Please welcome Jessica–our guest blogger for today! I “met” Jessica on twitter and when I put my call out for guest bloggers, she quickly replied! I have yet to try my hand at polymer clay so I have been looking forward to this tutorial. Check out her blog and etsy shop.

Well, hello there, readers! It’s a pleasure to see you on this fiiiine summer day. I’m really excited to be a Guest Blogger here for Christy and I hope you’re excited, too!

First off, allow me to introduce myself. I’m Jessica from Frosted Treats. I specialize in all sorts of crafts — from scrapping, to sewing, to sculpting, and beyond. I’m from the great state of New Jersey and I blog about and (attempt to) sell my creations to support my crafting habit.

While I have been a sorta-crafter most of my life, my jump to becoming a craft-blogger started about a year ago when I got hooked on sculpting with Polymer Clay (PC). I spotted some ADORABLE mini cupcake charm necklaces and I had to know how to make them for myself! I got to work searching for tips, tricks, techniques and tutorials on how to make all sorts of goodies and here I am today.

Sculpting with PC requires patience, persistence, and a steady hand. Today I’ll be walking you through a project that’s a great way to get started on your PC hobby (addiction). Let’s take a look at a cute lil strawberry charm.

Let’s gather our supplies. Polymer clay comes in many brands, all of which have their ups and downs. I use Sculpey III as it’s inexpensive and it comes in a multitude of colors.

I have Red Hot Red (583) and Leaf Green (322) for this project. PC normally costs about $1-3 per brick, depending on the brand. Sculpey is the least expensive. I also gathered a thick needle, an eye pin, a tooth pick, and a paint brush with a rounded bottom. Make sure your work surface is clean and flat. I use a plate of glass salvaged from an old cabinet for my work surface. Also, make sure your hands are CLEAN. I keep baby wipes on hand for a quick clean between colors. Clean your hands and tools whenever you switch from one color to another.

Also, I invested in some Translucent Liquid Sculpey (TLS).

This will be the most expensive part of your PC habit. It runs about $7-8 and can be found in most stores that carry PC. It’s an invaluable tool, trust me. This stuff is what keeps your pieces together so that you won’t have to smush them all together and have your colors mix. A dab’ll do ya, so this bottle lasts.

Now that we have our tools, let’s get busy!

Shape your red piece into a sort of bullet shape. Blunt, rounded bottom with a wider top that’s flat-ish. A strawberry shape.

Take your needle and make little indents to be your “seed” designs. I usually put my marks in a sort-of “checker board” pattern and space them out around the whole berry. Set your berry down and grab the green.

Now take your green and cut it into 4 equal-ish portions. The leaves don’t need to be completely uniform.

Take one green portion and shape it into a little pellet.

Flatten your piece between your fingers.

Pinch the ends a bit to give it a nice leafy-shape.

Grab your needle again and scour in some leaf marks. Make one long stroke down the middle and then some marks fanning out. Go through this process again for all of your leaves. Set them aside for now.

Take your paint brush bottom and poke an indent into the top of your berry. Round it out and make it look nice and natural. Your leaves will be sprouting out from this indent.

Using your toothpick, drip a bit of your TLS into this indent.

Dab some TLS on the backs of your leaves, also.

Start placing your leaves on your berry, but be careful not to smush them down too much and distort your markings. The TLS will act as glue once the clay is baked.

Here’s my berry! Now to turn it into something you could hang from a necklace or bracelet.

Cut your eye pin down so that it’s small enough to fit into your berry without poking through the sides.

I usually bend the end of my eye pin at a 45* angle so that it won’t pull out of the berry while it’s in use.

Stick your eye pin into the top of your berry and push it all the way down.

Another way I keep my pins from pulling out is to dab a little TLS around where the pin meets the berry. This will turn clear when it’s baked and will again act as glue.

And there you have it! Take a look at the packaging of the PC to see how long to bake your piece for. Normally its 275* for 15mins/per 1/4 inch of thickness. Be sure not to over bake your piece, it will burn and discolor!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial! I hope this little project will help you dive into the fun of sculpting with Polymer Clay! Please post photos of your creations, I’d love to see them!