Tips for using clay and moulds

Have you seen the new clay yet? It’s enormous fun – like playing with Plasticine! Here’s my first clay project – a picture frame decorated with Epic Day washi tape and embellished with buttons.

These are the first buttons I made with the clay and it was a steep learning curve. So I’ll tell you what I did and then you can read the tips below to avoid some of my problems. 

• The large button was coloured with two drops of Crumb Cake reinker.
• The medium button was an attempt to colour with a Calypso Coral marker but it came out more like Crisp Canteloupe… so I coloured directly on to the button with the marker afterwards. This made it a little blotchy.
• The smallest button was coloured with a drop of Basic Black reinker. I foolishly didn’t use gloves – and it took more than a week for my fingers to lose the stains! You can also see some rough edges on this one as I trimmed it after taking it out of the mould. See below for how to avoid this. 

If you haven’t yet seen this clay, I have to tell you that it’s like no clay you’ve ever seen before.

• It’s very white, so you need super-clean hands before you start working.
• It’s very lightweight, too, so excellent for posting, although you’ll still have to watch out for the bulk. 
• When it dries, it doesn’t set hard like plaster, more soft and rubbery like, er, rubber.
• It takes up colour very well and you can colour it various ways. 

Colouring your clay:

1. Only colour small amounts at a time. It’s easier and you won’t be left with a load of one colour that you might not get round to using for a while.
2. The easiest method is to use a couple of drops of reinker. Make a well in the centre and knead it together well.
3. You can also take a piece and swipe it along the inside of an ink pad lid. Don’t put it directly onto the ink pad itself.
4. You can attempt to colour the clay using markers but it’s not ideal, as it takes ages. You can, however, colour the finished shape with markers.
5. You can even mix glitter with your clay for a sparkly effect! 

Making the shapes:

1. Roll a small piece of clay into a small ball and press into the mould. If you have lots of excess around the edge, I find it best to remove this, ball up the clay again and press it in again. You CAN trim off the excess when it’s dried, but it doesn’t look as good. You are aiming for there to be no overlapping clay on top of the mould.
2. To speed up the setting process, put the mould into the freezer for a couple of minutes. This will make it easier to pop the shapes out of the mould.  Don’t worry if you forget – I left one in for over a week once!
3. The flowers are easier than the buttons, because the buttons are such precise shapes. You may wish to leave the buttons in the freezer a little longer.
4. Don’t worry if you don’t have access to a freezer; your shapes will just take a little longer before you can remove them from the moulds.
5. Leave them on a flat surface to air dry.
6. As mentioned above, the finished shapes will not be hard like clay – they will be more like a soft eraser. Once dry, they can be cut with scissors (eg if you want to trim off any excess), sanded down (for the same reason) or coloured with markers. For a shiny surface, you could coat them with Crystal Effects.

Soho Subway - not too distressing

Here’s another Soho Subway card, this time teamed with the new Label Love stamp set and co-ordinating Artisan Label Punch. I’ve sponged some Crumb Cake ink around the edges of the card base and the DSP pieces to add to the distressed look, but not gone too mad – if I was distressing it properly, I’d have crinkled the paper and roughed up the edges, too.  This card is CASEd from Shannon Jaramillo.

Stamps: Label Love

Cardstock: Naturals White, Very Vanilla

Paper: Soho Subway

Ink: Early Espresso, Crumb Cake

Accessories: Artisan Label Punch

Caturday: itty bitty kittens!

These “itty bitty kitties” are the youngest residents at the cat shelter and, now that they are moving around, we can see just how cute they are! There are four of them and their mother, Bella, has been working really hard to feed them. So hard that she is most definitely having to eat for five!

This is how the kittens were last weekend; eyes open and beginning to become inquisitive. They were a little wobbly on their legs so I’m looking forward to seeing how they’ve developed, as they’re changing so fast!

And then Bella is pictured with one of her kittens a couple of weeks ago, before their eyes even opened. 

Busy weekend this weekend. Today I’m off to Studio 61 at Holloway, near Matlock, to take part in an Art Boot Sale with the last few bits of my retired craft products. I’ll be there from 2pm-4pm.

Tomorrow it’s the Woodland Nook Cat Rescue fundraiser from 10am-4pm. This will include barbecue, cakes, stalls and, of course, tours of the shelter (although I don’t think they’ll let you into the kitten section). If you want to pop along and have a look at this remarkable and fabulous cat shelter, it’s at 27 Delves Bank Road, Swanwick, near Alfreton.

Hope to see you at one or both of these events!

