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Polymer Clay Heart Cookie Charm

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** Warning!!! these cookies are not edible **

I always get astonished by talented polymer clay artists of their skill on making miniature food charms or decorations. I adore them so much since it is not my expertise to get it done so perfectly and look so real. After reading this guest tutorial, I think I can do it and I hope you can too!!!

Today, I have Mo Tipton of The Mouse Market as our guest tutor to show us how to make these “delicious” cookie heart charms where you can turn them into jewelry like earrings and bracelet. They are tiny, look at the bottom photo where Mo wears them on her wrist. I love the details Mo has put in, the cookie texture and also the colors. Isn’t it cute and yummy? Simply AMAZING!!!!

Do remember to hop over to The Mouse Market after this tutorial, Mo has some tutorials there to share. And, if you want to buy materials and supplies to make your own polymer clay crafts, or, buy the ready-made handmade as own collections or gifts, be sure to shop at Mo’s shop. Hold on your jaw and saliva while browsing through, don’t say that I didn’t tell you beforehand

If you have any question, please contact Mo at her website, she will be very happy to hear from you

{Get full details on next page.}

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.

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Remold Oil Pastel into Colorful Star

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As I cut and fill the pastels into the mold, it creates lots of waste debris on my table, very small and can hardly pick up by hand. So, I collect them and pour into one of the molds. Surprisingly, it turns into a star dust with all the colors I have used. One glide at the tip will give stripes of colors, my daughter shouted out: “Mommy, it is like a rainbow! So beautiful!”

Kids will be kids, they just like to fight over the same thing. When I remold the star pastel, I kept in mind to make sure that 2 stars must be identical in color and shape. Even with all my hard-work to try to duplicate the twin-star pastel, they still fight, sigh….. “Mom, I want that piece she is using, it has more red in it”, “Mom, not fair, my star is smaller…”, “Mom, sister used my star…”, “Mom…..” …… What can I say? Just love my kids the way they are… even sometimes they really made me steaming mad with all the mess and fights around. If you have kids like mine, welcome to my MOTHERHOOD….

Get the tutorial on how to make the Colorful Star Pastel after this:

{Get full details on next page.}

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Sweet Heart Sugar Cubes

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I got the idea of making these sugar cubes after seeing this post. I have put it under my to-do list but later forgot about it as my list gets longer. This pity little fellow fell to the bottom as I added new items on top of it, oh poor boy… on the other hand it is lucky because at least I got it surfaced from the down bottom and not being slashed off from the list lol… Well, this is life and I always believe that I will come up again when I get to the rock bottom, as long as I hold my breath long enough and never give up

These sugar cubes can be molded from cookie cutter or candy mold. Get the steps and method after this:

Sweet Heart Sugar Cubes

Ingredients:
1. Fine granulated white sugar – 1/4 cup
2. Water (boiled and cooled) – 1/2 teaspoons
3. Food color – 1 or 2 drops (depend how deep you want the color to be)

Utensils & Tools:
1. Small bowl
2. Tea spoon
3. Cookie cutter (mini heart) or candy mold or chocolate mold
4. Cardboard
5. Pencil
6. Scissors (if using cookie cutter)
7. Tray

Prepare Wet & Colored Sugar

Get ready all the ingredients to make sweet heart sugar cubes.
I used Americolor soft gel paste but any food color will do. If you need deeper color, add more food color but you need to reduce the water amount.

Add 1/8 tea spoon of water into the sugar at a time and mix well every time you add.

Mix well and evenly. The wetness is a little dryer than the wet sand when you build a sand castle.
If the sugar is too wet, it is hard to hold up it’s shape after molding.
If the sugar is too dry, it will not get harden after it is dried.
Add 1 or 2 drops of food color into the sugar mixture and mix well.
If you are not sure how deep the color you will get from your food color, add 1/2 of the amount of the water to wet the sugar, then 1 drop of food color, mix well. Add more color or water as per your color reference.
You can mix food colors to get the color you want in another small container before adding it into the sugar.
The texture of the colored wet sugar. When you press the wet sugar, it formed into shapes easily.

Mold With Cookie Cutter

Trace the heart shape of cookie cutter onto a cardboard.

Cut the heart shape out from cardboard. Cut it a little smaller so that it can go through the cookie cutter.

