Chocolate Chip Cookie Polymer Clay Tutorial

Today, I’m going to show you a super quick tutorial for this chocolate chip cookie:

These could make adorable last minute gift ideas. They are super quick and easy to make, and using the basic idea, you can customize it anyway you seem fit (i.e making it into an M&M cookie, leaving out the chocolate chips and making it a sugar cookie, changing the color, whatever you wish).

Chocolate Chip Cookie:

What you will need:
Tan Clay (Mine is Sculpy Brand, bought at Michael’s)
Brown Clay (Sculpy, bought at Michael’s)
Chalk Pastels in the colors pictured above (I bought mine on E-Bay)
A tooth brush or bottle brush like the one pictured for texture (I bought my tool at Michael’s)
Eye Pin (also bought at Michael’s)
Soft Bristle Paint Brush (bought at Wal-Mart)
Blade (I am using an X-acto I bought at Michael’s)
Parchment Paper (bought at Wal-Mart) (not pictured)
Cookie Sheet (not pictured)
Oven (not pictured)

1. Start by rolling your brown clay into a long, skinny snake. Bake for 3-5 minutes at 275 degrees on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

2. Once the brown log, snake piece has cooled, begin cutting small pieces off. This will serve as your chocolate chunks.

3. Next, using a piece of tan clay the size you will want your finished cookie to be, condition and start including your chocolate pieces. You are going to smash and pull the clay. Make sure that you can see a good amount of chocolate pieces when you are done.

4. Now, use your brush to add a bit of texture.

5. Use your blade to scrape off some of your chalk pastels. Mix the colors a bit and brush them on where a cookie would normally begin to brown.

6. Add your eye pin (this might be a little tricky since you now have to work around hardened clay pieces), and bake at 275 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

And there you have it!

Polymer Clay Gingerbread House Template and Tips

So, after thinking about it, it’s not exactly easy to make a tutorial over a gingerbread house to begin with. I mean, you can walk someone through on how to make the things like the gingerbread, or the candies, but when it comes to decorating, that’s all about how they like it.Soooooo, with that in mind, I made a template, and will be posting just some tips on how I pulled mine together. Take from that, and you can make yours anyway you wish.

What you will need:

1. Clay in some variation of brown.
2. Chalk Pastels in varying colors of brown
3. Soft bristle paint brush
4. Blade
5. Tooth brush, bottle brush, or something else with stiff bristles to texture with
6. Needle tool (not pictured)
7. Clay ‘candies’ you made, or any type of polymer clay cane you think is interesting (not pictured)
8. Polymer clay ‘icing’ (there is a tutorial for this on my blog)
9. Template (click the link to download)

Tip #1:
It’s a good idea to bake your pieces first, this will make them easier to work with.

This is what maine looked like after texture, dusting, and baking them.

Tip #2:
Make sure your icing is THICK. You don’t want it runny as it won’t hold your pieces together during the baking process well, and when you decorate later, it won’t keep it’s shape. Don’t make it so thick that you can’t spread it though. You gauge on what you think you can work with here.

Tip #3:
Decorate your pieces as much as you can and bake BEFORE putting them together.

Tip #4: Put the pieces on your base but leave one wall off. This mean you should have three walls on, then bake. After that, you can add the final wall and re-bake. This will end up saving you a LOT of trouble. Trust me…

Tips #5: When you add the final wall, bake with that wall facing UP.

Tip #6: Put your roof on ONE piece at a time. Bake between each piece.

Tip #7: Notice how mine has crack where the pieces didn’t seem to connect 100%? Don’t fret of them! Use your ‘icing’ to fill in these gaps and add a bit of decoration.

Tip #8: You can leave it as it is, or you can do what I did and add it to a base. I wanted mine to look like it was sitting in snow, so I grabbed a piece of my super soft white clay (Scupley brand called Pluffy if that helps) and stuck the house right on top of it.

And there you have it. My tips for making your own polymer clay gingerbread house. If you make one yourself, be sure to link me any pictures, because I would LOOOOOOVE to see how it turns out. My husband drilled an eye pin into mine for me because he thought it would make a super cute ornament.

