Polymer Clay Tags

I have always wanted to make the clay tags that are so popular on the blogs.  I was so excited that my sponsor Wholeport.com offered polymer clay.  I ordered some and was most anxious to try making the them.

Here are the supplies you will need:

(it is always best to designate your clay crafting supplies to be just for clay and not for baking anymore)

polymer clay

rolling pin

parchment paper

cookie cutter of desired shape

4-5 straws

sand paper, sand (or any desired texture)

baking sheet

disposable vinyl gloves (optional) 
translucent color glaze (optional)
string or suitable ties

You first need to unwrap your clay and condition it.  I simply folded it back and forth and worked it like dough, smoothing out a desired shape to then roll out.  The clay was stiff to begin with but the longer I worked with it the easier it was to shape.  It had a great texture that got better the more I handled it.

For my work surface I just used parchment paper on top of a table.  I also used a piece of parchment paper on top of my clay when I rolled it out.  Rolling it out between the parchment paper kept it from sticking to any tools and made for a smoother clay surface.

I am making round tags so a fondant cutter was perfect for the shape and size of tag I wanted to create.

When handling the tags I used a pair of disposable vinyl gloves.  This kept my fingerprints off of the finished product and made the clay easy to work with. 

The hole for my tags was created with a drinking straw.  I used it on about 4-5 tags and then had to get a new straw to cut a clean hole in my tags.

For summer, I wanted to create tags with a sea theme.  So I used some sea creatures and shells from my collection to emboss the tags.  You can order these online from a number of suppliers.  The tags I created were 2 1/4 inched across.  The perfect width to roll these would be 1/8-1/4 inch thick.  

Here is a sample of the tags I created.  I made 15 in all.  I choose the tan and white color of polymer clay because it resembled the Atlantic sand and the Gulf of Mexico's sand.  I wanted to give the tags some texture around the shell/creatures I pressed into them and I at first used real sand to try to make texture but, that was a bit of a mess.  The sand doesn't go on evenly and it sticks to the clay and won't come off.

So, then I tried using coarse sand paper, this is 60 grit, and that worked great.

Here is a tag all made and ready for the oven.  I baked the clay tags at 265-275 degrees F (129-135 degrees C) for 15 minutes.  Allow to cool completely.  I let mine sit overnight.

Here are the finished tags.  I took them after they cooled a bit and wiped them down with a translucent color glaze, made for faux painting.  I used Valspar in Mocha.  A grey would work nicely too.

These have the sandpaper texture.

 The translucent glaze helps define the pattern a little more.

I actually liked the ones that had a few grains of sand embedded into them the best, like this tag.  It just made it look more natural.  

The only thing I would do differently is that I would have rolled the clay to 1/8 inch think.  I think my tags are a bit too thick.  They are around 1/4 inch think.  I loved the polymer clay from Wholeport!  I would recommend it highly!  The more I worked it the easier it was to use and it performed perfectly.  

Thank you Wholeport for sponsoring this polymer clay project.

 Sherry

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