3 Easy Air-Dry Clay DIYs | High-End Look On A Budget

[Music] hello creative friends I'm Anastasia and in this video I'll be showing you how to create three clay Decor pieces that look high-end but only cost a few dollars each let's get into it first is the clay knot these are so popular right now and come in many shapes and sizes I love this particular one from West Elm that sells for sixty dollars and I think we can make something that looks just as cute as this one this is the Crayola air dry clay that I'll be using for all of my projects today I got this five pound bucket off of Amazon for less than eleven dollars I start by getting a large chunk of clay and rolling it into a ball I like to start with the ball because it allows me to get it completely smooth with no cracks or seams before I roll it into the tube that we'll need for the knot my tube was about one and a half feet long and about 3 4 of an inch wide when rolling this into a tube keep in mind that the length and the width will determine the size of your knot you'll use a lot of length in the knot itself thank you to making Manzanita for sharing this trick of using ground black pepper to create a speckled Rock effect I used more year than I meant to but I actually really like the way it turned out now it's time to make your knot I fold my tube in half and picked up each side then I'm going to cross them one over the other and loop the top piece through it's just like tying your shoes but only the step that comes before the bunny ears it takes some adjusting until you get it just right but the result is so worth it I used some water to smooth out the ends and let it dry for about three days then I sprayed it with clear matte protective spray and once that dried this is the final reveal [Music] um foreign I'll be showing you two different versions of this clay bead Garland for the first version I wanted to create cream colored beads so I went to Pottery Barn for inspiration and found this Garland for 129 I love that it's neutral and has a little bit of visual texture so I'll be keeping that in mind as I create my own beads I'm starting by pinching off some clay and rolling it into about one inch beads I'm being careful to smooth out any creases or cracks and I'm trying to make each bead about the same size you can make these as big or small as you'd like you can even vary the size and make a pattern to create a more visual interest I'm making mine with 15 one inch beads my Garland is on the short side and would look super cute on top of a book on your coffee table or around to the neck of a vase I recommend doubling or tripling the amount of beads if you want a Garland to drape over several books or to fill a large bowl I'm using an allen wrench to create the holes but you can use a screwdriver skewer toothpick or other item that you have at home you'll do this to all of your beads I'm using tape to create an aglet at the end of my twine so that it doesn't Fray when I try to put it through the bead you definitely don't have to string your Garland while the clay is wet it's totally optional I did feel like it was a bit more difficult to pull twine through wet clay than it was for me to do it through Dry clay so that's something to keep in mind to get the color I wanted instead of painting it I wanted to dye it with tea so I had been soaking several different tea bags for a few hours to try to get the tea water as dark as possible so that it would tint the clay I found that one coat of the tea on the beads was enough to get the color that I was going for to add visual texture I wanted to add a speckled effect to these beads so to do this I'm taking a mixture of brown and white paint and then I'm using a paint brush and I'm going to flick the paint onto the beads this wasn't working for me at first and I couldn't figure out why but then I realized that I needed to add quite a bit of water to the paint so that it was thin enough to spray onto the beads as I ran my finger along the brush once I added the water it worked perfectly and I had so much fun with this part I wanted the Speckles to have a two-toned effect so I created another mixture of paint that was a lot lighter added some water to that and flicked that onto the beads after the paint dried I took this clear matte protective spray and I gave them a coat on all sides and once that was dry I went ahead and put a knot on each side of the bead so that they were secure on the twine you'll want to keep a little bit of space between each bead so that they can move naturally but not too much space so that there's a gap make sure you leave some extra twine after the knot so we can tie on our tassels to make your tassel hold the end of the twine with your thumb and you'll wrap the twine around your fingers 15 times carefully remove it from your fingers and you can go ahead and cut off the excess twine now you'll take the twine from the end of the Garland and put it through the loops we just made move it out of the way for now but we'll need it in a few minutes holding the loop tightly in your hand you'll take a five to six inch strand of twine and wrap it around a few times about one third of the way down the loop and tie off the ends you'll see here where it's starting to look more like a tassel I also like to apply some super glue to my knots so that they're extra secure then you can cut off the excess twine to make it look like a tassel you'll cut the loops and then trim it so it's all even and you're happy with the way it looks now we'll finally use that piece of twine that we moved out of the way earlier so pick up that twine that you put through the loops earlier and also pick up the twine from the other end of the Garland you will tie these two pieces together securely with a double or triple knot apply super glue to seal it in cut the excess twine and now it's time for the final review oh foreign [Music] for the second version of the clay Garland I wanted to make it black because I like decorating with that color Pottery Barn makes this black beaded Garland that's super pretty but it retails for 129 regularly I love adding texture to my pieces to make them more interesting so I found these beads on shades of light I liked the amount of texture that these particular beads had and I wanted to see if I could create a bumpy imperfect surface on my beads as well so for this one I'm starting with 15 clay beads that I made identically to how we did it in the previous Garland to create texture I'll be rolling each of my clay beads in regular table salt you'll want to make sure you do this while the clay is still wet so the salt can imprint the clay I coated each bead in salt and pushed gently with my fingers around the bead so the salt would stick I repeated this to all 15 until they looked like this I let my beads dry for about three days and then I painted them with this flat black spray paint once that dried I sprayed it with this matte clear protective spray and let that dry as well and now we finally get to string the beads I used some tape to create an aglet at the end of my twine so it didn't Fray as I put it through the beads after trying to string my previous Garland while the clay was wet I found it much easier to string them once the clay was dry once all of your beads are on the twine make a knot or two on each side to keep the bead secure and make sure you leave some extra twine after the knot so we can tie on the tassels this Garland will have two tassels hold the end of the twine with your thumb and you'll wrap the twine around your fingers 15 times carefully remove it from your fingers and you can go ahead and cut off the excess twine put a short strand of twine through the loops about five to six inches long and then move it out of your way for now now take another five to six inch piece of twine and wrap it around a few times about one third of the way down the loop tie off the ends apply some super glue to secure the knots and then you can cut off the excess and I think you probably remember what comes next go ahead and cut the loops and give it a trim so it's all even to attach it to your Garland take the two ends of the twine on your tassel and create a tight knot above the knot that's on your bead Garland I felt like tying in my tassel above the knot on the Garland provided even more security for my tassel lastly secure your knot with super glue and cut the excess twine and now it's time for the final reveal [Music] I hope these DIYs inspired you to get creative and have fun making beautiful and affordable decor for your home I would love for you to subscribe to my channel so I know you're enjoying the content I have so many more ideas that I can't wait to share with you [Music] foreign

Channel: Anastasia Designs

Views: 23,486

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Id: qIoOARMenU4

Length: 12min 58sec (778 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 04 2023