***Get the Template HERE!!!***

Tutorial: Polymer Clay Candy Wreath and Chocolate Bar

Just a couple of quick tutorials for a candy wreath and chocolate bar:

**Wreath**:

***What you will need***:

1. Blade of some sort. I am using an X-acto.
2. Tooth pick
3. Two shades of green clay
4. Red clay

*Step One* First, take a small piece of each color of your green clay and roll them into snakes, like so:

*Step Two* Place the clay side by side and twist until you are satisfied with how it looks:

*Step Three* Cut off the ends:

*Step Four* Connect the two ends to make a complete circle:

*Step 5* Grab your red clay, roll three small balls, and place them on the wreath with your tooth pick:

You’re done!

**Chocolate Bar**

***What you will need***:

1. Something to roll your clay flat. I’m using a rolling pin made for clay. You could use a can or a regular rolling pin, I have found lightly dusting those things with corn starch keeps the clay from sticking.
2. Blade of some sort. Again, I’m suing my X-acto.
3. Brown Clay

*Step One* Condition and roll your clay flat until you get your desired thickness:

*Step Two* Cut away the sides until you get a nice rectangle:

*Step Three* Using the blunt end or your blade (the back side that isn’t sharp), press lightly into the clay to make lines. One vertical, two horizontal, or reversed, depending on how you have your clay:

And you’re done!!!

Thanks for joining me! Come back later and I will post a template and tips on how you can make one of these:

Tutorial: Candy Canes

Today is a simple tutorial over two different types of candy canes:

The first one is more cutesy while the second one, to me, is a tad bit more realistic, and easier to make.

Here is what you will need:

Red Clay
White Clay
Blade of some sort

Now, just take a bit of your red and white clay and roll them into snakes:

Now twist them around one another:

Keep twisting until you are happy:

Cut off your excess:

Now, roll the twisted snakes until they bind together, something like this:

And that’s how you make the first one.

For the second one, you are just going to mix some of your red and white clay together and rolls it into a snake, like this:

And then twist and roll until you are happy with how it looks:

Cut away the bits you don’t like, and you should have something like this:

I hope you found this tutorial useful, join me soon and I will walk you through making a miniature candy-like wreath. Thanks!!!

Tutorial: Fake Icing

So, my husband surprised me this morning by running to Hobby Lobby and bringing me home a brand new bottle of translucent liquid clay.
So, since I now have that in my possession, I can begin the gingerbread house tutorial, and the little tutorials that will accompany it.
To kick it off, I though I would start with the bonding agent, our fake icing.

For this project here is what you will need:

A soft clay in your choice of color (I’m using white, and the brand is Sculpey Pluffy, I got this from Michael’s)
A container to mix in
Translucent liquid clay (this can be bought at most any craft store)
And a tool to smash and stir with (I am using one of my blending tools, also bought from Michael’s)

Start off by pouring a bit of your liquid clay into the container:

Next, tear small pieces of your soft clay and add it to your container:
How much or little you add depends on how thick or thin you want your icing to be. Play around with it a bit until you get the consistency you want.

Now just mash and stir:

I ended up adding more clay to make it stiffer, and my final product looked like this:

Now you are set! This can be used on miniature cupcakes, cookies, cakes, or, in our case, gingerbread houses!!!

Have fun, and join me soon. Next I will cover how to make realistic-ish looking candy canes.

Chibi Tutorial: Part Five, The Face and Hair

Yes, I have gotten my home back! How nice is this?! And as such, it is time I finished up the chibi tutorial!

Let’s just dive in, shall we?
First, let’s look at what we will need:
Basically, this is your chibi’s skin color, black clay, and a translucent version of your chibi’s skin color. To make this, just add 3 parts translucent to one part the skin color you used.
As for the tools, you need a blade, a ball tool, and not pictured is a needle tool and a smoothing tool.

Take a piece of your main chibi color and condition it. Make sure this piece is proportional to the size of your body. Something I didn’t bother with. That is a big no no. Don’t be like me, be smart! Measure it before you try making it all pretty and sticking it on your body. You will thank yourself later.

