Make Your Own Polymer Clay Buttons

Hello beautiful people! Today I have a tutorial to share with you, but this one is just a little bit different. This was my first time making Polymer clay buttons ever and I took these pictures as I was teaching myself. I just wanted to show exactly how easy it is to do! So I would like to invite you on this journey with me and encourage you to give Polymer Clay buttons a try! I have been wanting to play around with Polymer Clay for such a long time and after actually doing it I really wish I had sooner. First off the things you will need!

Supplies Needed:

1. Sculpey or Fimo clays (I used Sculpey)

2. Rolling pin (I purchased a fondu roller which has rings on it to control thickness)

3. A variety of textured objects.

4. A variety of circular objects you can use cut with. (I used medicine bottle!)

5. Some sort of sharp cutter. You can use your xacto knife.

Start off by taking a small amount of clay and massage it between your fingers to soften it.

Next use your roller to flatten out the clay. The thickness I had the roller set to was 1/8th inch

Use your circular object you are using as a cutter to cut your buttons. Just press all the way through the clay and then kind of twist the cutter to ensure it's cut. If you are using an actual 'cutter' then I doubt you will need to do the twist but with the medicine bottle I was using wasn't the sharpest :-)

Then remove the excess clay from around the freshly cut buttons.

Now we are going to be adding the texture to the top of the buttons. To do this I simply used a patterned button that I already had and pressed it into the clay. Any textured object would work!

And here is what they looked like after I pressed the pattern into them!

Now we need to add holes to them so we can thread them later! To do this I just used my paper piercer. I am sure you could also use something like a toothpick as well, but I just found my paper piercer to leave a nice crisp hole, and I loved that!

And there you have it....buttons ready to bake!

But before we bake those buttons I would like to show you what I played around with...now remember this is my first time doing this, so be nice :-) lol

We are going to be making a mini cane! First what you need to do is pick 2 colors you like. Using your hands roll them into snake like rolls. Then take those 2 rolls and twist them together like in the picture.

Then using your hands twist and smash those 2 colors together to create swirls and using your rolling pin roll them out.

Then create another snake roll out of a different contrasting color and add it to the middle. Simply wrap the Swirled piece of clay entirely around the middle roll of clay. Now just add layers to the roll until you get the desired thickness.

Here is what my cane looked like in the end. I wrapped a layer of blue around the swirled and then wrapped green aound the entire roll.

Then I used my sharp object to cut off little pieces of the end. These pieces were about 1/4 inch thick and I need 6 of them.

Arrange the little pieces you cut into a flower shape and press the pieces together gently.

Using the tips of your fingers gently squeeze the ends of the pieces to give them a little pointed shape.

Next add a contrasting color to the center. All you have to do to do this is roll a small ball of clay and gently press it in the center of the flower. And there you have it! These are now ready to bake as well! They aren't the prettiest things in the world, but it's a learning process right?!

With all the left over clay I had I decided to mix it together and cut some buttons out. Why waste it when we can create something pretty!!

Now it's time to put them in the oven. The best thing to do is add a layer of parchment paper to your cookie sheet because the buttons won't stick to that. Set them down in a single layer and simply put into your preheated oven for 15 minutes at 265 degrees.

After you take them out of the oven let them cool of completely. I waited a few hours just to be safe and then I took them outside and sprayed them with a clear acrylic sealer.And here is the end result!

I hope you are all inspired to start creating with Polymer clay! I know that I will now be venturing out into other ideas as well. There are so many things you can do with this clay. Before you seal the buttons, why not paint designs on them! This is an amazing way to get a custom look for little money. Also you can hand craft your own little objects...right now I am in the process of creating my own little mushrooms! I can't wait to see how those turn out!