Sam celebrated his second birthday a couple of weeks ago. The occasional tantrum and two-year-old stubborn streak aside, we're having a great time. As he grows and develops his own personality, we find ourselves enjoying him more and more.

But I've gotta admit something.

If you looked at his baby book, you'd think he was still 3 months old. That is, if you could find his baby book. I know generally which closet it's in... but I haven't actually seen it since, well, who knows when.

I know I should be keeping track of the important things... and I do have various notes and photos. They're just spread out on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and a couple of different hard drives. I've always had a mental block against scrapbooking — I think because I hate to commit my memories to embellishment & paper styles that will so quickly look outdated. I just assumed that some maternal instinct would take over and I'd become queen of the baby book. But that hasn't happened.

So I was kind of proud of myself for remembering to buy (and use!) the Sculpey Keepsake Clay Frame Kit on Sam's 2nd birthday. By golly, we may not know what happened between months 3 and 24, but we do have his 2-year-old hand prints preserved for all time. I'm hoping that counts for something.

Maternal pride (such as it is) aside, I wanted to share my thoughts on this kit for any of you who might be considering using it with your little ones.

Sculpey Keepsake Clay Oven-Bake Clay and Frame Set

The box comes with the following:

• 4.5 ounces of white clay
• plastic clay roller
• plastic pointy modeling tool
• metal hinged double frame
• white photo mat (fits a 4"×6" or 5"×7" photo)
• clear plastic pane to protect the photo and mat

It also includes these two things that I didn't include in my photo:

• the instructions, which are printed on the inside of the box
• ... and a perforated cardboard spacer sheet to make the photo fit snugly in the frame. Apparently. (More on that below.)

I set Sam up in his art area and gave him a little ball of the clay to play with while I kneaded and rolled out the clay sheet for the frame. Sam's not big on getting his hands dirty (we have to use paintbrushes with our fingerpaints), so I hoped he'd try out the clay first, making him more receptive to the hand print part.

The instructions say to start with clean hands and knead the clay for 2 minutes. When I'm reviewing things that are intended for clay newbies, I try to follow the directions fairly closely. So even though this was kind of a large block of clay to knead all at once, that's what I did. Then I used the included roller to roll out the clay until it filled the frame. I'm accustomed to using a pasta machine to roll clay out, so I didn't like having to do this the hard way. (Clayers could probably stack 2-3 sheets rolled out at the thickest setting to get the right thickness... but again, I was trying to use the kit the way someone new to clay would.) I think the size of the plastic roller made this process more difficult than it needed to be. If they had included a larger roller — heavier or wider, or even just longer than the frame so I wasn't having to make multiple passes — it might have been easier to get the clay completely level and even with the top of the frame.

After I had a fairly level sheet of clay, I brought it over to Sam. I noticed he'd completely ignored the clay ball, opting instead to color with his crayons. I tried explaining what we were doing and demonstrating by pressing my hand into the extra clay, but he was very reluctant. When we tried the first hand print, he pulled his hand away as soon as things got squishy. Not a good impression at all. He let me try with the second hand, though, and then he decided it wasn't so bad. Still, I wasn't thrilled with the results, so I rolled the clay out again. He didn't mind the clay the second time around, but I still wasn't happy with the impression. I tried pressing his hand down harder, but I started to worry I was going to hurt him. The flawless, deep impressions from the beauty shot on the box just weren't happening for us. In fact, the only reason the hand prints show up as much as they do is that the instructions forgot to mention (and I didn't think of it until too late) that I needed to clean his hands, too. Think how hard it is to keep white clay clean anyway. Now think how dirty little boys' hands get. Yeah, kind of a mess.

I almost broke my "use what's in the box" review rule to pull out some of my stamps for the name and age. I kinda wish I had. Instead, I used the modeling tool they included, and I wasn't thrilled with the amateurish look that gave. But at the point where you've rolled out the clay and gotten a 2-year-old to cooperate with hand prints multiple times, you're not just about to start again just so you can re-write the name and age!

Baking was a piece of cake (sorry!), as was the assembly. The only thing I didn't care for was the next-to-last step where they told me to carefully remove the perforated cardboard spacer sheet from the cardboard package insert. Apparently part of that utilitarian-looking cardboard packaging I threw away was a spacer essential to getting my photo to fit snugly in the frame. Partially my fault, sure. And I've got other things that'll work as spacers. But it would have been nice if they'd made it a little more obvious I was supposed to keep that piece.

What I Liked

• Convenience. A parent or grandparent with no prior clay experience could buy this kit and have everything they need. Clayers who already have the tools may be interested, too, since it includes a very nice double-sided frame, mat, pane, and the clay. Sure, you could buy the supplies separately to put together your own project, but it can be nice to have everything you need in one box. (On the other hand, you do pay for the convenience of having everything you need in one box. While $20 may not be outrageous, you'll definitely want to use one of those handy-dandy 40% off coupons.)
• Well-written Instructions. I felt like Polyform did a good job on the included instructions and illustrations.