Now, we are going to shape it into a ball and press it slightly so that the back flattens a little:

Cut a little off the top and ONE side of the face, like so:

Shape it until you are happy:

Now, grab your ball tool and press deep circles into the face where you want the eyes to be:

Great! Now make a couple small round balls of clay with the translucent version of your skin color and place them in these holes:

Now smooth the top part, NOT the bottom:

Now you have eyelids! So, in order to make them look cuter, we need to make our lash line and lashes. For that you are going to use a small bit of black clay and roll it out into a super thin snake:

And then use your blade to cut a super small section and place it on the underside of the eyelid:


Be sure to cut off any extra. I used the little bit I cut off for the next step. Cut a couple of super short, super tiny pieces to be used as lashes:

Now, cut a couple of pieces a little longer than what you used to make the lash line to begin with, these will be used as the eye brows:

For the lips, take the color that you want it to be and mix with a bit of translucent. After that, take a couple of very small pieces and roll them into tiny log shapes, but be sure that the ends are pointed. Make one shorter than the other and place them where you want the lips to be:

Now attach the head to the body. You’ll see what I was talking about when I said I didn’t make sure the head was proportional first:

Also notice how dirty everything is. This is because my projects has been sitting out forever, waiting for me to get the chance to come back to it to finish. If you leave a project like I did, remember to use plastic wrap or something to cover and protect it. That way you can avoid all the unsightly dirt.

Anyhow. The hair. Really, you just need to roll out a bunch of snakes with pointed ends and attach them to the head. However you want the hair to look:

Bake according to the instructions on the back of your clay’s packaging and there you go!!! One chibi! And hopefully you will take time with yours and it will turn out 10000x better than my own. 🙂 Have fun!!!

I’m also thinking about making a tutorial on clay gingerbread houses. I’m hopefully going to have the time to make a mini village. So, stick with me. No promises, because Lord knows the moment I promise something a billion things will happen to prevent me from doing it.

Chibi Tutorial: Part Four, Connecting The Limbs To The Torso

Sorry it’s been so long since the next installment. My husband got his days off, and then yesterday I got to see a dear friend that I haven’t seen since Christmas of 2011. I felt bad because, honestly, my house is just a giant bundle of boring, but she and I got to just catch up, and that was enough for me.

Anyhow! Back to the tutorial. Today let’s attach those limbs!
I started with the legs, it’s really about preference, though I have always found that when I put the arms on first, they end up getting smooshed, or something along those lines, while putting on the legs.

Tools:
Smoothing tool
Needle tool
Piece of wire, head pin, or eyes pin
Other chibi pieces we have made

So, grab your torso and firmly (but not so much that you squish anything) place your legs onto the body:

Now, obviously this is for a seated chibi. I will go over later how to make a standing one, and further down the road, I will do a tutorial over clothes (I hate making clothes. That’s why most of my chibi’s are little nudists XD).

Once those are place, you are going to want to smooth out the joints. The joints are where your torso and legs meet in this case:

Don’t worry about correcting any creases or such yet, just get the clays worked together for the moment. We will smooth the rest out later.

Now you can adjust the legs to be in the position you want them. I’m just leaving them slightly angled, but you can do any number of poses:

Now let’s add the arms and do the same steps as we did for the legs:

Great! Now let’s add our piece of wire that I mentioned in one of my other posts…I think…meh, I’ll probably do a list of tools at the beginning after I type all this *ramble ramble*.

The wire is going to go through the neck and down through the torso. Please be careful about not poking through the bottom. Your wire only needs to go to the center of the torso, not all the way down:

Now let’s give the arms a bit of shape. Right now they are just hang there. Since I am going to make this one a fairy, eventually adding wings, I decided to place her on a stick. Clean the stick well before using…I know that sounds stupid, but if you are going to use objects from the outdoors, wash them thoroughly first. Anyhow, I am shaping her arms to make it look as though she is sitting and leaning on the stick:

And there we go. We have added and shaped the limbs to our chibi’s torso. Next time I will go over how to make the head, hair and face (which they may have to be broken up, because they are time consuming and use a lot of very small pieces of clay)!

Chibi Tutorial: Part Three, Making the Torso

Alright, time for part three of this never ending chibi tutorial. Yes, I could end it swiftly and just post all of it together, but the words, and the pictures, and I am just far too lazy for that. I can do only so much in a day. 😉
So, Let’s start, shall we?
For this, you are going to need those tools I mentioned in the first part of the tutorial, along with some others. Like I mentioned in the first one, this is all still just trial and error for me, so I really just use what ever.

