Our Hopeful Home: New Beginnings and a Darling Clay Tag Project

January 13, 2012

Have you already created your first (or second or third) fabulous project since the new year began? Well, I haven't! Truth be told I did just finish a project (my first of 2012) but it has been a bear staying motivated to even finish it, let alone blog about it. Am I the only one? Sure feels that way as I read all my favorite blogs that didn't even miss a beat despite the holidays. Not sure how they do that....if anyone has any advice on that please spill it! Well, time for me to jump in. So here goes....

My first project of 2012 involves something I've wanted to try for a while. A while means 6 or 8 months ago. I saw some posts about it (can't recall where, sorry!) and thought, "I can do that!" And on the list it went. (You know the list. The list of projects-I-really-want-to-make-but-don't-know-when-or-even-if-I'll-ever-make-them list.) You've probably seen them, too. Clay tags adorning all sorts of home decor and gifts. I just loved them so here's my take on it.

Materials

2.5 lb. tub of Crayola Air-Dry Clay

small cookie cutters/cute little jewelry charms

any other litttle doo-dads/shapes from around the house you'd like to try

rubber and/or acrylic stamps

something to use to make the holes in the tags (I used a wooden skewer)

rolling pin

sculpting tools (I ~~stole~~ borrowed my kids' plastic Play-doh tools)

round object to use to as a template for the actual tag (I used a 1" round lip gloss lid -- really. It was just the right size.)

The clay costs around $7.00 at Michael's and JoAnn's. I of course used my 40% off coupon! I did some research on the Crayola site and Youtube but was disappointed in what I found by way of instruction and creative suggestions. Luckily it's pretty basic, so there's not much room for error.

Here's where you pay attention: Grab some clay and roll it into a ball. Flatten with the rolling pin (no thinner than 1/4" or it'll shatter when dry, trust me) and then use your round template to cut out each tag. The thicker the tag the easier it is to get it out of the cutter. Once the tags are cut out you can embellish them with your charms/stamps/doodads, then place the holes in the top for hanging and set them aside to dry. A word of caution here: (not that I did this or anything, mind you) if you make the hole too teeny weeny you won't be able to fit anything through it for hanging! Instructions say to wait 2-3 days for them to fully dry, depending on thickness. I found that 24 hours was enough for my small tags.

You can also paint them after they're dry but I really love the minimalist white look (surprise) so I left them as is and strung them with some natural colored organic string. My favorite is the "bee" tag, followed by the numbers tags. Both are very in right now. I just love them on all my glass cloches and Ball jars. I'm sure I'll come up with more ideas. What about you?

Now that project #1 of 2012 is under my belt I'm hoping project #2 will be a bit easier. A girl can hope, can't she? Here's a sneak peek at what I'm working on.