In
2004, I took a trip to see my grandsons who lived in Texas. At the time, there
were two of them, with number three due any day. On July 17, 2006, I leave to
see them again, only now they are in Washington and there are 4 of them! All
boys. beadyeyedbrat Purple Dinosaurs
In
2004, I took a trip to see my grandsons who lived in Texas. At the time, there
were two of them, with number three due any day. On July 17, 2006, I leave to
see them again, only now they are in Washington and there are 4 of them! All
boys.
In '04, I made polymer clay hearts with the initials of the boys in them and put them on my suitcase so it would be easier to spot in the airport. The oldest wanted them, so this time I'm making these to give to them. They will pick the ones they like best right off of Grandma's suitcase. The plan is to take a heart shaped cookie cutter with me to have the boys help me make new tags. The baby won't be much help unless it's moral support.
How I done it
The actual size of the dinos is about 4 1/2" from nose to tail and 2" from back ridges to bottoms of feet. I rolled out two plain layers at #1 on the pm, stacked and trimmed close to size of dino cutter. I covered a #3 sheet with cane slices, dots and swirls, placed on the plain stack and trimmed, making sure the stack was stuck good and tight to the tile I was working on. Then I laid a piece of plastic wrap on top and smoothed out the wrinkles. The cutter was placed over the stack to get most of the purty stuff and firm pressure was applied. When I was sure I had a good outline, but hadn't cut all the way through the plastic wrap, I removed the cutter, carefully. Then I removed the plastic wrap, carefully. Replaced the cutter in the grooves so they matched up and put even, firm pressure all around. When I was pretty sure I had cut all the way through all of the layers, I started peeling away the clay. DO NOT remove the cutter until you have peeled away all of the clay or you risk losing a leg or part of the tail. Okay, now remove the cutter, slowly, and watch to be sure you aren't dismembering your dino. I left mine on the tile for awhile to let the clay molecules rest awhile while I worked on the next one. Once #2 was done, I scraped my blade under the dino to remove from the tile and place on baking surface. When all were done, I poked holes in their little backs to thread ball chain through for the luggage tags. Btw, the detailed lines you see are part of the cutter.
You will probably not need yours as thick as these, but they will be bounced around bus terminals and abused by 4 boys under the age of 8, so I erred on the side of a lot o' clay.
I purposely put fish cane slices on the dinos, just so the boys can tell Grandma how silly she is. They may have the only fish covered dinosaurs on the planet. Cool!
copyright 2006 beadyeyedbrat