Tutorial: Cold Porcelain Bunny

Get ready for the Spring holidays! This video demo shows you how to make this cute bunny using cold porcelain, plus how to make a matching gift box!

Claymation: The Morph Files

Morph is a lively and clownish little guy who is always getting himself in and out of jams. In this short, we see him go around with his noisy friend Chaz as he tries to get a little peace and quiet. Morph also goes to great lengths to get the baby to settle down, even going so far as to create a whole circus to entertain the child.

Bookmice - Let's Make Some!

This cute (and useful) bookmark is a great little craft to make with the kids or a quick and easy gift for all your friends!

The original polymer clay tutorial is from the National Wildlife Federation crafts page .   We have edited that polymer clay tutorial and converted it to the air-dry clay tutorial shown below.

You'll never lose your place with these easy-to-make bookmarks!

What You Need:

• Leather string (jewelry cord or shoelace)
• brown, gray or tan air-dry-clay (enough for body & ears) 
• black air-dry clay (for eyes and nose)

Makin's Clay, Hearty Clay and Model Magic are some of the air-dry clay brands that are available in colors but you may pre-tint other (white) air-dry clays using your craft paints.  Just add a little paint to a ball of clay and knead to mix evenly.   You may also send most air-dry clays (such as Paperclay) thru a pasta machine to blend color.  If your brand of clay is a very sticky type, it may not work so well in the pasta machine!  ;-)

Note: Delight Clay is a very lightweight paperclay and would be great for these bookmarks.  Das and a few other brands may be too heavy and not suitable for this use.

What You Do:
1.  Cut a piece of leather string about 10 inches long. Tie a knot at one end.

2.   Mold a lump of clay around the knotted end of the string. Shape the clay into the form of a mouse's body, as shown. (large teardrop)    Use very small amounts of water to smooth surface if necessary.

3.  Add clay ears, eyes, and nose. Press them down firmly to the mouse's body so they won't fall off.   Add white glue if they refuse to stick.    Optional:  Two small black beads can be used for eyes.

4.  Set aside on a flat surface to dry!  It may take a day or two.   (Don't try to speed up drying, you may end up with cracks.)

That's it!  Now, put your bookmouse to use!

How to Make a Clay Birdhouse

This clay birdhouse was made using self-hardening (terra cotta) clay and a balloon.   Instructions from the National Wildlife Federation found here:   Clay-Birdhouse

Add your own flowers and other decorations and maybe a little color!

How to make a cloth doll look like clay

Quite often dolls are completely sculpted from air-dry clays, but there are also a number of techniques used by cloth doll artists to enhance their creations.  There are cloth-over-clay techniques and clay-over-cloth.  In addition, many doll artists will create a cloth body that has a clay head (often with clay hands and feet also) .

These instructions from Rivkah Mizrahi show you how  to make a cloth body look like it's sculpted from clay.  She uses Creative Paperclay. See blog at Dollmakers Muse