Quarantine Crafts that Pair Perfectly with Cocktail Hour
Ok, I have a confession to make: I have totally become a quarantine crafter. At first it didn’t seem like there was any way to actually fit in any crafts because I was busy binge-watching my two kids, haha, and trying to keep them from destroying every piece of furniture that we own. But, once I embraced mess and let my boys get their hands all up in the crafting as well, we have become a regular arts and crafts factory around here, and I am really enjoying it. So far we have made: a papier mâché cheetah, a salt dough owl, a stuffed animal pink amazon dolphin…and lest you think it’s only animal crafts all the time, we’ve also made a miniature air dry clay bakery, tried our hand at calligraphy (not good at it! Still had fun!), and painted the planets on those round cardboard things that come with frozen pizza (side bonus, you have to eat a lot of pizza to make all nine planets). I was talking about crafts with my awesome intern, Molly, and she had been making some fun things too, so obviously I demanded that she share what she had made!
So with that, take it away Molly!…
Hi guys! I’m Molly! I just graduated from UMD with a major in sales and marketing, and I interned at Vikre for the spring semester. Of course, it turned out to be an unusual spring semester, but it gave me the opportunity to get creative with some of what we were doing. Emily suggested I come up with some stay at home craft ideas, and here is what I made.
Super Easy Hand-Crafted Clay Earrings
Okay earring ladies, this post is for you! If you’re like me and you can never have enough “statement” earrings, then this activity will be so fun and relaxing for you. This is a super easy quarantine activity, even for beginner arts and crafters. I have never made clay earrings by hand before, so it was a fun experiment that worked out in my favor! Obviously the best thing to pair with making the clay earrings is a Frenchie cocktail or two.
What you will need:
Sculpey Clay-You can order this online from craft stores. I ordered mine directly from Sculpey. There are many different color assortment options. I just got the largest pack because I was way too excited for my craft ideas.
Earring Hooks-I ordered online as well. They can be found online at Micheals, JoeAnns, and Amazon, and I’m sure other places as well.
Optional: Gold Gilding Glue- I ordered this from Amazon. I already had this for my coaster project, farther down the blog. It was a great accent color to “gild the lily” on the earrings, but totally not necessary.
How to create clay earrings:
Select a color and role out until softened. Form the clay into a ball.
Take a smooth cup, I took a large mason jar, and flatten the clay into ¼ in. (I recommend at least 1/4 in. If they are smaller then that they break more easily. Some of mine did when I was putting the earring hooks on them. So thicker is better!)
Use an x-acto knife to create the earring shape you would like to make.
Poke a hole, about a cm down from the top where the earring hook can latch onto
Once you have crafted all the earrings you want to put them on a cooking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Set the oven to 275 degrees F.
I cooked my earrings for about 8 minutes, checking them every minute after 5 minutes.
Once they are hardened, take out of the oven and let them cool down.
Insert the earring hooks through the clay earrings.
Wear them with your favorite outfit, and rock it!
Molly’s roommate modeling earrings. These earrings are marbled. The easiest way to create this look is by rolling out 2-3 colors into long worms. Then you will roll and twist them together into one.
Marble Clay Coasters
I found this idea from another women’s blog, Sarah Johnson. Below is the link to make these fancy coasters, that take minimal effort! They were so fun to make and really spice up my coffee table.
