air dry clay Archives - Candie Cooper

Color Me Happy Heart Pendants with Air Dry Clay

February 2, 2016 By candiecooper 3 Comments

This post brought to you by ACTIVA Products.
You’ve probably heard me say this a thousand times, but kids love making jewelry. Here’s a quick idea you can play with that uses washable markers to make colored clay.This is the crafty ingredient list. Pretty simple! Use Hearty Clay because it doesn’t crumble and fall apart when it’s dry. #NoCraftFails 😉Grab a hunk of Hearty Clay and start coloring it with markers. It’s a good idea to stay with markers in the same color family (i.e. red and orange or blue and purple). It’s fun to twist and smoosh the clay and see how the colors marbelize. Add more color at any point–even right before you roll out for vivid results.Place your ball of clay between plastic wrap and roll out to approximately 3/8″ thick.
Cut your shapes out–you’ll need 2 identical ones.
Place a straw across the top center of the shape and dab water around the edge.
Gently press the edges together to seal.
Place the piece on top of a cup to dry.
Remove the straw. You can embellish dried Hearty Clay with all sorts of things–paints, doodles with a marker, or gems like I am here. I like using Mod Podge to attach the gems.
Push the yarn or cording through the heart pendant. If the yarn is extra fluffy, you may need the straw to help push it through.
Ready to wear! I love the possibilities with these bead-like pendants.

Here’s a link to the Hearty Clay at ACTIVA or you should be able to get it at your local craft store.

Happy Valentine’s!

Filed Under: Air Dry Clay, Get Crafty, Tutorials, Uncategorized, Valentines

Make your own Boho Pottery Dishes

December 15, 2015 By candiecooper Leave a Comment

This post brought to you by ACTIVA Products–makers of the best air dry clays!In college, I took a few courses in ceramics. I had the best instructor–Dana. She got me hooked on “hand-building” which simply means using your hands to construct a piece from clay instead of the pottery wheel. This is a really easy project that you can do at home.
I’m using ACTIVA Plus clay in jet black. You can buy it at your local craft store or online and it comes in other colors; white and terra cotta.
This is my craft-only rolling pin. I roll the clay out to about 1/8-1/4″ thick. It may take a couple tries to get it just right.
For texture and design, you can stamp it with these wood block stamps. The black ones are the real deal from India. The white ones are from Plaid Enterprises–I saw them in Hobby Lobby or you can get them online. Stamp your piece so you get an all over pattern.
You can use an extra large circle cookie cutter to cut out a circle or use a knife with round template (like a plate).Stamp the edge a little more if you like…
then dip your finger in water and run it along the edge of the clay to smooth out.
Drop your piece into a plastic lined mini pie plate (or other bowl form) and set in the sun to dry.
Once the front is set up, you can pull them from the pie plate, flip over and leave to dry completely. You could also put them by a heater.
To finish, I sprayed them with clear Krylon gloss spray paint. Then, I dipped a paper towel in water and Apple Barrel white acrylic paint and rubbed over the surface of the bowl. Use a dry paper towel to wipe up excess paint. Optionally, you can seal them again with the Krylon gloss paint.

Why spray them with gloss first? Because this seals up the clay surface so the paint doesn’t get too settled into the porous surface.You know I love jewelry–and these bowls are just the thing to keep on my dresser to hold it all. Now I only need about seventy-five more.

**These are not food-safe. For pretties only.

Filed Under: Get Crafty, paint, Tutorials, Uncategorized

ACTIVA Products sampler Giveaway!

September 25, 2015 By candiecooper 2 Comments

This post brought to you by ACTIVA Products!Did I ever tell you I was an art education major at Purdue? I was. From time to time, I post projects that reflect that part of my history and love: teaching kids to make things with their hands! That’s how I got to know ACTIVA Products. They make all sorts of amazing air dry clays and super colorful sand. These days, I design projects for them like this Message in a Bottle.Here’s a link to the project in case you want to make a couple. And then this is the kinda thing I design for ACTIVA and teach at my art camps that I teach in the summer here in town at the Honeywell Center. The kids love making pottery pieces. No, they can’t eat out of them, but they can put other goodies inside. For this project, we learned about terra cotta clay and looked at pottery from Mexico for inspiration. The best thing about Hearty clay is that the clay sticks to itself really well and doesn’t fall apart once the clay is dry. Nothing is more discouraging to a kid then when they put a lot of time and effort into something and it crumbles. Want to make your own bowl? Here’s a link to the tutorial.

Now for something extra fun!
That’s right! We are giving away an ACTIVA sampler pack! Sand, CelluClay, Rigid Wrap and Hearty Clay. You get a little bit of everything so you can get crafty this fall! Experiment and play until your heart is content, on us! Not into clay? Give it to your local art teacher–you’ll be their new BFF!