrap (to wrap on the cupcake stand to keep it clean, note: not shown in this picture,  and to wrap around the clay to keep it from drying out)
Aluminum foil (used as a form upon which I add the clay and build a project)
Toothpicks (to hold different parts of the project together)
Travel size spray bottle (to fill with water)
Soft sanding block (for sanding)
Small size plastic cutting boards (to hold and transport projects around my studio)
Cuticle stick (to smooth and make markings).
Paint brush ( for dusting off sanding residue)

I hope that you too find some inexpensive and  useful materials and tools at your local dollar store and then have enough money to purchase good quality Creative Paperclay®!

Thanks for dropping by today.  Please visit my blog (http://annmakes.blogspot.com)
where I go into more details of ways I make and save money while making things!

***Thank you to "Sandits" ( http://shop.sandits.com) for their wonderful sanding sticks.

Roses

Hello, Ann here today from the AnnMakes blog over at http://annmakes.blogspot.com, and for the Design Team here at Creative Paperclay®.  I tried something new to me recently and I liked it so I am sharing it with all of you!

I tried using the Creative Paperclay® to add dimension to a canvas with a stencil.  Guess what?  It worked.  So here it is.

I painted the canvas with some acrylic  paint and let it dry.  I used a thick plastic stencil of a rose and spread the Creative Paperclay®over it.  I made sure that the clay did not overlap the edges of the stencil and I took the time to press down on the clay to make sure it was sticking to  the canvas.  I gently removed the stencil by using a sharp edge tool to keep the clay from staying stuck to the inside rides of the stencil.  I let the Creative Paperclay® air dry completely over night.

The following day I sanded the the rose with "Sandits" sanding sticks, blew off any dust and then painted.  To colour the rose I used Twinkling H2O water color luminescent paints by "Colourate".

I wrote out a quote, inked the edges with distress inks, and adhered with gel medium.

Products used:
Creative Paperclay® air dry modelling material http://www.paperclay.com
Canvas
Acrylic Paint
Gel Medium
Ink
Sandits (sanding sticks) http://shop.sandits.com
Water colors, H2O's Twinkling by Colourarte www.colourarte.com
in: Pretty Peridot, Wild Vine, Coral Berry, Poppy Red, Sunset Glow, and Peppermint Taffy.

I hope I have inspired you to look at this wonderful medium in a new way.  Have fun making your own creations.  Please come by my blog to see what other projects I am into.

Thank you for stopping by.

Colouring Clay

Hi, it's Ann from the Creative Paperclay® Design team and the blog AnnMakes (at http://annmakes.blogspot.com).  My tip for you today is about colouring your air drying Creative Paperclay® Modelling Material.

When working with Creative Paperclay® and embedding items I like to make sure that the parts of the clay that will show up and around the edges of the items blend in with the rest of the piece.  One way I have found this to work is by colouring the Creative Paperclay® in advance.  I measure how much of the Modelling Material I will need for my project and then I add a generous amount of acrylic paint in the desired colour to the clay.  I knead until the colour is well mixed.  I found that a little paint will give a light colour and more paint gives, well, more colour!  Also the amount of kneading will dictate how well distributed the colour gets.  I like to achieve a marble look by kneading it moderately.  I have also found that adding paint to the air drying Creative Paperclay® gives me a bit more time to manipulate it.

Try it out, you may enjoy the process and the outcome too!

Thanks for stopping by today.  Please, come visit my blog for other handy dandy tips and tutorials. (http://annmakes.blogspot.com)

Lucky Clover

Hi, it's Ann from annmakes and the Design Team here at Creative Paperclay® with my newest project:

It is intended to be inserted into a plant to give as a present.  It would also make a great prop to hold over someone's head while taking a picture!

To make this, here is what I used:

Creative Paperclay® modeling material
Craft acrylic paint in green (Plaid)
Micro glass beads in gold and green (Dollar store)
Chop stick (recycled from take out)
Brown ribbon (recycled from gift)
Green foamy clover (Dollar store)
Plastic green Leprechaun hat (recycled cake decoration)
Glue (Tombow)

1.  Mix a handful of Creative Paperclay® with a generous amount of green acrylic paint.  the moisture from the paint will allow you to have more time to work with the clay.  Now the white Creative Paperclay® is a mottled green.

2. You will need a mould in the shape of a hat.  I used a former cake topping decoration, I have also seen very similar ones at the Dollar Stores. Set aside a small ball worth of the new green mottled clay. Fill the mould with the green Creative Paperclay® and smooth it down.  Let it set for a while.

3.  Once the product is slightly harder gently tap the newly formed hat out of the mould.

4.  With the amount of green Creative Paperclay® set aside, use that to adhere the chop stick to the back of the hat.

5.  Cover the hat with the glass micro beads, pressing them down into the clay.  Let this dry overnight.

6.  Take one of the self sticking foam clovers, remove the backing exposing the sticky side.  Cover the clover with some gold glass micro beads.

7.  Once the hat is dry glue the ribbon and clover to the hat with a strong glue.

I had fun making this project and I hope you will enjoy working with this fabulous air drying Creative Paperclay®.  Thank you for stopping by.  Please stop at my blog and check out my other projects (http://annmakes.blogspot.com).