{diy} christmas gift wrapping

My roommates and I had a mini Christmas celebration one night a few weeks ago (not our party, this was just for us). It was a nice break from studying; we played Christmas music, drank hot chocolate, and exchanged gifts. I thought I'd share the gifts I bought and how I wrapped them!


I used the same clay from this tutorial and used a mini gingerbread man cookie cutter to make this little shapes. I used a toothpick to poke holes in their arms.


Once they were dry, I painted them gold and gave them glittery edges.


I had a hard time deciding what to get for my roommates for Christmas. I finally decided to pick out a book for each of them, and pair it with tea and chocolate (because who doesn't love sitting down with a hot cup of tea and a good book during the winter?).


I picked out a different book for each roommate, depending on their personalities and what I thought they would like.


I wrapped the book in kraft paper and painted red polka dots on it (using a pencil eraser). I wrapped the tea and chocolate together in Christmas sheet music that I found online.


I strung the gingerbread men on red and white twine, and wrapped it around the stacked gifts.


Last, I added a tag with their name painted on it and the gifts were finished! My roommates loved their gifts (and their wrapping!). So if you're ever stuck trying to think of a gift to get for somebody, you can never go wrong with a book and yummy treats!

If you'd like to know the books I chose for my roommates, they are:
-Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
-Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
-The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
I've read them all and would definitely recommend them as excellent reads!

I wish everyone lots of love this 24th of December, have a magical Christmas ♥

DIY clay christmas tags

I finished my first semester of college, what!? That just sounds crazy to me, and it all went by so fast. I passed all my finals (all A's, yay!), so to celebrate (and to de-stress from finals week), the first thing I did when I came home was some Christmas crafting!


I made some clay for a project I was working on in my 3D Design class, and I had a little extra leftover. I decided to make some pretty tags for Christmas gifts!


The clay is made out of cornstarch and baking soda. I followed the recipe/tutorial from Twelfth House Studio. I used cookie cutters to make different shapes. I love the texture of this clay, it's really smooth, doesn't crack when it dries, and its pure white color gives you so many options for embellishing.

When my tags were dry, I sanded them a little just to make them a bit more smooth. Then I painted and decorated them!


I used some non-traditional Christmas colors, and I really love how they turned out!


Gold is my favorite accent color (I prefer it over silver any day!), so on a few of my tags I used gold paint to give them gilded edges!










There are so many ways to get creative with these tags, I would love to see what you can come up with if you try them out!

Happy Monday! ♥

flower garden magnets {DIY}

Remember the flower magnets from my last post? They're super easy to make, but I decided to give you the how-to anyway.


I made the flower cabochons with white clay in silicone molds. I bought my molds from MoldMuse on etsy, and they work great. You can bake them in the oven, but since I usually make several cabochons at a time, I have a different technique. After you fill the mold with clay, put it in the freezer for a few minutes until the clay hardens, then you can pull it out without changing the shape and use the mold again!


After you have your flowers made, all you have to do is paint them and glue on a magnet!


These would be so cute to give as a gift if you make a little set of them and wrap them up pretty!


Another idea; instead of magnets, you could glue pushpins or brads to the back of them to make lovely office supplies!

Hope everyone has a great Friday!
Happy Weekend! ♥

Font used in top photo: Birmingham

pastel clay crafts

I pulled out my clay this weekend for the first time in a long time. I forgot how much I love it! I started by making this adorable bow paperclips, following Petit Bretzel's tutorial.


My sister asked my to make her a kitten charm for her bracelet, so I made a super simple (but cute!) kitty. I made an extra one for her to give to her friend.


I attempted to make mini pink macaroons using Pinkanea's tutorial. They're not too hard, and you know how I love anything mini!


Here is everything I made. I have a few molds that I ordered from etsy a few years ago, so I used those to make the flowers and bows at the bottom. And a tip for anyone who uses polymer clay; buy a few inexpensive tiles from a hardware store and you can use them as a surface to craft on and they can go in the oven when you are ready to bake your creations!

Have a wonderful week!

diy mini clay ice cream bowl

I've got another clay tutorial for you! Last time it was cupcakes, this time it's ice cream! It's easier to make then it looks, and all you need are a few basic supplies:

-Clay

-Exacto knife

-Liquid Sculpey

-A marble

-Toothpick

-Corn starch

-Glaze (like Triple Thick)

First, we'll start with the bowl. Roll out a thin sheet of white clay. Dip the marble in a little water and cover it in corn starch (not pictured) and place it on top of the clay. (The corn starch is to keep the clay from sticking to the marble so you can easily release the bowl shape.)

Wrap the clay  around the marble and smooth out the crack and edges.

Use an exacto knife to cut around the middle of the marble and take that clay off. Press the bottom of the marble onto a hard surface so the bottom of the bowl is flat. Wrap a thin coil of clay around the bottom for the base of the bowl. Carefully pull the bowl away from the marble. Smooth out the top edge.

Next, we'll make the ice cream. I mixed light pink, dark pink, and translucent colored clay to get a swirly effect. It makes the ice cream look a bit more realistic. Shape the clay into a ball and press the bottom flat. Use a toothpick to press out the bottom edge. Then use the toothpick to make the edge rough.

I textured the ice cream with a ball of foil. Then I cut small lines on the top with an exacto knife.


Arange the ice cream however you want in the bowl, using liquid sculpey to adhere everything together.. I decorated it with "chocolate syrup" and a cherry. (To learn how to make the chocolate syrup, read the tutorial I did here).

Bake it according to the instructions on your package of clay. Finally, add a coat of glaze, and you're finished! Isn't it cute?

 I'm giving this to my little sister for her to use with her dolls, but you could easily make it into a charm for a necklace by inserting an eye pin before baking.

Have fun making your tiny bowl of ice cream! ♥

cupcake charm tutorial

I did a guest post today on Teacup Monster  with a tutorial on how to make a super cute, clay cupcake charm! Head over there to see the tutorial!

DIY clay envelope necklace

I've been playing around with clay the past couple days, so here is a quick tutorial I came up with for making a clay envelope necklace!

Roll out a thin sheet of white clay.

 Cut a small rectangle out of paper and put it in the middle of the clay sheet. Using an exacto knife, cut triangles around each side. Don't cut out the rectangle. You want to make it an envelope shape. If you want to be exact, print out a tiny envelope template and cut it out of the clay.

 It should look something like this ^^^. Don't worry if it doesn't look perfect, it won't make a huge difference in the end.

Fold it up, poke holes in the top with a toothpick, and bake according to the directions on your package of clay. When it's done, glaze it (I used Triple Thick) and attach jump rings and a string.

 Here's how it looks all finished! I think this would be a perfect gift (especially if you need a quick, last-minute idea) if you put it on a piece of cardstock, wrap it up in tissue paper, and put it in a pretty box.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Friday and great weekend! ♥

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! ♥