Try making beautiful an air dry clay dish today! They are the perfect DIY decoration, handmade gift for the holidays or craft for an evergreen nature study unit. They are so easy to make and as you can see, look so pretty when complete. Keep the pine needle pieces bare for a cute winter craft or add gem stickers to make a sweet holiday clay dish! See a couple craft variations at the end of the post!
Here is a little helpful hint before we get started! Prep the air-dry clay before using it. When the clay first comes out of the container it’s pretty sticky and can be difficult to work with. Open the lid to your air-dry clay for about 30 minutes before you use it. This will dry it out just a bit, making it easier to handle.
Ready to make an air dry clay dish? Here’s what you’ll need….
Supplies:
- Pine Needles
- Wax Paper
- Rolling Pin
- Circular Tupperware Container- about 4-5 inches in diameter
- Butter Knife
- Air Dry Clay
- Matte Mod Podge
- Sticker gems– If you want to turn your tree into a Christmas tree!
This post contains Affiliate links for your convenience.
RELATED: Check out Pine Tree Jar Lanterns
Here’s How We Made Our Clay Dish:
Step 1:
Place a sheet of wax paper on your work surface. Evenly roll the clay with a rolling pin about ¼ inch thick.
Step 2:
Using your Tupperware container as a guide, cut out a circle of your clay. Use a dull butter knife to cut out your shape.
Step 3:
Pinch up the edges of the circular clay piece to form a functional tray. Smooth out any fingernail or fingerprint marks.
Step 4:
Place pine needles along the border of the tray, near the pinched edge. Gently press one or two pine needles at a time into the clay. This will help them stay in place when you apply Mod Podge. Don’t place too many pine needles in one area, or they will not stick to the clay.
Step 5:
Put a layer of Mod Podge over the pine needles. This will seal the pine needles and prevent them from falling out. During this step, gently press the pine needles into the clay one more time! Let the clay dry. Follow the directions on your air-dry clay container to see how long your particular clay will take to dry.
Step 6:
After your clay trays are dried, you can choose to add gem stickers if you want to make them a bit more festive. For this tray, we added clusters of red gem stickers to mimic winterberries. This will look like a beautiful wreath when you are all finished!
We took a different approach for this tray. Instead of using a Tupperware lid as a shape guide, we used a large evergreen tree cookie cutter. Then we added pine needles. Mod Podge, and gem stickers!
Do you like these tree dishes plain or with gem stickers?
If these look familiar, that’s because we made a similar dish a couple of years ago! Click on the photo below to learn more about the craft and the type of evergreen we used.
Pin it to save it for later!
I hope you make a clay dish! I promise, your little nature lovers will love this craft as my boys.
∼Tara
