Clay Cut-Outs

When Design Originals asked me to do a book on Christmas ornaments, they wanted cute designs that would be quick and easy to make. I had some Kemper cutters on hand, and I started playing around with shapes and came up with some simple, but very cute designs using the teardrop, heart, and round cutters in various sizes.

The teddy bear, angel, and Santa Claus have pants made using a teardrop cutter. I used a small heart-shaped cutter to create the angel's and Santa's shoes. I turned the heart cut-out sideways, stretched the top up slightly and then cut it straight across, then attached to the bottom of the teardrop shapes. I did the same thing to create the teddy bear's stocking, just using a larger heart cutter. Santa's jacket was made using a larger heart cutter turned upside down. I rolled out a very thin piece of red clay with a pasta machine and then cut out rectangles that I gathered for the angel and teddy bear's tops.







The gingerbread men that Santa and the teddy bear are holding were made using a small flower shaped cutter.

It's a lot of fun to experiment with these small cutters and see what you come up with.

COOKIE CUTTER ORNAMENTS

Since people are always looking for quick and easy ornaments to make, editors are always looking for quick and easy ornament projects. I came up with an idea to use a 2" gingerbread man cookie cutter I had to make a variety of Christmas characters that I could put onto glass ball ornaments. This was a project I did for the January 2001 issue of "Great American Crafts" magazine:



The snowman was made using the 2" cookie cutter, the gingerbread boy and girl were made using a 1" gingerbread man cutter.

The Santa Claus below uses the same 2" gingerbread man cut-out as a base, only this time, I cut the piece out of red clay, and then added the other elements to turn it into a Santa.



I attached the unbaked pieces to the glass balls using super glue and then baked them. They've held up for 9 years with no problems, but if you don't want to put super glue in the oven, you could always attach the unbaked clay pieces to the glass ball, bake them, then gently pop them off, and reattach them with glue. I've never had any problems with baking super glue. It is flammable, but not at the low temps polymer clay bakes at. I was not the first person who tried this! LOL I took my cue from many other clay artists who have baked super glue with polymer clay.

This makes a cute and very simple project that could easily be personalized.

HANDMADE CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS

One of the things I love so much about Christmas is putting up our tree every year. Our tree is traditional, full of ornaments I've made, or my kids have made, or that were purchased because they bring back memories of happy times in our lives, or special places we've been, or some were treasured gifts from friends or family.

I first worked with polymer clay over 30 years ago, but it wasn't until I met my friend, Laurie, who I worked with at a veterinary clinic about 20 years ago, that I really got started selling my work.

Laurie and I started doing craft shows, and we came up with a rather "nutty" idea at the time. We created tiny polymer clay scenes inside of walnut halves. I had seen an ornament that was made of resin and was an imitation walnut with a tiny scene, and Laurie and I decided to try to do our own little scenes inside walnuts with clay. We used the halves at first, but then after a while, my husband, Ron, started hollowing out the shells with a Dremel tool, so that we had a little more of the shell to work with! We sold these quite well at craft shows in Albuquerque, NM, where I was living at the time. The one below, was given to me by Laurie, and it's a wonderful memento of both her and my family's time in New Mexico. My husband was born in Espanola, New Mexico and grew up in Santa Fe. Yup, Laurie and I were crazy enough to do little adobe houses like this one, complete with hanging ristras near the door, tiny ladders, and for this one, Laurie even added a howling coyote and a tiny yucca plant!



Our line also included tiny walnuts filled with Santas, woodland creatures, and anything else our imaginations could fit into a walnut. Like this little Mrs. Santa I did:



Her shell is broken at the top now, so I can't hang her anymore, but she held up for 18 years on my own Christmas tree. Laurie's little adobe house walnut is hanging on my tree again this year, for the 19th year. :o)

Tomorrow, I'll share more ornaments.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN

Only 15 days to go! Every year I say I'm going to stop and enjoy the season, but always in years past I'd be so busy creating last minute items to list on ebay, or finishing up the last of my orders, that Christmas would sneak up on me and be over before I knew it. Well, not this year. I am shipping off the last of my orders today, and I am going to enjoy the next 10 days fully this year.

I've been noticing a profusion of aqua colored Christmas decorations in the area stores. I absolutely LOVE the combination of aqua and red! The tree and other decorations featured below are from the website of a store in Canoga Park, CA called, Traditions:



Gorgeous, isn't it? Tomorrow, I'm going to feature some ornaments I've made for my own tree over the years. :o)

MY BABY IS 18 TODAY!

I can't believe it, but it's true. It's been 18 years since our daughter, Caitlin, came into the world. And let me tell you, she was in a big hurry to get here! She was born almost 6 weeks early, and weighed all of 3 lbs. 12 oz. She had to stay in the hospital's Intensive Care Unit for several weeks, til she got up to 4 lbs. Then they let us bring her home, but she still had to have visits several times a week by a nurse. She was SO tiny!

I'll have to add a photo later, because we're on our way out. I just wanted to wish my darling Caitlin Jeanne the happiest birthday she's ever had! :o)

TRYING TO GIVE A LITTLE BACK AND A THANK YOU

I will be listing more dog figurines for sale on ebay through Christmas, and I've decided to donate 10% of the sale price of these figurines to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. I've loved and worked with animals all my life, from showing and breeding Boxers with my Mom for over 10 years, to working for other breeders of champion show dogs, to working as a dog groomer, and then later as the office manager of a veterinary clinic in New Mexico, so it's only natural that animals, and specifically dogs, play such a large part in what I create with clay. I've donated many pieces to other rescue organizations to be auctioned to raise money for their cause because I feel so strongly about it.

Recently, I posted about the three kittens we've adopted since moving to Missouri. I wasn't looking to adopt even one kitten at the time. My husband is allergic to cats! But I just could not leave these babies to fend for themselves. So I feel VERY strongly about the importance of spaying and neutering pets. I'm sad to say that I've encountered a great deal of ignorance from people over the years concerning how important it is to spay and neuter. Especially during my years at the veterinary clinic. We had so many people bringing in puppies and kittens that they had found abandoned, and I heard such horror stories. Puppies found in a cardboard box on the side of a busy road, kittens found in a trash bag in the dumpster. It broke my heart then as it does now.

My three kitty boys are growing up, and the first of them will be neutered this week! The other two will be neutered over the coming weeks. I want to support the ASPCA in their continuing efforts to educate the public on the importance of spaying and neutering, in addition to their many other educational efforts. If you're interested in my clay art, I hope you will continue to check out my auctions over the next month and maybe you'll find something you'd just love to have, and in purchasing it, you'll be helping me help the ASPCA.

You can click here or on the ebay widget on the right side of this page to get to my ebay auctions:

Designs by Ginny Baker

I also want to thank Julie Leir-VanSickle of Craft Gossip for posting my Snowman and Bichons piece on her blog this week. Here's a link to the article if you're interested:

Craft Gossip

CREATING A POLYMER CLAY SNOWMAN VIDEO

Well my video editing skills definitely need work, but considering it's my first attempt at editing together a series of clips, it's not too bad. I just wish it were as clear as it was before I uploaded it to YouTube. Anyway, I hope you will enjoy checking it out. Listening to that music, while I was working on the video, brought back so many great memories. My brothers and I grew up listening to those Christmas classics, which my parents would play every Christmas season. Both of my parents are gone now, so those memories, while wonderful, were also bittersweet. That music also helped put me in the mood to create more holiday themed items.

Here's a link to the video:

Creating a Polymer Clay Snowman