Polymer Clay and Stamps

It's only taken a year but I have finally gotten around to trying out what Kirstie Allsopp showed us all in her handmade christmas programme last year!  Better late than never.  I purchased some packs of Fimo White Polymer Oven Bake Clay from eBay a while back, think it only cost £1.50 a block so not expensive.  Here is what my first batch came out like.

They clay is quite 'stiff' but you just knead it for a few minutes in your hands and it soon softens up.  I rolled out small quantities to about 3mm thick, I did this using just a pen as I don't have a roller small enough but it worked fine.  Next I took some of my rubber stamps, you can use clear stamps as well just make sure they are good quality as some are too soft to make an impression, and pressed quite firmly into the clay.  I also tried using some buttons, you need to experiment with different types as some buttons don't work so well and just look weird.  

Next it was into a low oven, 120C, for 30 mins on a baking sheet or you could use a ceramic tile like Kirstie did.  Let them cool down for a while and then either leave plain, or decorate them with paints.  You can also trim away any unsightly edges at this point and sand them back if they are a little rough.  They clay is set when it comes out but is not like pottery, it still has some flexibility to it, almost rubber like if that makes sense.

Some close up shots. The images really do stamp rather well, better than I thought.

 I love this script stamp and as you can see I didn't clean it properly before using so am left with some ink residue.  Rethinking this I would now probably ink the stamps before using them and see what that looks like.  I freehand cut round mine but using cookie cutter shapes would be much better and cleaner looking, I was just too lazy to get mine out of the box!

Wouldn't this cute little snowflake make lovely tags on pressies or cards.  You would need a hole to put thread through which should normally be done before you bake them but if you have one of the Cropadiles this will punch through the clay real easy.

Since using this I've heard about another type of clay which is paper clay and cures by air drying, Martha Stewart makes some but is a bit pricey.  Have now found some on Panduro Hobby which is much better value, you can view what they have for sale here.

If you've been playing around with clay and have any useful tips I 'd love to hear from you.  For instance I did hear that using the Fimo Clay in your oven isn't particularly good for your food!  Is this true?

Thanks for popping by.

Lolo 

xx