K.I.D.S.: Polymer Clay Image Transfer for Doodles

Today’s project is a part of the K.I.D.S. with The Sewing Rabbit. K.I.D.S. stands for Kids Inspiration & Design Series!

We love doodling in our house. Giving my children paper and any variety of writing utensil will keep them busy for a long time. I’ve enjoyed watching the progression of scribbles to creatures who resemble amoebas to people with eye lashes and eye brows and toes and belly buttons and accessories. Because no piece of paper is safe, there have been darling doodles on my to-do lists, bookmarks, permission slips and bill return envelopes.

In her short five years, Love Bug has amassed quite the stack of doodles and I am sure Sweet J will do the same. We have a folder for each of their works and they keep growing and growing. They are wonderful to pour over but what about the ones we love the most? I couldn’t stand to let them sit in the folders so we turned them into polymer clay magnets. Now our favorite doodles decorate the fridge, hold up new art work and work as art themselves.

Here’s what we used:

Supplies:

-polymer clay
-doodles
-pencil or colored pencils
-blank white paper
-spoon, straight edge
-cutting blade
-magnets
-strong adhesive
-permanent markers, metallic pens

For those who don’t know, polymer clay is an oven bake clay. I adore working with it because it is a very versatile medium with lots and lots of possibilities. One possibility is to transfer images onto its surface. Pencil, colored pencils, markers and toner-based prints all transfer onto polymer clay with different results. For our transfers, I used pencil and colored pencils.

So first things first, choose your doodles. We picked out a handful of our favorite doodles and I made photocopies of the originals so they weren’t ruined. In photocopying them, I was able to adjust the doodle sizes as needed. When everything is just right, use the blank paper and trace the doodles in mirror image with a pencil (or in colored pencil) using heavy, dark lines. Make sure to include all the details. Doing it in mirror image is important as the doodle will be reversed on the polymer clay surface. It might not matter for every image so choose what works for you.

Next, prep the polymer clay. I used a pasta machine to condition mine although a brayer or rolling pin works too. Just make sure the rolling pin is for craft projects only. Here’s a post on how to prep polymer clay with a pasta machine.

On the conditioned and rolled out clay, press the pencil/colored pencil drawings, face down. Use your fingers or a spoon or straight edge to burnish the backside of the doodle. Take note that the whole image gets burnished so all the details transfer. After all the parts of the image have been burnished, carefully pull it off the polymer clay and check out the transferred image. Once all the images are transferred, cut away the excess clay as you desire. If the image doesn’t transfer, lay it back down, lining it up perfectly and try burnishing it again. If it is still not transferring, try doing the lines again, making them extra heavy and dark and lay it face down on a new area of the clay.

When all the images are cut out, bake them according to the manufacturer’s directions and allow them to cool completely.

After they’ve cooled, you can leave them as is or add extra color or metallics.

Finally, add the magnets. Then stick them everywhere!

And be silly. Always be silly.

Did you see the belly button on the one jumping rope? Or the little guy on wheels? The other guy in blue looks like he’s at a rave. The pearl one is my absolute fave because Bug added a ‘face paint’ rainbow on its cheek, just like the one she had gotten the day before. So cool!