What I Didn't Like

• The Roller. Including a larger or heftier roller — or even just suggesting folks use the side of a big empty jar instead — probably would have made the rolling-out process easier.
• The Results. I didn't feel like the clay took a good hand impression. I thought maybe I would have some clay on hand that would work just as well, but even my UltraLight was firmer than the included clay. Maybe they just need to give us tips on getting better impressions — perhaps a certain position to have the kid hold their hands? I also wasn't crazy about the way my hand-carved name and age looked. I'm sure it wouldn't be cost-effective to include letter and number stamps in the box. But maybe include nice labels to stick onto (or slide into) the frame? Or a polymer-compatible pen to write on the clay? Or maybe even just some tips on how to best use their modeling tool to write on clay...?

Overall, I'm glad I bought the kit. I'm not entirely happy with the results — in fact, I'm still tempted to pry the clay out of the frame and try again (definitely wouldn't do the hand-carved name this time around). But even just like this, it looks pretty nice. And it makes me feel slightly less bad about all those empty pages in Sam's baby book. :-)

Product Details

The Sculpey Keepsake Clay Oven-Bake Clay and Frame Set is available for $20 at Michaels. It comes in White (reviewed here), Pale Pink, and Pale Blue. Other products in the Keepsake Clay line include the Handprint Ornament Kit, Pawprint Ornament Kit, Family Tree, and Zoo Growth Chart.

More clay for the kiddos! If you liked this post, you might also be interested in my review of the Fun Forms Piggy Bank and the Bobble Buddies (coming soon).

Reviewed Materials Source / Disclaimer: I purchased the Sculpey Keepsake Clay Frame Set for personal and review purposes. No compensation was received. I always strive to be honest and unbiased in my reviews, but your results with this product may vary.

Posted in: Polymer Clay , Reviews | Comments (3)

Some of you have probably already seen this site. It's part of a promotion by Hotels.com, where they let you create a claymation-style avatar of yourself. (There's even a contest where you can win hotel stays, trips, etc.)

Course, I'm blogging about it because using their little widget can be a helpful exercise for a clayer. As you play with it, consider how the changes in the position of the eyes, eyebrows, nose, and mouth affect the character of the figure. Think about how you might make some of the features in polymer clay. If you're feeling ambitious, recreate your avatar using polymer clay. Then use the widget to make 5 other interesting characters (try the "randomize" feature), and recreate those in clay, too.

What a fun way to practice making faces! :-)

Posted in: Inspiration , Polymer Clay

I just wanted to let my local readers know that I'm doing a book signing to promote Polymer Clay 101 tomorrow (Saturday, February 19th) from 3-5 p.m. at Full Circle Bookstore in Oklahoma City. This is part of their monthly New Ink Author Expo, where they highlight all the local authors who have new books.

This is a pretty casual event, so even if you already have the book, you can stop to chat or send along family or friends who might be interested in learning about polymer clay (or about the other local authors!). Folks can browse through the book and ask questions, plus they can see some of the actual projects I created for the book. The books will be available to purchase from the bookstore.

Full Circle Bookstore is on the first level of 50 Penn Place, which is at the corner of NW Expressway and Penn in Oklahoma City.

Hope to see ya there!

Posted in: CraftyGoat.com News | Comments (4)

The baking (and maybe even sanding & buffing!) is all done. You've finished a polymer clay masterpiece, and you're proud of it. But how do you put that final mark on it to show you made it?

There are lots of options for signing your work. Some artists use a polymer clay-compatible pen or marker (try Krylon or Prismacolor) and sign their actual name. Others use initials, a business logo or another unique symbol.

Another easy and nice-looking option is to use a stamp. Custom rubber stamps are available from a variety of sources, but I've found address stamps to be the right size and a good price. And they're very flexible in their uses. You can use them before or after baking, with or without ink. (Here's more tips on stamping polymer clay.)

I originally just used my normal mailing address stamp on unbaked clay, positioning the stamp close enough to the edge of the clay piece so it would impress only the top line (my name) and not the address lines. But I've since bought a stamp that only has my name. I purchased both stamps from VistaPrint, who offers a basic rubber stamp for "free" (you pay about $6 in shipping/handling charge). In addition to the free basic stamps, VistaPrint has the option of uploading artwork, signatures, etc. for address and signature stamps that start at $9. They send a plastic stamp casing if you want to assemble it, but I keep my name stamp unmounted and trim it down to a very small size for easy positioning on the clay.

Of course, I have to admit that I don't always remember to sign my work. Until recently, it just never occurred to me. Do you sign your work? How?