Scoop some wet sugar into the cutter, press with finger until they get firmed in the cutter.
You can fill the sugar to any height as you like and not necessary to the full height of the cutter.
Place the heart shaped cardboard on the top of the cutter. Press the sugar until it is firm and level especially if it is not filled to full height.

Slowly lift the cutter up and push the sugar down. Use tea spoon handle to push the cardboard if the cutter is too small for your finger to get in. I need to use tea spoon handle because the cutter is just too tiny as you can see from the picture.
It might take you a few attempts to get the sugar comes out nice and even by not over pressing it while lifting the cutter. Just put back any failed sugar into the bowl and mix again to reuse.
Repeat.

I did a few colors from the primary color, red, blue, yellow. The green was from blue and yellow mix.

Mold with Chocolate or Candy Mold

Press the wet sugar into the clean and dry candy or chocolate mold.
Level the top flat.
Turn the mold and lightly knock the mold against the tray to pop out the alphabet sugar cubes.
Wet molded sugar cubes in alphabets are formed. Gently transfer or arrange them on a tray for air drying.
Place the sugar cubes on a tray to air-dry completely. Or, you may use a 200F oven to dry it for 5-10 minutes.
I left mine overnight and a morning before storing them away into an air-tight container.
Keep them in a cool dry place and consume as soon as possible.

Be the sugar cubes for valentines or special occasion, it sure melts the heart of your loved one.

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Rhinstone Bear Charm Keychain

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While shopping for craft materials few weeks ago, I accidentally stumbled upon some basic color polymer clays. As I shop around, I found some mini cookies cutters which is so cute that I can’t leave without buying them. What came straight to my mind was that I can make some easy keychain charm for my daughter. The keychain charm is for her water tumbler so that she can differentiate it if someone brought the same water tumbler to school.

Not only this polymer clay bear keychain charm, I made some other things with the polymer clay too. Please browse through the above photo album to view the other 4 projects.

Materials:
1. Polymer Clay (brown color)
2. Rhinestone (flat base or those used for iron-on or manicure)
3. Keychain ring or other jewelry accessories

Tools:
1. Oven [please do not use the same oven for food after it has been used for curing polymer clay]
2. Cookies cutter (Bear shaped)
3. Tweezers
4. Rod (ball pen ink cartridge)
5. Thick hard-cover book or similar
6. Metal sheet or baking tray.

Prepare and gather the materials & tools as per above list.
I used brown color polymer clay bought from a Japanese dollar store (Daiso).

Prepare your polymer clay. The polymer clay is hard and dry initially when you take out from the packaging.
When trying to bend or fold the polymer clay, it will become chappy and falling into smaller pieces.

Hold the polymer clay in your hand to warm it up a moment to soften it.
Then, used your fingers to knead it.
You will find that it is difficult to knead initially as the polymer clay keeps on cracking and falling apart. Later when it gets soften, it will be easier.
 
[Tip: You can also use AMACO Pasta Machine or its equivalent to knead polymer clay, please don't use it to make pasta after using it for polymer clay. Read manufacturer instruction if it is your first time using this machine.]

A softened and kneaded polymer clay. Not quite ready yet as you can still see some chappy holes on the right. Continue to knead a little longer.

Roll the polymer clay into a ball, round and smooth.

Use a hard-cover book or something similar to press the clay ball evenly. Flatten it to about 3/8″ thick.
Or, you can use the pasta machine if they can produce this thickness.

Position cookies cutter on the polymer clay, press to cut it out.

If your polymer clay is big enough, you can do 2 bears together. Otherwise, repeat the kneading, rolling and pressing on the balance polymer clay.

Use a hollow rod to punch a hole for the keychain ring.
I used the flat end of a used ball pen ink cartridge.

Position the rhinestones on the bear with tweezers. I used 15 rhinestones, you can decide how many to use depending on your bear size and rhinestone size.

Use the rod to press the rhinestones down so that they sink into the polymer clay.

After all the rhinestones are pressed, set it aside and wait for baking.
Preheat your oven to 210 F or follow the instruction come with the polymer clay.

Place all your polymer clay crafts onto a metal sheet or baking tray.
Cure for 30 minutes or as per instruction on the packing.

After it is baked and cured, take out from oven and let it cool to room temperature.
Install keychain ring or other jewelry accessories.
~ Done ~