clay Archives - HodgePodgeDays

Lately we’ve been playing about with clay and really enjoying it. We’ve been using air dry clay, which is easy to use and you don’t need to bake it in the oven or anything like that. This makes it ideal for kid’s crafts. We thought we’d make a little something for Father’s Day. It was the boy’s idea, so the credit goes to him. He made this lovely Clay Thumbprint Keepsake for Father’s Day. Isn’t it sweet?

Crafts: Make a Clay Thumbprint Keepsake for Father's Day

Make a Clay Thumbprint Keepsake

You will need:
A packet of air dry clay
A rolling pin
Some cookie cookers
A wooden toothpick
Some coloured paint, we used gold
A fine paintbrush
A length of ribbon

How to make a Clay Thumbprint Keepsake :
Take a piece of clay and work it in your hands for a few minutes until it is pliable. Roll it out on a surface you don’t mind getting clay on, we used a plastic chopping board that could be put in the dishwasher afterwards. The pieces need to be about half a centimetre thick.

Crafts: How to make a Clay Scrabble Tile Nameplate

Taking your cookie cutters, cut out a few shapes. You might want to make a few of these in one go to give as little gifts to other family members. Once he was happy with the shape, he pressed his thumb into the middle to make the thumbprint. He chose to write his name on it with a toothpick too.

Once he was happy with it, I took the toothpick and made a good sized hole near the top so that when it’s dry you can thread the ribbon through.

Crafts: Make a Clay Thumbprint Keepsake for Father's Day

We left them to dry for 24 hours, though longer might be needed, depending on your clay. Once the pieces were dry, we painted the thumbprint keepsake with some gold paint and left that to dry. Then I carefully threaded some ribbon through, made a knot and now it’s ready to hang up.

It’s a very sweet little gift my son can give to his Dad this Father’s Day.

Crafts: Make a Clay Thumbprint Keepsake

I’ve been curious about clay crafts for a little while. A few months ago I bought myself a cheap packet to play about with and it’s sat in my craft cupboard ever since. I didn’t really know what to do with it, but with a poorly child to entertain, I thought we’d have a play and see what we came up with. We ended up making a rather lovely clay Scrabble tile nameplate.

I figured that the boy loves playdough, so I thought the clay might have similar appeal, thankfully I was right.

Crafts: How to make a Clay Scrabble Tile Nameplate

I got out my box of cookie cutter shapes and a rolling pin and we set to work. In my cookie cutter collection I found a box of scrabble tile cookie cutters, we thought they’d make really cool name plates and we think they do. Here’s how we did it.

How to make a Clay Scrabble Tile Nameplate

You will need:
A packet of air dry clay
A rolling pin
Some Scrabble Tile Cookie Cutters
A wooden toothpick
A length of jewellery wire
Some coloured paint, we used black
A fine paintbrush

Crafts: How to make a Clay Scrabble Tile Nameplate

How to make a Clay Scrabble Tile Nameplate:
Take a piece of clay and work it in your hands for a few minutes until it is pliable. Roll it out on a surface you don’t mind getting clay on, we used a plastic chopping board that could be put in the dishwasher afterwards.

Crafts: How to make a Clay Scrabble Tile Nameplate

Taking your Scrabble tile cookie cutters, cut out the tile pieces you need. We were making a nameplate with the name BEN, so we cut out those letters with a few spares too. I made some holes with a toothpick so I could thread my wire through later. We left them to dry for 24 hours, though longer might be needed, depending on your clay.

Once the pieces were dry, I carefully threaded some jewellery wire through the holes and twisted the ends together. Then we took a fine paintbrush and a little bit of black paint and painted in the letters and left the paint to dry.

Crafts: How to make a Clay Scrabble Tile Nameplate

We were pretty pleased with our first clay craft, it’s a little bit rustic, but we think that adds to its charm. We feel quite inspired to try to make a few other things out of clay, so watch this space!

Crafts: How to make a Clay Scrabble Tile Nameplate