Help to Remember the Summer With Your Own Sun Ornament!!!

I love the autumn, but I cannot believe how fast this summer has gone by! I decided to make some ornaments that will remind me of the summer sunshine. I hope these ornaments do the same for you!

What You'll Need
Creative Paperclay
3" Styrofoam Ball
12 gauge jewelry or gardening wire
Butter knife or other sharp object able to cut through styrofoam
Non-stick craft mat
Acrylic paint (not pictured)
Embroidery floss (not pictured)

What To Do
1. Take the styrofoam ball and cut it in half.

2. Take some paperclay and cover one half of the styrofoam ball. Put the other half of styrofoam ball away for another ornament or project. Or, cover both and feel free to make an ornament buddy...like a moon!

3. Add bits of clay to the flat part of the covered styrofoam to build a face. I start with the nose and work my way out. Small dots of clay and teeny tiny snakes of clay work really well for building facial features. I use my fingers for most of the sculpting, but sometimes a toothpick is really helpful in placing tiny features onto a face.

4. Add the sun ornament's "rays" by sculpting 9-12 triangular shapes out of the paperclay. Make sure these pieces have some length so that they can be blended into the back of the sun.

5. Repeat this process until the sun has all of its "rays." If you have fumble fingers or are dislike doing things more than once (like me), then I suggest allowing your sculpted sun's face to dry before continuing with the ray application process. Very often, some of the face will be smooshed and will require a few quick fixes during the ray sculpting process.

IMPORTANT: If you prefer your facial features to dry completely, please skip to step 6 before you pop your ornament in the oven or set in on the windowsill!

6. Take 5 inches of your 12 gauge wire, fold it in half allowing for a loop at the top. Twist the wire and push it into the back of your sun ornament. Make sure it is nice and secure inside the styrofoam. Allow your ornament to dry completely, or pop it in a 225 degree oven for 15-20 minutes. (Every oven is different, keep a very close eye on your ornament or you may have a blown up alien-looking ornament instead!)

7. Once your sculpted ornament is dry, it's time to decorate it! I use acrylic paints...you can use whatever your heart desires!!!

8. Once your sun ornament's paint is dry, take some embroidery floss (or yarn, strong thread, whatever you have on hand) and string your new sun ornament up. I like to hang mine from a ceiling fan or door knob. My sun ornament reminds me of summer all year round! Hope it does the same for you!!!

Paperclay Kitty Doll Tutorial

I love my cat. His name is Wylie, he is two years old, and he is always dressed to impress in his tuxedo. He inspired me to make a kitty doll out of paperclay. Here's how you can make your own!

What You'll Need

Creative Paperclay - about 4 ounces - preferably new, fresh package
Small cup of warm water
Non-stick Craft Pad or Wax Paper Taped on Work Surface
1 Styrofoam Ball - 3" or a 3" Aluminum Foil Ball
6" - 14 gauge jewelry or garden wire
12" - 22 gauge jewelry wire
4 - jewelry head pins, corsage pins, or sewing pins
Wire cutters
Pottery cutting tool or butter knife
Acrylic paint, paint pens, pencil
Matte Spray Varnish

What To Do
1. Start by inserting the 14 gauge jewelry wire into the styrofoam ball. Make sure that you insert the wire a little bit behind center as this will be the doll's neck.

2. Open your package of Creative Paperclay if you haven't already!!!

3. Remove a clump of paperclay and smooth a layer of it over the styrofoam ball. Use the warm water to really smooth it.

4. Sculpt a small cylinder shape and two triangles out of the paperclay for the neck, top half of torso, and bottom half of torso.

5. Insert the small cylinder shape onto the 14 gauge wire below the styrofoam ball and blend the edges in to the head.

6. Add two triangles with the tips touching each other.

7. Dampen fingers and break off small pieces of paperclay to fill in gaps between the cylinder and two triangles. Smooth the clay as you go using slip which simply means that you take a small amount of paperclay, dampen it in your cup of water, and smoothing it between the two body pieces.

8. Insert a pin across the new little body you have created. Create a hole through the top where the shoulders will be, and create a hole through the body where the hips will be. Make sure you work the pin in a circular motion to widen the hole just a bit.

9. Depending on how big you made the doll body parts, you should have at least a 1/2" of wire sticking out of the bottom of the body you just created. Use this to pick the doll body up and place the doll on a clean baking sheet.

10. Bake the doll at 200 degrees for 10-25 minutes. VERY IMPORTANT! Everyone's oven is different...Make sure you closely monitor the baking of this doll body. Check every 5 minutes. Otherwise, you may step away and come back to an alien-looking thing with a blown up and melted styrofoam head!
Paperclay turns white when dry.

