Easy clay tags

Today I am taking a breather.  The kids are at school, its overcast, the fire is going, and a Hallmark movie is playing and I am sitting here taking a breath, doing some writing and finishing up the Christmas cards.  My kids have 3 weeks of school between Thanksgiving vacation and the start of Christmas vacation and that has been filled with lots of soccer, errands, and a lot of life.  It's been great!  We have one more week and it's crunch time!

This week, one of my goals  was to work on my gift wrapping for the year.  This year, I decided to try making tags from Sculpey bake-able clay.  I've always wanted to play with this stuff for fun and not for kids class projects (like the time Ethan needed to create some sort of 3 dimensional version of his wolf-finnick fox hybrid or a model stegosaurus).  This time, I got to play with it and I had so much fun!  It was like playing with play doh for adults!  

I rolled it out and cut out my shapes.  Basically, like making sugar cookies. . . except flour isn't everywhere and you don't get to eat them when you're finished! 

I poked a hole a the top of each one with a random chopstick that I found. 

 

I have gathered some beautiful stamps over the years, and it was so much fun to use them for something other than paper!  I picked some of my favorite words, wreaths, and snow flakes and I carefully pressed them into the clay, making sure each little part made it's way in. Then, I very carefully lifted them out and placed them on the baking sheet.  

While, I was doing this, I preheated the oven to 285*F.  I baked them for 15-20 minutes and then let them cool.  If you want to paint them, this is when you do that.  I left mine white since I was going for a splash of white with each present.

 Then, I wrapped up my first present.  I can't wait to finish my shopping so I can finish!  So cheers to the weekend, cups of marshmallow topped hot chocolate, cheesy Christmas movies, and wrapping presents!