ornamentation: ribbon candy from erin

How is your ornament making going? So far there has been a lot of felt and fabric and stitching, but today Erin is here to share an ornament you can make with polymer clay! Erin's blog, Sunshine and Carousels, is one of my favorite places to find recipes for sweet treats, so it's only right that she is making some clay candies!

Hi! I'm Erin from Sunshine and Carousels. I run a full time handmade business during the day and I'm a craft/bake-aholic by night. I'm so happy to be here on Wild Olive sharing an ornament tutorial with you today. I'm really obsessed with polymer clay as of lately. I find taking blocks of clay and making magical things out them completely therapeutic.  Today I'm sharing a ribbon candy ornament tutorial with you.  It's extremely easy and kid friendly too.

You'll need:

Polymer clay in colors of your choice
A small polymer clay kit (optional ... you can use household items too)
Floral Wire
E-6000 (optional...only if you want to glue your hooks on instead of looping in floral wire)
Baking Dish
Oven

1. Roll out small portions of your polymer clay onto a smooth clean surface. It takes a couple of minutes to warm up your clay and make it pliable.
2.  Roll out all of your colors, be sure to wash your hands between the white clay and the dark colored clay. Small bits of dark color may stick to your hands.
3.  Lay out three to four rolls of colors right next to each other (see photo for example). Make sure these are nice and close to each other, almost pinching them together.
4.  Using your small roller or even a kitchen rolling pin and/or glass cup would do the trick to flatten out the colors evenly. The clay will stick to each each other and have a nice smooth finish.
6.  Use a knife or clay cutting tool to cut off your ends forming and nice clean end.
7.  Use a toothpick, polymer clay tool to poke one hold into the end of your ribbon strand. This part is optional. You can also use E-6000 to glue your wire or a hook to the back or side of your ornament when it's finished.
8.  Roll and bend your clay ribbon strand to form your ribbon candy shapes.
9. Place all ribbon shapes into a baking dish and bake at 260 degrees for 25 minutes or as your polymer clay package directs you to.
10.  Once your clay has baked and cooled, should be hardened, loop some floral wire into your hole and you are ready for tree decorating.

So easy and fun! You can even add glitter to some of them right before baking if you wish.

I think these would make great gift toppers too.

Have fun and thanks for having me Mollie!!

Love,
  Erin