We created these wonderful clay heart pendant necklaces with the intention of them being Mother's (or Grandmother's) Day gifts. My gift will be the mostly red and purple one, but whatever one Cassie chooses will be fine with me! The other two will be for her two Grandmother's! I first saw this idea as a Valentine necklace on the blog Art Matters and knew I wanted to try it, even though it was too late to make for Valentine's Day so Mother's Day seemed to be a perfect time! Or if not, these will also make great Christmas gifts for Mom. Here are our finished necklaces:
You could use any kind of clay that you put in a kiln (oven for cooking clay) or a self hardening clay. Since I already had some Crayola Air Dry Clay that is what we used and it claims to dry in two days! You could also use Sculpey (a polymer clay) which you have to bake in your oven or even a Homemade recipe using flour, water, and salt. The homemade self hardening clay recipe (click on the link) dries in about two days with this small size of a project. FYI: This homemade clay has taken longer than two days! The first step is to roll out a ball of clay smaller than a golf ball.
Then after we rolled out a ball, you need to make a snake and Cassie is a pro at that!
After the spiral, you need to shape it into a heart by pushing an indention for the top of the heart anywhere on the spiral and then pinching the area below to create the bottom point. This was a little tricky, but after practice Cassie could do it!
This post is linked to:
NO TIME FOR FLASHCARDS
CRAFT SCHOOLING SUNDAY
MADE BY LITTLE HANDS
PRESCHOOL CORNER
IT'S PLAYTIME
SHOW AND TELL
MADE BY YOU MONDAY
ART FOR LITTLE HANDS
KIDS GET CRAFTY
You could use any kind of clay that you put in a kiln (oven for cooking clay) or a self hardening clay. Since I already had some Crayola Air Dry Clay that is what we used and it claims to dry in two days! You could also use Sculpey (a polymer clay) which you have to bake in your oven or even a Homemade recipe using flour, water, and salt. The homemade self hardening clay recipe (click on the link) dries in about two days with this small size of a project. FYI: This homemade clay has taken longer than two days! The first step is to roll out a ball of clay smaller than a golf ball.
Then after we rolled out a ball, you need to make a snake and Cassie is a pro at that!
Next, using our Snail making skills from my Play Dough Snails Post, we made a spiral!
After the spiral, you need to shape it into a heart by pushing an indention for the top of the heart anywhere on the spiral and then pinching the area below to create the bottom point. This was a little tricky, but after practice Cassie could do it!
On the heart we used a toothpick to carve some simple designs and I used a straw to create the hole for the string. Here is some serious concentration from Cassie! After this step, we had to wait a couple days for the clay to dry to paint the pendants.
We used watercolors to paint the hearts. Cassie really enjoyed this part and painted both sides! Watercolor dries very quickly because it soaks right in! No need to really wait for them to dry!
Here are Cassie's finished hearts---along with a snail too! She wanted to create just a snail because of our recent fun with making play dough snails! You could add Modge Podge over the painted pendants to give them more of a glossy look! If you were using the homemade recipe, Modge Podge would help protect it from getting wet and deteriorating!
After the hearts were dry, we used a small piece of pipe cleaner for the loop on the heart and a piece of yarn for the necklace part. You could add beads, colored pasta, or clay beads to the yarn too.
Once again here our wonderful Spiral Heart Pendants. I think they could make a great gift for Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, or even a Birthday gift! I think they are wonderful! Be sure to check out Art Matters to take a look at their pendants too.
If you are a Mother, would you like to receive this as a gift?
What has been your favorite homemade gift from a child?
This post is linked to:
NO TIME FOR FLASHCARDS
CRAFT SCHOOLING SUNDAY
MADE BY LITTLE HANDS
PRESCHOOL CORNER
IT'S PLAYTIME
SHOW AND TELL
MADE BY YOU MONDAY
ART FOR LITTLE HANDS
KIDS GET CRAFTY
