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Polymer Clay Heart Cookie Charm

Heart-Shaped Polymer Clay Cookie Charms
by Mo Tipton

Materials
polymer clay in white, ecru/tan, and translucent
translucent liquid clay, such as Translucent Liquid Sculpey
heart shaped cookie cutter or mold
artist chalk pastels in the colors of your choice
razor blade
paint brush
needle tool or awl
wooden craft stick
small bowl
toothpicks
parchment paper
jewelry findings of choice (earring posts, chain, jump rings, etc.)
two-part epoxy (if you are gluing your cookies)

Instructions

Begin by preparing your cookie colored clay. Mix equal parts white and ecru/tan clay, then add translucent clay in an amount that is equal to all of your white/ecru clay mixture. Knead thoroughly until you have an even, consistent mix.

To create the heart shapes, you have three options. If you have a flexible clay mold, press a small ball of your cookie clay into the mold and flex to release the clay.

You can also roll the clay out into a thin sheet roughly 1/16” thick and use a cookie cutter to cut out heart shapes.

Finally, you can cut a heart out of card stock and use this as a template to cut out clay hearts from your clay sheet with an X-acto knife. Choose the method that works best for you, depending on which tools you have access to.

Once your clay hearts are cut out, press the back side of each one onto a piece of medium grade sandpaper to add texture.

Take artist chalk pastels in light and medium brown, and grate some of the pigment onto a piece of parchment paper or a small bowl using a razor blade. Keep your colors separate.

Dab a dry paint brush in the light brown pigment and brush a thin layer onto your cookies. Follow with accents of medium brown, perhaps concentrating on the edges of the cookies, which, with real cookies, would become darker upon baking.

Decide how you will be using your hearts. If you plan to glue them to a jewelry finding, such as a post earring or a ring blank, you do not need to add a hole in this step. If you want to make dangly earrings or use the cookies as charms, perhaps on a bracelet or necklace, you will need to create a hole. Place your cookies on a thick piece of cardboard to protect your work surface, and using either a needle tool or an awl, punch a hole in each heart. Make sure that it is close enough to the edge that you will be able to insert and close a jump ring.

In a preheated oven, bake your cookies for ten minutes and let them cool completely. Use the baking temperature specified by the manufacturer; for most polymer clays, this is 275 F/130 C. The cookies should be baked on a metal or glass sheet lined with parchment paper or on a ceramic tile. (Baking directly on metal or glass will give the polymer clay an undesirable shiny finish.)

Prepare your icing by taking a small block of white clay and chopping it into smaller bits. Place the clay in a small bowl (do not use this bowl again for food; reserve it strictly for craft use) and add an equal amount of liquid clay. This ratio does not have to be exact, so you can simply eyeball the proportions.

Use a wooden craft stick to mash and smear the solid and liquid clays together. It will take a bit of work, but eventually the mixture will resemble a thick cake frosting. If it is far too dry, add a bit more liquid clay and continue mixing.

You will tint your frosting with artist chalk pastels, grated just as you did in step 4. If you wish to mix up batches in different colors, separate your white frosting onto small squares of parchment paper so you can mix each colored batch individually. For each color, grate artist chalk pastel into the frosting and combine with a toothpick.

The texture of your frosting is important, and you want a nice, smooth mix for icing your cookies. In the photo below, notice how the frosting on the left is thick enough to hold peaks, while the frosting on the right is nice and smooth. Add additional liquid clay to your frosting until it matches the smoother frosting on the right.

Using a toothpick, dab a small dollop of icing in the center of a cookie and use the toothpick (or a needle tool) to carefully drag the icing to the edges of the cookie, filling in the heart. If you created a hole in step 6, take care not to fill it with icing. Place your cookie on the baking sheet when you’re done.

While the icing is still wet, you can add toppings, such a glitter or glass beads. I like to use glass microbeads, which can be found at many craft stores, as rainbow sprinkles. Whatever toppings you choose, just make sure that they are heat safe–no plastic beads should be used or they will melt.

Bake your cookies in a preheated oven for five minutes and let cool completely.

If you are gluing your cookies to jewelry findings, I recommend using a two-part epoxy. Roughen the surface of your metal jewelry finding and the surface of the clay with a piece of sandpaper before gluing to increase the strength of the bond.

For charms, use needle nose pliers to open a jump ring, loop the ring through the hole in your cookie, and attach to a bracelet or necklace chain, or an ear wire before closing the jump ring to secure.

Enjoy!

Guest tutor bio:
Mo Tipton is the miniaturist behind The Mouse Market, an online world of teeny tiny dollhouse snacks and yummy food jewelry. She draws on her background as a pastry chef and graphic designer to create her realistic food sculptures, and when she’s not busy in her studio, she’s usually spending way too much time on Pinterest, looking for inspiration for her dollhouse. Learn how to sculpt all kinds of miniature foods with simple tutorials, here.

{More photos and story on Page 1.}

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