Friday, March 2, 2012

Project - Cute Clay Tags

Hi Everyone,

Something special it happening today! Jen at I Heart Organizing is having a pretty organizing project link party. You should definitely have a look and submit a link if you have a project!

I have a mini project for you today. If you read regularly, you know that I'm in the process of finishing my daughter Lucie's room and part of the finishing is organizing it. I'm putting everything into containers and those containers need labels so she knows what goes where. Here's the thing, I didn't want typical labels, I wanted to make something cute and different. I was reading Sania Pell's book The Handmade Home, which is a lovely, wonderful book, and I saw some cute tags made from paper clay that I thought would fit the bill.

Sania's book with the wonderful idea:


These are adorable!... (Hers are much nicer than mine. That's why she writes books ;-)




Here are the materials: you need air-dry paper clay, something to roll the clay with, something with which to cut the clay into a shape, and something to put letters into the clay. Oh, I should mention that I'm terrible at tutorials. You don't need a tut anyway, it's pretty self-explanatory.






This is the paper-clay, I got it at Hobby Lobby.

So, I rolled the clay out to a thickness of... some... fraction of an inch... it's thin(ish) and I cut it out with a biscuit cutter that's about 1.5 inches in diameter.




Then I stamped it with rubber stamps and poked a hole in it with a drill bit that was laying around. (we're working on the kitchen too, so we have all kinds of construction bits laying about.) Then you let it dry for at least twenty-four hours.

I didn't worry about perfect placement. I wanted them to look natural, and kind of organic. Which is a good thing because I have no idea how to make them perfectly aligned.










I decided that rather than use ribbons to tie them on, I'd use strips of the fabric from Lucie's room.









Here are the cut strips, I just used the rotary cutter and lopped off an edge.



Here they are with the fabric "ribbons." These strips of fabric and going to fray at the edges over time, which is the effect that I wanted. You can also wet your finger and smooth any rough edges on the clay, if you're so inclined.



Here it is on one of the strappy baskets that I nabbed from target for $2.50. We gave Lu our old camera when I got my new one and now she has a place to keep it and all of the various cords and manuals.



and here is the tag on the drawer where she keeps her hair stuff.



TA DAH! So there you go! Lu will have cute tags for all of the organizers in her room.

What do you think?

12 comments:

  1. I hope she isn't actually putting hair in the 'hair' bin! ;)
    Love them. Super cute. Nice execution.

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  2. Those are nice! They really dress up good but otherwise plain bins.

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  3. Very cute, Heather!

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  4. Terrific! Both your post and the tags!

    And see, you could pull away from designing on the computer for a while...even if this is also designing. I hope miss Lu are very happy with her new tags! Great work Heather! And an excellent tutorial! Now you are not allowed to say anymore that you can't do tutorials! Because you can!

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  5. Using clay for labels, I love it! Fantastic!

    Jeanette

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  6. i love your tags... or lucie's tags that you made. so beautiful and practical! i love the fabric ties too! Sweet job heather!

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  7. Thanks guys!

    Maria - thank you for the vote of confidence! I don't think you'd want me explaining anything that required multiple, detailed steps though, TRUST ME.

    Jeanette & Leah, Thank you! I'm thinking of a do-over to make them a little neater...

    T - she's saving it for Uncle Buck, if he changes his mind about hair.

    Morgen - we don't. You will just have to come to NH with me sometime and hit all of the craft/fabric stores down there!

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  8. So nice! Will try this out as soon as I can get my hands on some clay.

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  9. Wow, I think you get the award for most unique and fabulous labels! I have never seen something so sweet, but I am in love! And the fabric pieces are so pretty as well!

    Thank you so much for linking up and sharing!

    xoxo,
    Jen

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  10. SOOOO cute! I just used that clay this weekend for my Pinterest Challenge project! These tags are adorable, I think I need more clay!

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  11. Thank you so much! I'm so glad you like them!

    ...that clay is addictive. ;-)

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