How to Make Your Own Cute Signs
- 1). Soften a softball size amount of polymer clay. To soften the clay, knead it with your hands as you would a ball of dough.
- 2). Cover your work surface with wax paper. Throw the softened clay ball onto the center of the wax paper. Flatten the clay to a 3/4-inch thickness with your hands. Roll over the top of the flattened clay with a clay roller or an old rolling pin that you no longer use for cooking.
- 3). Cover a cookie sheet with tin foil. Place the thick sheet of clay on top of the tin foil. Cut the outline of the sign from the clay sheet with a clay cutter.
- 4). Create the sign's message by stamping it into the clay with a rubber stamp designed for clay or by carving out the letters with a knitting needle. Do not carve the letters all the way through the clay sheet, just make the indentation of the letters visible.
- 5). Sprinkle glass microbeads into the indented letters. Press the beads in place with your fingers. The microbeads baked into the clay make a plain sign cute. You can also glue glitter over the letters after the clay is baked.
- 6). Embellish the area around the letters with flat backed rhinestones, glass cabochons, bits of wire mesh, glass buttons or any other type of small decoration that can be heated in a warm oven.
- 7). Puncture a hole in the top of the clay sign with a knitting needle. Center the hole or make one on each corner, depending on how you wish to hang the sign. Plant identification signs only need one hole in the center so you can thread wire to dangle from a small shepherd's hook. Larger signs may need corner holes so they will hang evenly.
- 8). Bake the clay according to the package directions. Typically, this involves baking the clay in a warm 275 degree oven for up to 25 minutes.
- 9). Allow the baked sign to cool. Coat the back with clay glaze. Allow the glaze to dry. Flip the sign over and coat the clay section of the front with clay glaze using an artist's brush. Do not coat the embellishments.
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