So, let’s at least say we need:
The clay
Smoothing tool
Needle tool

Take a chunk of your clay and condition it until it is soft.

Next, shape your clay into a rectangle-ish shape, like so (notice how one end is larger than the other):

Now we are going to add details. Using the smoothing took I mentioned, you are going to work the clay until the broader end has a nice mound of clay pushed toward the front. Pinch the top of the broad end and make a sort of cone shape, hopefully the picture can explain it better than I:

Then you are going to shape that new mound of clay  into two separate peaks, this will be the breasts of your chibi (IF you are making a female, which I am, and normally do). Pinch the midsection in some to give it a nice hour glass shape. It should look something like this when you are done (please keep in mind that I don’t have a great process for this, I just play with it until I get the shape I like):

Now, use your needle took and add the belly button:

And there we have it! The torso!
Next time I will walk you through how to combine all of the parts we have already made.
Peek?
Ok!

See you soon! ❤

Chibi Tutorial: Part Two, Making The Legs

Last night I walked you through how /I/ make my chibi’s arms. Tonight I will walk you through the legs.Honestly the process is almost exactly the same, but…eh, why not?

Let’s go back to our clay, shall we? In the first tutorial we were using Fimo Flesh in light. We will be using the same stuff.

Make sure that your clay is nice and conditioned.
 This means to work it until it is soft and manageable.

We are going to need a piece slightly larger than what we worked with when making the arms. Make it into a sausage type shape like this:

Now, use your pinky and roll it to make it look as though your leg has joints, sort of like this:

Do this in two sections on your sausage shape, and you should get something like this:

See the end with the smallest point? That’s the end we are going to slightly flatten to make the foot. Do NOT flatten this as much as you did for the hand. The food should be more blunt and full. You want something like this:

Do these steps once more and look at what we got so far in the tutorial:

Next time I will walk you through the torso. Actually, looking at the pieces like this is honestly kind of creepy, don’t you think? I suppose if you want so creepy cupcake toppers, you could do this same process with some grey fondant, add a bit of red food coloring, and there you have some zombie limbs to stick up in some maybe chocolate frosting? Yum. 😉 Neat for Halloween perhaps?

Anyhow, sneak peak at the torso? Yes, that’s what I shall do:

So, check back, and I will have that up soon!!!

Chibi Tutorial: Part One, Making The Arms

Well, I know I promised a tutorial over how I make my chibis some time back, and since I had the time, I went ahead and decided to start on it.

Please understand that since I am still a novice at working with polymer clay myself, I don’t have an actual technique. I still very much use a trial and error process. So, don’t use my tutorial as a learning tool really, but maybe just a guide on pieces that you like, and then reform to make it your own. Chances are, you can find a MUCH simpler way to make these than the methods I use. I am going to break this up into SEVERAL smaller tutorials, because honestly, this would just be a ridiculously long post otherwise.

But, let’s start shall we? I can’t give a decent list of tools because I never really know what I am going to be using. But, let’s start with the basics:

1. Clay. The color I am using is Fimo flesh light
2. Ball tools
3. Needle tool
4. A piece of wire, eye pin, or head pin. 

Let’s start by grabbing a nice section of our clay and condition it:

Once that hunk is nice and conditioned, take a smaller piece from it and roll it into a little sausage type thing, this will serve as the arm (yes, I am aware that I suck at technical terms, just look at the pretty pictures, I’m basically useless for explanations):

Now, we are going to use our pink finger and roll it in a couple spots to make it look as though the arm has joints:

Once that has been accomplished, pinch the slammer end of the arm into a flat shape. This will serve as your chibi’s hand:

Do this once more to make the second arm. Be sure to make them as close to the same size and length that you can. Once you have them both done, lay them next to one another and make an angled cut at the start of your arm to shape your shoulders:

Do this cut on the other arm as well. Once they are both cut, you have your completed chibi arms!

Next time I will post the legs. Sneak peak? Yes, that it appropriate I believe:

So, check back often, I will have part two of the tutorial up soon! Thanks for looking!!!