Who Are You Calling Crafty?

My son is obsessed with Toy Story and I really wanted to make him some wall décor for his room.  My friend Susan sent me a box with Toy Story Sand Molds and I knew immediately what I wanted to do for this project.

Materials:

Activa® Plus Molding Clay

Sand Mold

Fondant Roller

Exacto Knife

Embossing Stick or an Old Mechanical Pencil

Pop Top

Acrylic Craft Paint

Spray Bottle of Water

Bronze Mica Powder

Glossy Accents

1.  Roll out clay to ¼” thickness.  Take clay and press over the sand mold.  Trim excess clay.  
2. Roll out another piece of clay and cut out a heart shape.  Smooth edges and add lettering to the heart, if desired.                                                                                                                            
3. Roll out a large piece of clay ¼” thickness and cut to a 5”x7” rectangle.                                                
4. Taking the embossing tool draw the background onto the rectangle.  Add dimension to the background with rolls of clay.  Smooth out the clay rolls.                                                                                         
5. Taking and Exacto Knife score the back of the alien in cross-hatching pattern add water.  Place the alien onto the rectangle.  Take a piece of clay and roll out a small coil to cover the seam, smooth the area out.           
6. Repeat step 5 with the heart.  Allow plaque to dry for 24 – 48 hours.                                                    
7. Take a ruler and find the center of the backside of the rectangle.  Spray the area with water and add the pop-top by adding an extra piece of clay to cover the backside of the pop-top.  Allow the pop-top clay to dry before painting.                                                                                                                        
8. Paint the plaque with craft paint.  Add Glossy Accents for a sealer (this was discovered by accident – I wanted the heart sealed and it was going everywhere, I grabbed a brush and painted it to seal everything.)

Pros:

Very close to a kiln fire clay (gray clay) – I am pretty sure it would be terrific for slab construction.

Molds great

Can easily fix breaks

Takes paint wonderfully

Reconstitutes easily.

Cons:

Very fragile in the drying stage (I couldn’t “play” with it as much as I wanted)

Starts to dry very quick – water bottle was handy in keeping it from drying out

Verdict: 

Fun product!  I am definitely going to be playing with this again – I really want to try to make a slab construction box with this clay.