Making Clay Beads

I wanted to share a tutorial I did for the Summer Craft Camp series over at Skip to my Lou.

Most of our summer is spent outside in the sunshine but we also like to do fun crafts. My boys love all things Army so I came up with this fun activity since it is so close to the fourth of July.

You can buy this clay at most craft stores. It doesn’t dry out and will not harden unless baked. It is easy to work with and comes in all sorts of  colors. I have used it since I was about 6 years old. Polymer clay really is a ton of fun!

For my boys I mixed some of the colors to come up with “Army” colors.

We took little pieces from three of the colors and mixed them together.

Then we rolled them in our hands to make little balls.

Toothpicks work perfectly to make holes.

I helped the boys make some flags out of the clay. When using multiple colors that won’t be all squished together you can use this bake and bond glue. Like the clay, it will not harden until baked.

You don’t need to make an Army bracelet, you can make any kind you would like. The sky is the limit!

Once we were done making the beads I put them on a plate and baked them at 275 degrees Farenhiet for about 15 minutes. Let them cool completely before stringing them together.

I did this activity with my three oldest boys. Their ages are 9, 7, and 4. The oldest two could do it all by themselves but my 4 year old needed some help. All of them loved the end results!!!