11. While the body bakes, you can make the arms and legs. Just don't forget about it!!! :) Roll out a long snake of paperclay. Use water to keep the paperclay moist, workable, and smooth.

Okay, you have lots of room for personal preference with the arms and legs. I tend to make my arms and legs long. Sometimes I make all the limbs the same length, sometimes I make the legs much longer, etc. You want to use a doubled-up cut of 22" gauge wire that is twisted for these parts. This gives the clay a better armature to hold on to and less chance of these delicate appendages from cracking. If you choose to make arms and legs longer than 4 inches, you may want to consider using a heavier gauge wire.

12. Cut wire into two pairs of equal length for the arms and legs so you should have eight separate pieces of wire. Twist equal cuts of wire together. You should now have two arms worth of twisted wire, and two legs worth of twisted wire.

13. Cut snake with of paperclay with butterknife into two arms and two legs.

14. Insert wire through individual snakes of clay and then roll on non-stick craft pad for smooth finish. Use water to further smoothing.

15. For the arms, round one end of the snake for shoulder and flatten the other end for a little hand, or in this case a paw.

16. For the feet, round one end of the snake for hip and form a foot by pinching a little ankle and making a little pointed foot. More clay can also be added to make shoes.

17. Take those pins that you used earlier to create the holes for shoulder and hips and create holes in the four limbs you just made. These holes can be close to pin holes...just make sure you have a little movement in the hole, otherwise your doll limbs won't move easily!

18. Now you can bake your doll limbs! These parts do not take long at all...Bake at 200 degree for 5-7 minutes. Look for that nice, white color that indicates the paperclay is dry.

19. While your doll's arms and legs are baking, determine whether or not you want your doll to have kitty features, puppy features, doll features witht sculpted hair. If you do, this is the time add features to your doll's head.You have full creative control here...Play around with it. The best thing about this step is that wet paperclay can easily be added to dried paperclay...and vice versa. If you don't like what you see, remove the wet paperclay and start again.

20. Once your doll parts are dry, it's time to assemble them. (For this doll, I waited until after the parts were painted before I assembled the doll. Sometimes this is best, especially with dark, contrasting paint!) First, you'll need to cut your pins so that they each fit inside the doll body. It is safe to cut about half of each pin off. Next, thread a pin from through the holes in each limb, and then secure the limb to the body with the pin. Use a drop of superglue inside the body holes, and then add a bit of paperclay to really secure the pin inside the hole. Make sure the limb has a little movement on its post. You can cut off the excess wire off of the body in this step as well. Once you have completed this step, place your assembled doll body into the oven for 2-3 minutes to dry, longer if you have added some hair and features.

21. Congratulations! You now have a blank doll body to paint, detail, dress, and embellish! I typically sew clothes onto my dolls, but you can certainly glue fabric, paper, beads, or any other findings that may interest you! I use a pencil to draw in facial features, and paint pens to design the face and small details.

I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial on making a doll similar to the one pictured above. Please feel free to ask questions and leave comments! I'd love to see your creations as well! Cheers!

I'm on the Creative Paperclay Design Team!!!



Making dolls on our honeymoon - January 2010 - Have dollmakings, will travel!



Hey Everyone,

Simply wanted to let you know that I am now a member of the Creative Paperclay Design Team!!! As a participating member of this great little team, I will be posting two new projects a month for the next six months, complete with pictures and instructions so you can make your own! My projects will also be posted on the Creative Paperclay blog http://creativepaperclay.blogspot.com/. If you are not a follower of this informative and fun blog, please take a moment to add yourself to the followers list. There will be five other artists posting art and craft projects there as well! Be sure to follow those artists too...You'll learn so much from them! I am going to try and make as many of their projects as I can. I'll post my results here!

My first project will be posted on May 14th! Be sure to check back soon however. I have some good things in the works lately as more of my time becomes available for art!!!

 

One last thing for tonight...Thank you Terri Sproul for giving me the opportunity to be a part of the Creative Paperclay Design Team!!! I am sooo excited and feel so very blessed to be a part of this venture with such talented artists!!!

You Can Make Your Own Creative Paperclay Doll!!!

Want to make your own doll using Creative Paperclay? I'll walk you through the steps here. Better instructions with pictures and video to come down the road. For now, this is what I have time for!

