national winners and a clay craft

So remember that business trip I told you about last week? Well, I'm not some CEO for a major corporation or anything (as I am only in high school), the trip was actually for a school organization I'm in called FBLA, or Future Buisiness Leaders of America (and I'm also the newly elected vice president for FBLA at my school!). I was competing in desktop publishing category and made it past the regional and state levels, so I got to attend this National Leadership Conference. Here, I had to attend workshops, meetings, socials, and my competition. I competed once more to try to place in the top ten in the nation, and I did it! (Well, me and my team member did it!) We made ninth place! I am beyond excited about it!

ps. Incase you don't know what desktop publishing is, it's basically like graphic design. You create documents, like fliers, brochures, advertisements, etc..., for companies.

So, to celebrate, I made a craft tutorial! It has absolutely nothing to do with FBLA/desktop publishing, it's just a fun craft to do!

You will need clay, a circle template, an exacto knife, and something to poke holes with (haha, I don't know what this tool is called). I used paperclay, which is air-dry clay, but you could use sculpey too and bake it instead.

Using your hands, press out the clay so it's a thin sheet (1/8th to 1/4th inch thickness if you must be exact). I didn't want mine perfectly smooth (I like the handmade look) but you could roll it out if you want it all even. Use your template to cut out circles from the clay. (Or another shape if you choose)

You can smooth out the edges or leave them if you want. I like the rough edges (again with the handmade look) so I left them.

If you want to make tags, poke a hole in only the top. If you want to make a bracelet, make two holes across from each other.

Make lots and let them dry. It's been so hot here (90°-100°!) that I set them outside for a couple hours while I was out by the pool and they dried really fast.

Then paint them!

Use them as tags to tie around a package to make it pretty!

I made this bracelet by painting them a light blue and writing quotes wth a pen. I put gold glitter on the edges. Tie each of the pieces together with elastic string.

Have fun! ♥