Homemade Air-dry clay recipe, and apple charm tutorial

Good morning fellow crafters. :]

To celebrate back to school,I'll share with you my homemade air-dry clay recipe and a little beginner's tutorial of how to make an apple charm.

An apple necklace would be a sweet gift for teachers or friends on the first day of school,don't you think? ♥

I adore anything miniature,I don't really know but teeny weeny things always seem to make me squeak! ^^

Of course you can skip the recipe and coloring part if you have bought polymer clay already,but I'll start with the ingredients so everyone can make something miniature today! :D

Homemade air-dry clay recipe (Air-dry, no baking required)

A unit (cup,spoon,handful whatever!) flour.

1 unit cornstarch.

1 unit all-purpose white glue (think Elmer's glue! ;)

Baby oil.

Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl except the baby oil until it forms clay.

First it's going to be reaaally sticky,and you'd probably hate your life and this blog (kidding) XD 

But after all the powder goes into the dough,life will be bright again. lol

Now that you have your clay,apply some baby oil to your hands and rub them well. (just a drop or two)

This will help soften your clay and prevent it from sticking on your hands while working. ;)

CONGRATULATIONS! You just made your very own air-dry clay! Do you want to color it? Let's get to it!

Put a piece of clay in your hand and add a drop or two of water colors/acrylic paints.

Now mush it in your hands (boy, how I love messy parts! )

Don't worry if you get paint all over your hands,the clay will absorb it in a flash. ;)

Keep rolling and twisting until the clay has a smooth-one-color effect.

Are you ready to make a cute miniature apple charm? Yeah? Color a ball of red clay just like we did witht he green one,and join me. :]

 Roll a little ball of red clay.

Using your thumb and index finger to form indentations at the bottom edges. Do this two times so you have 4 sides. ;)

 Using a toothpick, press down from the indentation to the bottom center of the apple to form a "cross" This is just to make it look like a real apple. ;)

 We'll make the leaves now. Roll a tiny piece of green clay,then flatten it and shape it like a leaf. Score some veins with a toothpick and you're done.

 Press it on the apple, a bit off-center. ;)

 To make the brown stem,I cut a tiny piece of a toothpick,and cover it with a tinier piece of brown clay.

Then poke it into the apple,this time right into the center! :D

Now to turn the apple into a charm,I used an eye-pin trimmed to the proper size using pliers and poked right behind the stem. Insert a jump ring and you're done!

There you go, leave it to dry ( time needed depends on thickness) and you have your very own apple necklace. :]

Here's one last pic. Say hello to Slowly, the star of my next polymer clay tutorial. *wink* *wink* :D

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.

Toodles,