What You'll Need
Creative Paperclay - about 4 ounces - preferably new, fresh package
Small cup of warm water
Non-stick Craft Pad or Wax Paper Taped on Work Surface
1 Styrofoam Ball - 3" or 1 Aluminum Foil Ball - 3"
6" - 14 gauge jewelry or garden wire
12"-18" - 22 gauge jewelry wire
4 - jewelry pin findings, corsage pins, or sewing pins
Wire cutters
Butter knife
Acrylic paint, paint pens, pencil
Assorted fabrics, superglue, glue gun, glue sticks, beads, and other random things to add to your doll

What To Do
1.  Start by inserting the 14 gauge jewelry wire into the styrofoam ball. Make sure that you insert the wire a little bit behind center as this will be the doll's neck.

2. Open your package of Creative Paperclay if you haven't already!!!

3. Remove a clump of paperclay and smooth a layer of it over the styrofoam ball. Use the warm water to really smooth it.

4. Sculpt a small cylinder shape and two triangles out of the paperclay for the neck, top half of torso, and bottom half of torso.

5. Insert the small cylinder shape onto the 14 gauge wire below the styrofoam ball and blend the edges in to the head.

6. Add two triangles with the tips touching each other.

7. Dampen fingers and break off small pieces of paperclay to fill in gaps between the cylinder and two triangles. Smooth the clay as you go.

8. Insert a pin across the new little body you have created. Create a hole through the top where the shoulders will be, and create a hole through the body where the hips will be. Make sure you work the pin in a circular motion...you want a small hole, not a pin-hole.

9. Depending on how big you made the doll body parts, you should have at least a 1/2" of wire sticking out of the bottom of the body you just created. Use this to pick the doll body up and place the doll on a clean baking sheet.

10. Bake the doll at 200 degrees for 10-25 minutes. VERY IMPORTANT! Everyone's oven is different...Make sure you closely monitor the baking of this doll body. Check every 5 minutes. Otherwise, you may step away and come back to an alien-looking thing with a blown up and melted styrofoam head!
Paperclay turns white when dry.

11. While the body bakes, you can make the arms and legs. Just don't forget about it!!! :)  Roll out a long snake of paperclay. Use water to keep the paperclay moist, workable, and smooth.

Okay, you have lots of room for personal preference with the arms and legs. I tend to make my arms and legs long. Sometimes I make all the limbs the same length, sometimes I make the legs much longer, etc. You want to use a doubled-up cut of 22" gauge wire that is twisted for these parts. This gives the clay a better armature to hold on to and less chance of these delicate appendages from cracking. If you choose to make arms and legs longer than 4 inches, you may want to consider using a heavier gauge wire.

12.  Cut wire into two pairs of equal length for the arms and legs so you should have eight separate pieces of wire. Twist equal cuts of wire together. You should now have two arms worth of twisted wire, and two legs worth of twisted wire.

13. Cut snake with of paperclay with butterknife into two arms and two legs.

14. Insert wire through individual snakes of clay and then roll on non-stick craft pad for smooth finish. Use water to further smoothing.

15. For the arms, round one end of the snake for shoulder and flatten the other end for a little hand.

16.  For the feet, round one end of the snake for hip and form a foot by pinching a little ankle and making a little pointed foot. More clay can also be added to make shoes.

17. Take those pins that you used earlier to create the holes for shoulder and hips and create holes in the four limbs you just made. These holes can be close to pin holes...just make sure you have a little movement in the hole, otherwise your doll limbs won't move easily!

18. Now you can bake your doll limbs! These parts do not take long at all...Bake at 200 degree for 5-7 minutes. Look for that nice, white color that indicates the paperclay is dry.

19.  While your doll's arms and legs are baking, determine whether or not you want your doll to have sculpted hair. If you do, this is the time to add hair to your doll's head. You can also add a little nose, lips, eyebrows, cheeks, etc. You have full creative control here...Play around with it. The best thing about this step is that wet paperclay can easily be added to dried paperclay...and vice versa. If you don't like what you see, remove the wet paperclay and start again.

20.  Once your doll parts are dry, it's time to assemble them. First, you'll need to cut your pins so that they each fit inside the doll body. It is safe to cut about half of each pin off. Next, thread a pin from through the holes in each limb, and then secure the limb to the body with the pin. Use a drop of superglue inside the body holes, and then add a bit of paperclay to really secure the pin inside the hole. Make sure the limb has a little movement on its post. You can cut off the excess wire off of the body in this step as well. Once you have completed this step, place your assembled doll body into the oven for 2-3 minutes to dry, longer if you have added some hair and features.

21. Congratulations! You now have a blank doll body to paint, detail, dress, and embellish! I typically sew clothes onto my dolls, but you can certainly glue fabric, paper, beads, or any other findings that may interest you! I use a pencil to draw in facial features, and paint pens to design the face and small details.

I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial on making a doll similar to the one pictured above. Please feel free to ask questions and leave comments! Thanks for your interest!!!