Tangled Up in Christmas Day 12: Stamped Clay

Hi! Jean here with a kid-friendly project - stamping oven-baked polymer clay with Neat and Tangled stamps. The stamped clay items could be used for ornaments, key chains, or even jewelry. The supplies for the project include Neat and Tangled stamps, Sculpey-brand clay, acrylic paint, Modge Podge and brushes.

Begin by taking a section of the Sculpey and working it into a ball. Here’s a photo of my son taking some excess off of the shaped ball before flattening it for the stamping. He used the back side of a plastic knife so as not to leave any marks on the cut side.

Using a stamp block, he applied pressure to the ball to flatten it to the desired thickness. He placed some parchment paper between the stamp block and the clay. Next he put the stamp onto the block and pressed the stamp into the clay.

After repeating this process with other stamps and clay colors, he added a hole at the top so the items could be strung onto cord. We placed the items onto a foil-lined baking sheet and baked in the oven for 15 minutes at 275 degrees. The items were approximately ¼” thick. Cooking time varies with thickness.

Once the baked items were cool, I painted them with acrylic paint. The idea is to paint the imprint. Wipe off excess paint with a damp paper towel. You can skip this step if you want and proceed directly to the application of the glaze.

Once the paint was dry, I applied Modge Podge with a brush as a glaze.This gives the items a shiny finish.

You can make your items circular or more rectangular depending on your preference. I strung them with cord. For key chains or jewelry, simply add a jump ring.