TIME FOR ANOTHER GIVEAWAY!

Just on the off chance that anyone who used to enjoy and/or collect my clay art figurines still checks out this blog, I wanted to announce that I'm having another contest over on my Facebook fan page.

I haven't been creating my clay art for months because my time has been tied up with other projects, but I really miss it and I'm ready to get back to it. So in celebration, I'm giving away this little bear below:



If you'd like a chance to win this little bear, please click on this link to go to my Facebook fan page. If you're already a fan, just leave a comment and you'll be entered into the contest to win. If you're not yet a fan, become one and you'll receive two entries into the contest. If you recommend my fan page to friends who you believe will honestly enjoy my work, you'll also receive two entries. (They must leave a comment and tell me you sent them!) If you buy anything from my etsy store, you'll receive three chances to win! (there's not anything in my etsy store yet, but check back on Monday)

The contest will run until 12 a.m. Thursday night, and the winner will be announced Friday, August 13th. Who says Friday the 13th isn't lucky??

Clay Cut-Outs

When Design Originals asked me to do a book on Christmas ornaments, they wanted cute designs that would be quick and easy to make. I had some Kemper cutters on hand, and I started playing around with shapes and came up with some simple, but very cute designs using the teardrop, heart, and round cutters in various sizes.

The teddy bear, angel, and Santa Claus have pants made using a teardrop cutter. I used a small heart-shaped cutter to create the angel's and Santa's shoes. I turned the heart cut-out sideways, stretched the top up slightly and then cut it straight across, then attached to the bottom of the teardrop shapes. I did the same thing to create the teddy bear's stocking, just using a larger heart cutter. Santa's jacket was made using a larger heart cutter turned upside down. I rolled out a very thin piece of red clay with a pasta machine and then cut out rectangles that I gathered for the angel and teddy bear's tops.







The gingerbread men that Santa and the teddy bear are holding were made using a small flower shaped cutter.

It's a lot of fun to experiment with these small cutters and see what you come up with.