Oh, wooden it be lovely? a diy story part 1

 

Changed pictures, this one is so much better. A little more light today than yesterday.

Here is a close up, you can click on the pic to make it bigger

There is that heart box again. Did I tell you I love those inexpensive mache boxes?

I am using a technique of layering colors together to make faux wood.
I also make bone and Ivory this way. More on that later.
I use 4 colors of Cernit to do this. Opaque white, White, Caramel, and Champagne.

All links will lead to my Hubby's on line store Clay Factory.
I endorse this blatant plug. ;-D

You will need:

2 blocks of Opaque White Cernit
1 block of White Porcelain Cernit
1 block of Caramel Cernit
1 block of Champagne Cernit
Clay Machine
Acrylic roller
Clay Slicing Blade
  

1. Condition the Opaque White and then condition the Caramel.

2. Mix 4 parts of White with 1 part of Caramel until one color and roll out on the thickest setting in your Clay Machine. Or 1 block Opaque white mixed with 1/4 block Caramel.
The sheets that I made for this technique were about 4 1/2" by 3 1/8". You can make them smaller if you wish. A little over 1/2 a block will make a sheet this size.

3.Condition all of the other colors, including more Opaque White.

4. Start with a caramel sheet.

5. Now make a sheet of the mixed caramel and opaque white.
Cut it to fit the caramel sheet. You do not need everything to be perfect, in fact the more irregular everything is the better the wood looks so I do not trim away ragged edges, they are an asset.

6. The next color to go in the stack is the champagne.
Trim away excess.

7. The next sheet to go in the stack is the white porcelain.

Trim away the excess. See how perfect and even my sheets are. NOT!
But you, you must be perfect, hahahaha!!

8. The final sheet will be the Opaque white.
Trim away the excess.

9. This is what the stack will look like from the side.

10. Roll the whole stack out with the acrylic rolling pin till it is about 1/4" thick. Always roll the length of the stack, so not roll the width out.

11. Here is the sheet on the other side it is getting thinner and longer. The width has expanded a little from rolling but not much. The length though is a lot longer.

12. Here is the stack from the side so you can see the thickness.














Stay tuned to part 2...
http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2010/11/oh-wooden-it-be-lovely-diy-story-part-2.html 

and Part 3
http://mariesegal.blogspot.com/2010/11/oh-wooden-it-be-lovely-diy-story-part-3.html 

Paper clip jar and paper clips or boomarkers Part 3

Continuing from part 2...

You will need two 1/2" balls of the mixed green clay for each paper clip you make. 

Flatten both balls with your finger. Lay the paper clip on the one of flattened balls.

Cover the paper clip and the flattened ball with the other flattened ball.

Press in one of the animal face buttons.

You will notice that all of the faces are different and you may need to change the shape of the balls a little after you press them over the paper clip and before you press in the button. You do not want to put the paper clip too high towards the middle of the first flattened ball either or you will have trouble when you press the shank of the button in to the clay.

Once you get all of the buttons made in to paper clips that you think you will need bake the lid and the paper clips on a piece of corrugated cardboard box lid in a pre-heated 275 degree oven for 30 minutes, shut off the oven and let cool in the oven.

While the pieces are cooling, condition and roll out a piece of the opaque white Cernit. It will depend on how big the little jar is and how much you want to say. You can press the noodles in to the white and cut around what you said or you can cut the clay to fit on the front of the jar and make the noodles fit, which is what I did.

I have put it on the front of the glass and then I trimmed the edges.

I then placed the noodles in one at a time to form the words. You can use a pencil eraser to press them in to the clay.

Keep adding the noodles until you say what you have to say!

Once I have finished I roll the jar and the clay across my work surface to smooth the clay and press in all the letters evenly. Gentle now.
Bake this in the pre-heated 275 degree oven for 30 minutes and shut off the oven and let cool.

While you are waiting for the plaque to cool, take the green felt and another baby food jar lid and trace around the lid with a felt pen.

Cut inside the line that you have traced about 3/16".

Place glue in the top of the lid and spread it all the way to the edges with your finger.

Add the felt and press it in there well, making sure you do all the way around the edge of the felt.

Take the plaque off of the jar when it is cool and pick out all of the letters with a knife.

Brush the Pearl Emerald Green Lumiere into the letters and all over the front of the plaque. Wipe off the excess with an rag or towel.

When the paint has dried, place glue on the back of the plaque, rub a smooth layer on the back, and attach to the front of the glass.









Tie a bow with the ribbon around the jar at the top.

A cute gift and trash to treasure.

Paper clip jar and paper clips or boomarkers Part 1

Living with a baby gives you an excess of things and one of those things is baby food jars. I like the little meat jars. They have a nice shape and I saved a lot of them from when Madi was littler.

I wrote this project up quite a few years ago for a book that never manifested. The project though is quite fun and it is perfect for turning your trash in to treasure.

I have a used candle glass project that is quite fun here also.

Links for the products will connect you to my Hubby's shop if you are looking for these products.

Thank you so much for supporting myself and my family.



Old baby food jars, cleaned and dried
Cernit® polymer clay in green and Opaque White
Buttons- I used the "Dress It Up Buttons®" from the Jesse James Company, Animal World
Crafter's Pick™ the Ultimate Glue
Plastic coated paper clips
green felt
green ribbon 1/4" picot edge
Alphabet soup noodles
Lumiere® acrylic paint Pearl Emerald Green
Clay Slicing Blades
Makin's® Clay Machine
bamboo skewer
Plastic Handle Scalpel SCP

Put glue all over the lid of the baby food jar. On the sides and down to the bottom lip.

Condition 2 colors of green (I used light green and regular green) separately. Use a 1/2 block of each color.
Now roll out logs of each of the greens and twist together.
Roll together and fold in half and twist again.

Take a ball of clay that is a little smaller than the lid diameter and flatten to about a 1/2" in thickness so it fits on the top of the lid.
Start on one side of the disk of clay and press to the lid a little at a time till you get to the other side of the lid.

Press the clay over the side of the lid.
Down to the bottom lip.

Pinch to the bottom lip.

I like the lid to look like this when I am finished.

I then added 3 of the animal face buttons. Just press the shank in to the clay.

Awwwwwwww so cute!

Take a 1/2" ball of clay and roll into a longish teardrop.

Mark with the back of the blade or a knife the center vein.

Cut the side veins with he clay slicing blade.

Mark each section with the tip of the bamboo skewer.

Add to the top of the jar.

Stay tuned for part 2...

Giveaway 13, part 1- Winner

Well, my other random generator (Madi) is out with her mother.

So I resorted to the standby.
There were 19 of you, no duplicates. And the number drawn was 18, that would be Nydia.
Nydia you have one week to get back to me with your address.
I also need to know if you would like to wear this as a brooch or if you want me to leave the pin off the back so you can use it for something else.
Congratulations, Nydia!!