My Redbubble Shop

Sep 22, 2010

Polymer Clay Cupcake Tutorial


How to make cute cupcakes out of polymer clay
,
ready to hang on your bracelet, necklace, keychain
or wherever you need a cupcake to go.


Polymer clay cupcakes, the finished result
.
.
.


polymer clay cupcake tutorial - step 1 to 4

1. and 2. :
This is what you will need to craft your cupcakes.
I use Fimo clay but any polym
er clay will do.
The colours I used here are brown (Fimo colour:
No.7, Caramel) mixed with a tiny bit of black (No.9, Black), white (No.0, White) mixed
with some effect colour (No.52, Glitter White) and red (No.26, Cherry Red).
You'll need a cutter of some sort, an eye pin, a wire cutter in case you need to shorten your eye pin, some clear (Fimo) varnish and baby wipes.
I strongly recommend that you use varnish that is especially made for polymer clays as the clay can react with
certain types of varnish. You will constantly need the baby wipes because it's really important to clean your hands every time you change the clay colour you work with, especially if you go from a dark to a lighter colour.
Otherwise you'll have the darker clay mixed in with the light clay,
no
good at all!
Enough of it already, let's start crafting!


3.: Condition your clay. Work it with your hands until it's soft and workable.

4.: Roll your clay out into the form of a sausage, then cut off equal amounts of clay. These will be the base for your cupcake.


polymer clay cupcake tutorial - step 5 to 10
5.and 6.: Shape one of the cupcake bases first into a ball, then flatten the ball and roll it
on one side with your finger so you get a cupcake base form (see picture 6.)
Clean your hands with your baby wipes thoroughly.

7.: Make a thin sausage with your white clay and a slightly thinner sausage with your red clay.

8., 9. and 10.: Wrap the red sausage around the white one (8.), twist the two colours slightly so you get a tighter design (9.), then roll the newly formed striped sausage gently with your hand
so you get a smooth and even blend of the red with the white (10.).

polymer clay cupcake tutorial - step 11 to 14
11.: Make a small ball out of white clay and place it on your cupcake base.
This
is your cupcake filling.

12.: Now wrap the striped snake around your cupcake filling in a way that
real cream would do (see picture 13.)

14.: At this point I noticed that my cupcake bases were way too long, they resembled flowerpots more then pastry, so I just cut the base a bit shorter.
Almost all mistakes can be fixed somehow :)

polymer clay cupcake tutorial - step 15 to 18

15.: With your eye pin (or cutter) make some vertical markings along the cupcake base.
You have to hold the cupcake real gently, by now the clay will probably be pretty warm and soft and you run the risk that you'll squeeze the whole thing too much by accident.
If you want to make sure you get a good result you can place the clay in the fridge for a while, the clay will be a bit more forgiving then and not give way so easily.

16.:
Cut the eye pin to a length that will allow it to go a good way into the cupcake, not all the way through though.

17.: Gently push the eye pin into the middle of your cupcake.

18.: Optional: If you want to place any decoration on your cupcake
that is made from clay too (and that can go into the oven), now is the time.
You can make sprinkles (out of thin coloured clay sausages that you cut into sprink
le length), hearts, pearls, whatever you can think up, really!



polymer clay cupcake tutorial - step 19 to 23


19.: Time to bake your cupcake! A word of advice here: it's officially recommended to clean the oven thoroughly after baking polymer clay in it or even better, get a little toaster oven only used for your polymer clay. It is plastic that you are melting here
after all , so best to open a window too while you bake your clay.
I bake my clay on a sheet of baking paper in our gas oven, on gas mark 1.
Make sure your temperature is not too high, especially if you bake white or
transparent clay, otherwise it will turn a bit pink.

20.: When the cupcake has cooled off you can glaze it over
with your varnish. If you like the matte look of it just keep it like it is.

21.: Optional: If you would like to add some glitter to the cupcake,
do it now while the varnish is still wet!
I personally adore glitter so glitter it is! :)

22. and 23.: Get some jewelry glue and drop a little drop of glue on the spot where the eye pin goes into the cupcake. Jewelry glue will dry clear and not react with the Fimo but it is nescessary to fix the eye pin in some way to the clay, otherwise your cupcake will fall off pretty quickly. If you're planning on working a bit more with polymer clay
I can recommend getting some translucent liquid Fimo, it willl come in handy
all the time and it can be used to fix the eye pin to the cupcake too.

You should be done now and have an awsome homemade
cupcake in front of you!
Let it dry and wear it with pride, you made it yourself
!

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