Whimsical Clay Journal

Taking notes doesn’t have to be boring. Why have a plain old pad of paper?

Spice up your notebook!

Great art project for a child who has a favorite coloring page. Make multiple ones to give out as personalized party favors or bridesmaid gifts.

It can be easily made by even the most non-artistic person.

Grab your clay, a blank journal, print out your picture and let’s have some fun!

Polymer Clay

Drawing or Coloring Picture and 1 Copy

Blank Hardcover Notebook

Scissors

Rolling Pin

Knife, to cut clay- a clay tool or an old butter knife will work just fine

Baking Sheet Tray

Hot Glue Gun (*Note: If you do not have a glue gun, don’t worry you don’t have to buy one. You

can use superglue. When gluing use rubber bands to hold the clay securely to

the notebook and let dry for 24 hours.)

Note: Use any objects you like as accessories such as seashells, coins or beads. Here I used plastic eyes and an old key. Make sure the charms can bake in the oven. If you have something that can not be baked it will have to be glued on after you bake the clay.

If you don’t draw your own image then you can easily use a coloring page, as this is essentially what we are making. Instead of coloring with a crayon or marker we are using the clay to fill in our picture.

Here are a few websites that have free printable coloring pages. You will be able to find something for any interests or age:

www.bestcoloringpagesforkids.com

www.cool2bkids.com

Note: If you need to resize a coloring page- take a picture of it and email it to yourself. On the computer scale it larger or smaller and print out the perfect size for the notebook you have.

I drew a lighthouse keeper who will be holding an old key that I found.

I purchased a soon-to-be-improved blank book at the dollar store.

The Polymer clay being used is from a 50 color kit that can be used for multiple other covers. You will have leftover clay from the colors you use.

Here is the link for the kit I used:

https://www.amazon.com/Polymer-Creations-Modelling...

Choose what eyes fit the picture best. Because my lighthouse keeper is a goat he has horizontally slitted eyes. A quick Google search will tell you if your animal/character has round, vertical slit or horizontal slit pupils.

I have also numbered my picture as if it was a paint by number picture. This will help in our next step…

I have laid out my colors and marked each one with it’s assigned number. Marking both the original and the copy of your picture with the numbers will help us later as we make stencils and fill the picture in with its designated clay color.

I had a bit of extra Sculpey clay from another project so I used those colors as well. If you don’t buy a kit with variety of colors you can easily pick out and purchase beautiful shades of color at craft stores like Michaels. Make sure it is all Polymer clay.

(Note: If you only have air dry clay it can work as well, but you will skip the baking step and instead let your clay dry for at least 48 hours before attaching to book.)

Here I have started with the sky blue. Roll out the clay with your rolling pin to 1/8 in. thickness.

Tip: If you don’t have a rolling pin use a wine bottle.

Using the copy of the picture cut out each numbered section and use it as a stencil to cut out the clay. Once each different color is cut, set it on your picture to trim if needed.

Roll out each color and use the cut stencil to get your needed shapes. You will begin to build layers of clay as you add the cut out shapes.

In this picture the pink horns (that were marked as #15 in the original drawing) are thicker because they were laid right on top of the blue sky behind it. This will be continued with his ears and mouth (marked as #14 and #13) being laid on top of the #12 face shape.

Carry on with each color of clay until you have used each numbered stencil.

Now we have all the clay cut and placed together to form one solid clay picture. In this particular picture the figure and the pebbles he is standing on is thicker than the background to easily add the perspective of depth.

Now that we have our picture assembled it is time to add the charms.

I put in my eyes and the key, pushing them slightly into the clay so that they will not fall off.

Finish it off by adding his hoof hands on top of the key so that it looks like he truly is holding it.

Time for the most fun part…

This is what will really take your picture to the next level and give it all the fun character you want.

Using just a toothpick I scratched the clay to give each color a different texture. I put dots in the stones and scarf. I made lines in the pants and lighthouse, giving it brick shapes. Just by scraping the head it gives the look of fur. I made lines for the stems of the flowers and poked the ground of the background to give the appearance of sand. Just with the additional scrapes added to the blue sky makes it look different than the ground. To give the sweater style I used a pen cap to stamp the clay.

Use anything around the house to give texture such as a plastic fork, crumbled up tin foil, old toothbrush, paperclips, or sponges.

The sky is the limit- Have fun!

The last thing I added were the flowers (just a rolled up ball of clay pushed flat and poked with my toothpick) and the seagulls (thinly rolled clay put in a “V” shape).

Once you have finished making it beautiful with all the details it is time to bake.

Simply bake on a baking sheet tray in the oven or toaster oven for 45 min at 275 degrees Fahrenheit (135 degrees Celsius).

Note: Check in on it every 5 min during the last 15 minutes to make sure it doesn’t start to burn as this will brown your colors.

Once done baking let fully cool before removing from tray.

Once the clay piece is cool use the hot glue gun to glue the back of the clay picture to the outside cover of the notebook.

*If using superglue see note in supply list.

Just like that you have a handmade, one-of-a-kind notebook!

Congratulations and Thank You So Much For Reading!