Posted in: Polymer Clay , Quick Tips | Comments (6)

A couple of posts back, I shared my thoughts on Pluffy Clay — a clay that's marketed for kids but also has some potential uses in a clayer's studio. Now I want to talk about a couple of Polyform's other "for kids" products. I'm reviewing them from a clayer's perspective — things I think they do well or could improve on. Since my little one's not quite old enough to help me review these, I'm having to guess about what the kiddos would and wouldn't like. If you've tried any of these products with your own kids or grandkids, I hope you'll add your experiences in the comments.

Fun Forms Piggy Bank

The kit creates either a cow or pig "piggy bank." I'd considered making a polyclay-covered piggy bank before, but had a little trouble finding a form to cover. So this seemed ideal. The kit comes with the form, four colors of clay (pink, black, white, and light blue), a roller, and a kid-friendly tool.

What I Liked

• The form is made from some sort of oven-safe plastic-ish material. It's a light pink — the base color of the cow or pig — so you don't need to cover it with a base layer of clay. Covering the base is generally the hardest part of a project — and the least artistically satisfying — so it's nice that the kit lets you skip that.
• The head of the form is re-positionable up until you bake it... so you can make your pig look to the side if you want.
• The instructions have illustrations showing the size of each clay piece you're supposed to add to the form.

What I Didn't Like

• With just four colors of clay, your options for embellishment are a little limited. I'd also like to see some alternate photos that give ideas for creative embellishments — perhaps a striped pig or a cow with flowers instead of spots.
• The beauty shot on the box doesn't use the form that's included. Maybe I'm just being picky, but it kinda made me mad. The beauty shot uses a pig with short squat-y legs and a larger head. He's cute. The form has longer, skinnier legs and a (too-)small head. Here's what I think happened: They originally intended the kit to be just a pig (like the horse, dog, teddy bear, etc. kits in the series). They made the original beauty samples for the box based on that. Then someone said, hey, we could make the pig into a piggy bank. They discovered the squatty legs wouldn't allow for the coin plug in bottom, so they adjusted the form's shape. But they never went back and updated the box. This all matters because, if I'm a kid and I'm following their exact instructions (making the eyes and ears the same exact size as the illustrations), then I want my pig to look just like the one on the box. And that won't happen, because the box photo is wrong. Not nice. (Okay, rant over.)
• The clay sticks to my fingers, but it doesn't stick to the things it's supposed to stick to. Like the other clay. Or the pig form. The pig form seems to chemically bond to the clay during baking, so you don't need glue to get pieces to stick. But this doesn't help before baking. I kept making the perfect round little clay spots for my pig, then when I tried pressing them on, they would stick to my finger and distort. The only thing that helped was dusting my fingertip with cornstarch before pushing the spots onto the pig. That, and using larger and thicker clay pieces instead of the small delicate pieces that were more prone to sticking to my fingers.

Overall, though, I had a cute enough little pig when I finished. Sam's a budding Toy Story fan, so he was excited that mommy had made a "Ham." After baking the pig and taking the photo, I decided to let Sam give it a "durability test." It survived a good 2 hours, complete with lots of falls to the floor, before its little tail broke off at the base. That was a thin piece of curled clay, with very little contact to the pig form. The ears that had more contact with the form survived the falls just fine. I consider anything fairly durable that can hold up to a 2-year-old boy's rough treatment!

Product Details

• The Firefly Pluffy Fun Forms Piggy Bank sells at Michaels for $9.99. The package indicates it is for kids ages 8+. Other kits in the Fun Forms series include Horse/Zebra, Funky Creature, Dog/Lion, and Bear.

Stay tuned for a couple more reviews in this series, including the Bobble Buddies and Keepsake Clay Frame Kit... and a giveaway!

Reviewed Materials Source / Disclaimer: The Firefly Pluffy Fun Forms Piggy Bank kit was provided by the manufacturer, Polyform Products, for review purposes. No further compensation was received. I always strive to be honest and unbiased in my reviews, but your results with this product may vary.

Posted in: Polymer Clay , Reviews , Supplies & Tools

Three quick social-media related updates:

1. If you're on Facebook or Twitter, you can get a free bonus chapter from Polymer Clay 101 just by tweeting or posting a status message. (I'm using a very handy new service called Pay with a Tweet to do this.) The download will show you how to make faux polymer clay pebbles and use them to cover a light switch plate.
2. Speaking of Facebook, I (finally) started a Facebook page — feel free to "like" it. (You can find links to my other online presences here.)
3. I recently set my blog up with Flattr, a site that allows users to give and receive micropayments for useful online content. Look for the Flattr button at the bottom of each blog post.

We got close to a foot of snow when the big storm passed through, so I'm hiding inside with chai tea, crock-pot yummies, and a blanket in every room. Hope you're staying warm wherever you are!

Posted in: CraftyGoat.com News