Soho Subway triptych

I LOVE this paper – it’s one my absolutely favourite sets in the new catalogue. It’s called Soho Subway and has all the elements I really like in a paper; it’s dark and “dirty”, it has maps, letters, woodgrain… what more could you want?

Here I’ve CASEd a card by Amy Storrie, who cleverly embossed hers with the Woodgrain embossing folder. I left mine plain for speed and decorated it with a simple flag and button.

Stamps: Happy Day

Cardstock: Naturals White, Very Vanilla

Paper: Soho Subway

Ink: Early Espresso

Accessories: Naturals Buttons, Linen Thread

Flower Shop get well card

One of my team is currently out of action, following an operation. She is a big fan of flower cards, so I decided to climb out of my comfort zone and make her something pink, floral and pretty.

I stamped the background using Flower Shop, masking each image in turn (I missed one – can you spot it?). To do this, I punched the flower from a piece of scrap paper and used my Tombow as a temporary adhesive (just let it dry before using) to create a mask. I coloured them using Primrose Petals ink and blender pen.

I stamped and coloured a couple more flowers using Raspberry Ripple ink and blender pen – I wanted these to stand out more. I curled them slightly (bet they go flat in the post though) and stuck them on.

Here’s a secret: I stamped “Get Well Soon” at the top left but didn’t use the Stamp-a-ma-jig. So it was VERY wonky. But, as we all know, there are NO mistakes in rubber stamping, so I simply stamped it again and cut it out using the Bitty Banner framelits. She’ll never know!

This stamp set and punch bundle is proving REALLY popular. People love flower stamps, they love co-ordinating punches, so this one was sure to be a winner. To avoid frustration when using it for the first time, I strongly advise you to watch THIS video. 

In other news, time is running out to order my ribbon shares. More details in THIS post. The shares are an excellent way to build up your supplies without breaking the bank, so don't miss out!

Stamps: Flower Shop, Hopeful Thoughts

Cardstock: Pink Pirouette, Raspberry Ripple, Primrose Petals Core’dinations, Whisper White

Ink: Black Stazon, Raspberry Ripple, Primrose Petals

Accessories: Pansy Punch, Bitty Banner framelits, blender pen

Storytime Friends baby card

For the past month, the gender of the royal baby has been inevitable… because my former colleague, Jonny, and his wife, Laura, had a baby boy. Why inevitable? Because the couple are living parallel lives with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Not totally parallel, obviously – Jonny and Laura don’t do many state visits. Nor did people camp outside the hospital waiting for news. But they got married at around the same time, and then produced their first-born at roughly the same time. Ok, not very parallel at all – but there were at least commemorative tea towels made for both weddings!

So today seems the right time to show you the baby card I made for Jonny and Laura. There’s only one new product on this one, just a clean design and some soft, gentle colours.

I’ve employed the Simply Scored tool here to add a bit of interest around the edges of the Whisper White panel. Colouring was kept to a minimum – just a little So Saffron around the edges of the lamb, a little Pear Pizzazz on the grass and a tiny amount of Pool Party around the outside edges of the lamb for shading.

Stamps: Storytime Friends, Happy Day

Cardstock: Pool Party, Pear Pizzazz, So Saffron, Whisper White

Ink: Black Stazon, Pool Party, Pear Pizzazz, So Saffron

Accessories: Blender Pen, Paper Doilies, Simply Scored

Flower Shop with Chalk Talk framelits

I always get nervous making cards for my Canadian cousin, Leslie. For a start, she taught me almost everything I know about stamping, so I feel I need to impress. And then she has a very different style to me. She likes cute images and busy designs, the complete opposite to me.

A few years ago, she moved away from this style, just as I was moving tentatively towards it and, for a few glorious months, we met in the middle … then we both reverted to type!

So making Leslie’s birthday card was a challenge and, I’m afraid, in the end, it was just too hot to do anything clever. The result was some experimentation with a new colour combo and my new Chalk Talk Framelits. Ok, I admit it, I panicked and just made “a card”, instead of a “wow”.

Love these Framelits though – this one is like an oversized bread tag. Do you still get those plastic bread tags? I’ve not seen one for years.

Stamps: Flower Shop, Happy Day

Cardstock: Soft Sky, Baked Brown Sugar, Pistachio Pudding, Whisper White

Ink: Soft Sky, Baked Brown Sugar, Pistachio Pudding

Accessories: Chalk Talk Framelits, Pansy Punch, Hexagon Embossing Folder

PS: To Sooty, who commented yesterday that she though I’d be at Convention... I can't reply direct to you but here's the explanation: I’m in the UK and Convention is in the USA. Some of the top achievers are going, as an extension to the incentive trip. But I’m not one of the top achievers, unfortunately!