
How to make a New Year's gift – DIY polymer clay snow globe, step-by-step photos and description
On the eve of the New Year holidays, this appearsa lot of joyful chores. It is necessary to think over the menu, outfits for the party, decorations for the Christmas tree and the room. And of course, do not forget about gifts for family and friends. The shopping fever of pre-holiday days, as well as the search for original and cute gifts can be quite exciting, but very exhausting. In this article, we will make a wonderful gift that can decorate any interior - a snow globe. This small thing will give a snowy New Year even to residents of warm southern territories.So, to make a thermoplastic snow globe, we will need:
- Thermoplastic (color white, green, black, yellow, brown and shades of cherry wood);
- Liquid plastic;
- Acrylic white paint;
- Water with glycerin;
- Brush of high rigidity;
- Usual culinary foil;
- Sealant on silicone (for aquaria);
- Epoxy adhesive;
- Toothpicks;
- Nail scissors
- Stationery knife;
- Toothbrush;
- Universal Stack;
- A small dish;
- A jar with a lid, which can be twisted (a jar of pickles or natural yoghurts is suitable);
- Sequins (foam foam or any other substitute for snow).
Snowy hill.Roll a tight ball out of the foil. Try it on the neck of the jar, there should be a gap of about 3 - 4 mm around the perimeter between the ball and the glass. If the ball is larger, then after we decorate it with clay, it simply will not fit. Before you start working with clay, you need to thoroughly clean the work surface, since polymer clay, especially white, is very sensitive to dirt. Now thoroughly knead the white polymer clay and roll it into a layer 2 mm thick. Take our foil ball and wrap it with white thermoplastic. Carefully squeeze it so that there are no gaps. Put our snowball on the lid and cover it with a jar on top. The ball should still fit freely through the opening of the jar. Press it slightly against the lid to get a flat bottom for stability. Take the ball out and go over the entire surface with tapping movements with a toothbrush. This is how we got a real snow-covered hill.House. Knead brown and white plastic.Mix thoroughly until you get a light brown shade. Now you need to form a rectangular block from it. You determine the dimensions of the blank yourself - this is our future house on a snowy hill. Our blank turned out to be 2 x 1.5 x 1.5 cm. Take a knife and make horizontal grooves on all sides of the block. This is an imitation of wooden logs, from which our house is built. Now cut off two triangular parts from the block (see photo).
Roll out the brown clay into a 2 mm layer.Cut out a rectangle 2 cm wide and about 3 cm long. This will be the future roof. You may have other dimensions. The main thing is that the width and length of the roof should be slightly larger than the triangular part of the house. Now fold our brown rectangle in half, placing it across on the blunt side of the knife. Attach our roof to the house. Take brown thermoplastic and roll it into a sausage. This will be the future pipe for the house. Attach it to the roof and use a toothpick to make a hole in the center, like a real pipe.
We knead the yellow plastic and roll it into a verythin layer. Cut out 2 windows (larger and smaller). Attach the large one to the side where the pipe is on the roof, and the small one to the front wall of the house closer to the roof. Make a door out of a small piece of cherry clay and attach it under the small window in the central part of the house. Mix the remains of the light brown clay with the cherry clay and roll out the resulting red-brown thermoplastic into a rope about 0.7 mm thick. Make frames for the windows from this rope. Roll a similar rope out of brown clay and make a door frame. Form a round cake out of a small piece of this rope - a door handle. Christmas tree. Knead the green thermoplastic. Now you need to form a cone out of it. You determine the height yourself, whichever you like. Ours is about 4 cm. Pierce it with a toothpick in the center. Now hold the tree by the toothpick and make small cuts with scissors. If you have slightly curved manicure scissors, use them. The more cuts you make, the more lush the tree will be. Now remove the tree from the toothpick. We made another small tree in a similar way.
We take our snowball and attach a house to it.Next to the house, insert toothpicks greased with liquid plastic and put the Christmas trees on them. Use a stack to press a path in the snow to the house. Make several holes along the perimeter with a stack, we will then place a fence at the bottom. Now we mold a tiny snowman from white thermoplastic. We cut the brown polymer clay flagellum that we have left into sticks for the fence.
Mix the white in a separate bowlthermoplastic and liquid clay, you can mix it with your hands first, and then with a stick. The consistency should be like whipped cream. Insert the pegs from the fence into the holes made earlier, and place our snowman next to the house. For the nose, you can mix a little cherry and yellow plastic, and for the coal buttons, take black. When all the parts are in place, we begin to “fill” everything with snow. Apply a little of our white “cream” to the roof of the house, the door frame, the window frames, the Christmas trees, and the fence. Send our workpiece to the oven. You should strictly adhere to the temperature and time indicated on the clay package. When the product has cooled, we begin to assemble. The bottom of the ball and the lid of the jar must be thoroughly degreased, wipe them with alcohol. Mix the glue components according to the instructions and glue the workpiece to the lid. Set aside for the time needed for hardening. It is specified in the instructions. After everything has glued and dried, take silicone sealant (the one used by aquarists will do) and apply it under the rim of the cap. You need to wait a little for it to start hardening, then the sealant will not stick.
Mix water and glycerin 1:1.Pour the liquid into the jar, but not to the very edge. Pour some foam plastic crumbs or glitter into the jar. Now all that's left is to cover the jar with a lid, screw it on and turn it over. The water shouldn't. If everything works out, take some white paint (acrylic) and a hard brush. Using patting motions, apply the paint to the bottom of the jar. It looks a lot like snow.
The final touch is the lid decor. Here you can do whatever you want: attach bows, tinsel, ribbons, in general, anything your imagination suggests.