Life in Minature

Am I the last person in the world to discover the fun of polymer clay?

You know, I’ve seen polymer clay projects before, but I was never
interested. Mostly what I’ve seen demonstrated are milifiori beads
which seem like a lot of work, and I’m just not into it. I’ve also
seen doll faces made with push molds, but again, it just wasn’t my
thing. I just kind of wondered, “what’s the point?”

Then last week, I saw an article in Family Fun magazine about making tiny treats out of polymer clay. These are just too cute and the directions were simple, needing nothing more than the clay and a toothpick. Well, not being one to pass up a good craft, I showed them to Boo and Pumpkin Girl and they thought they’d like to give them a try, too. They were actually pretty excited.

We got ourselves some Sculpey clay and went to work. These little projects are neither difficult to do or too time consuming, even when helping two children do different projects. Pumpkin needed a little more help because she didn’t seem to understand how not to smash the clay out of shape when adding details. But she did great doing things like rolling out balls and logs and squashing them flat. Boo did well with making his shapes look like the pictures, which is surprising because he’s not really not too good at copying objects to draw. I did the reading of the instructions and putting in the tiniest of details. I worked very hard at overcoming my tendency to just step in and do the project myself. I’m prould to report that I managed to demonstrate, step back, make small corrections and let the results be what they may. I guess all these weeks of being the craft lady for Pumpkin’s Daisy Scout troop is paying off. Talk about testing my patience! But that’s a post for another time.

Here’s the tiny little confections we made:

Pumpkin Girl made one of the donuts, the caramel apple and the cupcake. I made the other donut and the lollipop.

We also picked up The Incredible Clay Book and Create Anything With Clay. All I can say is wow! We’ve all spent a lot of time pouring over these wonderful books, choosing our next projects. We’re even plotting some gifts to make!

Here’s the projects we’ve made so far…

The sheep and pig were made by Boo, the rabbit and frog by Pumpkin.

This baby and ice cream cone are Boo’s creations.

I had as much fun and the children! I made these fruits and veggies. The green isn’t showing up well in this picture and the corn looks a lot better in person. Still, aren’t all these things cute?

I’m working so hard on not getting involved in any new crafts. But when I do, the main criteria it has to meet are low start-up cost and easy storage of the tools. Well, the instructions for the treats are free on the internet (click on “tiny treats” above), and you can get by with just a couple of basic colors of clay. We did buy the other two books, which came with clay, but the ideas were well worth it. There are lots of polymer clay tools out there to buy, but we literally used our hands, foil, a baking dish, toothpicks and wax paper. As for storage, the clay should be stored in plastic. I wrapped each open color in plastic wrap and the whole kit and caboodle is in a plastic shoe box. Sweet!

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