Holiday Gift Tags - Sculpey Clay Projects

Holiday Gift Tags
Design by Lynn B. Krucke

Materials and Tools:

Premo! Sculpey polymer clay:
- green pearl 5299
- blue pearl 5289
- red pearl 5259
- pearl 5101
Pasta machine, rolling pin or other means for rolling out sheets of clay
Small cutters (for hole in tag) or needle tool
Rubber stamps-holly (Magenta), reindeer (Personal Stamp Exchange), all others (Hero Arts)
Composition metallic leaf (gold, silver, or variegated pieces)
Sculpey Super Slicer or craft knife
Shipping tags (for templates)
Oven, thermometer, and baking tray
Wet-Dry sandpaper (800-1000 grit)
Gel pens or metallic paint pens

Directions:

Condition each of the pearl clay colors (separately) by rolling and kneading them until they are smooth and pliable. The instructions that follow are general, and apply for any of the tags shown.
Roll out a sheet of clay (any selected color) to slightly less than 1/8 inch thick.
Place the shipping tag on top of the clay and cut around it. Remove the tag.

Cut hole near the center top of the "tag" for tying it onto a package later. Cut or tear a small piece of metal leaf a little larger than the rubber stamp to be used.

Place the leaf onto the clay in desired position. Place stamp on top of leafed area and press firmly to create image on clay. The leaf will stick to the raw clay and cover this whole area. Make sure the image is deeply etched into the clay.

Trim the clay "tag" again if necessary to preserve desired shape.
Transfer to baking tray and bake at 275 degrees F for 20-25 minutes.
Remove from oven and allow to cool.
Wet tag and sandpaper then lightly sand tag to remove excess metallic leaf from the surface of the tag. Make sure that you do not force the sandpaper into the crevices of the stamped image- you want that leaf to remain!

Use gel pens or metallic paint pens to write on tags. If gel pens are used, you will need to put the tags back into the oven briefly (at the same temperature) to set the gel inks. This isn't necessary if paint markers are used.