Valentine's Day Project: Polymer Clay Heart Pen

Here's an easy project for a Valentine's Day gift. Polymer clay pens are fun and easy to make, and you can create fun gifts for your friends and loved ones that are useful as well as cute. This article will show you how to make a heart-themed, polymer clay-covered writing pen.

Materials for Valentine's Day Polymer Clay Heart Pen

Pink Sculpey

Red Sculpey

White Sculpey

Plastic writing pen

Exacto knife

Metal ruler

How to Make Your Valentine's Day Polymer Clay Heart Pen

First, you need to pick out the right pen. A cheap, white or black plastic pen that easily pulls apart is great for this project. The color is important, as some of the original pen will be showing through in the finished pen. Take apart your pen. Put all of the pieces aside, except for the plastic shaft that is the body of the pen. This is the part you will be covering with the polymer clay.

Take your red clay, more than you need to cover the body of the pen in a thin layer. You can roll the clay out with a rolling pin, or put it through a pasta machine. Lay it out flat, and lay the pen body onto the clay. Using the metal ruler, cut off excess clay from the top and bottom of the pen. rest the ruler along the side of the pen, and make a cut lengthwise.

Gently press the long edge of the red clay against the side of the pen, and roll the pen, with the clay, to measure how much clay you will need to cover the whole pen body, and make your last cut. You now have a long, thin rectangle that will cover the entire pen body.

Now, take your red rectangle, and lay it out flat on a surface that's OK for cutting. Using your exacto knife, cut out small heart shapes all over the clay, going in all directions. Remove all of the little hearts.

Carefully fit the red clay rectangle onto the body of the pen. You should see little black ,or white, hearts showing through from the body of the pen. Press the clay onto the pen until it is firmly adhered, pressing the open ends of the triangle together. Smooth out the seam.

Next, roll out your white and pink clay into a thin sheets. Using your exacto knife, cut out more tiny hearts. Gently but firmly press these hearts all over the red clay on the pen.

To finish up, cut off any excess clay that falls below the ends of the pen body. Lay the pen body on to a sheet of foil, and cure in your oven according to the directions on the clay package. When it cools, you can put the pen back together.

You can cover your pens in polymer clay in almost any design. This is just on design, an easy project for Valentine's Day, or just because you like hearts. This is a great project for kids, too, if an adult does the cutting. There are tools you can use as well to make cut-out shapes. You can find these tools where you buy polymer clay and other art supplies. There are also other types of more accurate cutting tools available, especially for polymer clay, but you can use what is at hand, as I like to do. The most important thing is that you have fun, and create art that you and your loved ones enjoy.