How to Make Craft Clay

My imagination was sparked when my little guy brought home a little gingerbread man made from clay for a Christmas ornament. We proceeded to make some of our craft clay and tinted it a dark brown. You can do this with any kind of liquid color/paint, food color or even KoolAid.

I rolled the clay out to about 1/8" thick and then I used a small gingerbread man cookie cutter for the shape. We decorated our gingerbread man by gluing on tiny beads and buttons I had in my sewing room stash, but you can use anything for decoration. You can also make a small batch of the clay, tinted another color, and roll out tiny little balls for decoration. After our gingerbread men were assembled, we coated them with two thin coats of shellac, letting it dry in between coats.

I also made an arrangement of lemons with clay that I had tinted a brilliant yellow. I used brown and green felt tip markers to make very tiny little specks of green and brown on the stem end of the lemon. I was told that you should push a small piece of wire in and out of the end of the piece of clay (when working with a larger piece) to allow the clay to dry on the inside. This allows air to penetrate better. One all was completed; I coated the lemons with shellac. The shellac makes the clay look like ceramic.

the pieces can also be spray pained with a quick drying paint when dry. If you will need holes in the clay pieces for hanging, make the holes before they are dry.

This is fun project and turns out some very nice accessories, good for display and for gift giving.

To make homemade Clay for crafts you will need:

2 cups of table salt

2/3 cups of water

1 cup of cornstarch

½ cup of cold water

Mix the two cups of table salt into the 2/3 cup of water together in a saucepan. Stir this for about three or four minutes over medium heat until the mixture is good and hot. Remove your pan off of the heat. In a separate bowl, mix together the one cup of cornstarch and the ½ cup of cold water. Stir this quickly into the hot mixture in the saucepan. This should be about the same consistency as stiff dough. If it is too thin, put it back on low heat for about a minute. Be sure and stir it.

Once your dough is smooth and pliable, turn it out onto a clean work surface. Cover it up with a clean, wet towel until the dough has cooled off. After it has cooled, knead it until it is easy to work with. If this is wrapped in plastic it will keep a very long time, and does not need to be stored in the refrigerator.

The clay is white when you finish preparing it. If you would like to add color to it, you can do so as you are preparing it. This is a great craft clay, it is very clean and easy to prepare. You can make a countless number of things with this clay. All you need is an imagination.