Polymer Clay & Trinket Embellishment Tutorial

Okay so for the tutorial.....You will need....

~Polymer Clay, Sculpy, Fimo or Store Brand (I used black)

~Pearlex or Perfect Pearls (Mica Powder...I bought the Pearlex Series2 12 pack ages ago and still have loads of it left....The colors I used were Turquois, Aztec Gold and Spring Green)

~Bo Bunny Metal Trinkets and Jewels

~Blade knife for trimming 

Step #1:  Soften and roll out a 1" piece of black polymer clay (I used black because I feel like the colors of Pearlex show up nicely against it).  Cut a heart shape out with a blade knife.  Now take a small piece of the black clay and roll out into a thin strip, and roll out a number of small ball shapes.  Apply to the piece with gentle pressure (when it bakes it adheres well to the base piece) 

Step #2:  Using a paint brush apply the Turquoise Pearlex (Mica Powder) to the base of the piece (I used two colours....see below).  Be sure to get the Pearlex right to the edges. 

Step #3:  You can add an additional color in and just softly blend them . 

Step #4:  Using your finger, dab it in the Pearlex and just run it along the raised design you created, this is my favourite part, the contrast of the metalic colors is just magical! ....You can add your metal accents now if you wish but don't add your jewels to it unless they are glass because they will melt in the oven when you bake off the piece.   Bake in a 275 F oven for 15 minutes (use a disposable foil tray for this, you don't want to use something that you will later cook with)

Step #5: Once my piece has cooled I spray it with a protective clear coat (I couldn't find old clear coat spray so I used some hairspray and it worked well!)  Now you can add any pearl or gem accents and glue on your metal accents if you didn't bake them with the piece.  I recomment that you spray the back of the piece with a protective coat in order to protect the scrap paper incase any residual oils come off of the polymer clay.

Experiment with different shapes, try using stamps and small and large glass beads.  Here are just a few of the designs I created using just some clay, Pearlex, stamps and glass beads. TIP:  (the trick to making a straight line with the glass beads is to string them on a piece of wire, push them into the clay and then pull out the wire strand leaving the beads behind in the clay)

I hope I've inspired you to give it a go!  Have a fun scrappy week! xx