Clay-Embellished Sunshine Journal

Materials:

6-1/4" x 4-1/4" blank journal
1 each FIMO soft polymer clay: yellow, white, blue
acrylic paint: yellow, white, brown, blue, green, purple
3 eyepins
Krylon gold metallic marker
22-gauge silver wire
pearl seed beads
white beading thread
decorative threads for tassel
Crafter's Pick The Ultimate Glue
corn starch
Amaco's Maureen Carlson's designer push mold: moon
beading needle
deckle scissors
nature texture sheets
drill and bit (smaller diameter than that of beads)
sand paper
sponge
paint brush
card stock
paper towels
wire cutters
round nose pliers
pasta machine or roller
baking pan
oven

Steps:

1. Cut card stock to size of journal cover.

2. Condition clay. For pale blue sky, two small clouds and two ponds, mix together half a package of white clay with a quarter package of blue. For sun faces and words, mix a quarter package of white clay with one-eighth package of yellow. The mountain and river are blue.

3. From pale yellow clay make a large sun face, two each of the smallest sun faces, two sunshines, and one each of the other words. Match small sun faces and the word sunshine back to back for tassel charms (figure A). Insert bent eyepin between the charm pieces, then press together. Lay yellow pieces on baking sheet.

5. Brush each piece lightly with corn starch, then add texture to pieces by rolling through pasta machine with texture sheets or by pressing with paper towel to represent sky, forests and water.

6. Bake all pieces according to package instructions.

7. With dampened sponge, lightly tap watered down light blue, blue and yellow paint onto pale blue pieces (figure C).

8. Paint top of mountain purple and bottom green. Wipe off paint, leaving color in recesses (figure D).

9. Lightly antique the charms and large face. Paint words blue. When paint is dry, sand lightly over words to reveal yellow clay (figure E).

10. Optional: Outline edges of large sun with gold marker.

11. Assemble all pieces onto card stock (figure F). Glue overlapping layers in place.

12. When glue is dry, drill holes for beading, following general guidelines of picture.

13. Thread needle. Starting at top of sun, on back side, put needle through hole, pick up a bead, then go back through same hole. Tie knot with tail and thread. Continue to next hole, repeating steps. At end, tie knot and glue to back side (figure G).

14. Glue beaded collage and two beaded pond pieces to journal cover (figure H).

15. When glue is dry, drill four holes in each corner of large collage for wires, drilling through clay and journal cover. Thread ends of a 10-inch wire through each corner. Use needle nose pliers to curl ends of wire (figure I). Secure wire ends to front of book with beading thread.

16. Cut card stock to fit inside cover. Glue in place to cover threads.

17. For tassel, string clay charms onto threads. Make tassel. Tie charms and tassel together, then glue end to inside back cover.