By This post is sponsored by Sculpey
If you’re like us, you’ve been seriously admiring all the beautiful resin art that has been popping up everywhere these days. We have a particular soft spot for the colorful and glittery resin alphabet sets that are not only incredible to look at but are a great learning tool for kids too! And while all this is true, we’ve never loved crafting with resin – from the smell to worrying about getting ratios exactly right, it always feels like a bit of a hassle. Enter Liquid Sculpey! We’re betting you’ve crafted with Sculpey’s traditional oven-bake clays before, but did you know that there is a liquid formula too?
We started with a bottle of clear Liquid Sculpey and had so much fun experimenting with different add-ins. Alcohol ink, chalk pastels, and of course glitter all completely change the look so that you can create a completely custom alphabet set. Liquid Sculpey cures in the oven so you can use any oven-safe silicone mold to make whatever shapes you like!
Kids will love playing and learning with their new alphabet set. We used stamps and stickers to make this simple activity page that kids can match up the letters onto as they practise their ABCs. You can do the same, or make a custom one spelling out names and words! Keep reading for all our tips and tricks below, as well as a how-to video!
what you need:
- Liquid Sculpey – Clear Liquid Polymer Clay
- Sculpey Clay Softener & Thinner
- Sculpey Tools Clay Tool Starter Set
- Oven-safe silicone mold
- Paper cups or bowls
- Popsicle sticks
- Baking sheet
- Cooling rack
- Glitter
- Chalk pastels
- Alcohol ink
- Scissors and/or craft knife
how-to:
Step 1
Empty a bottle of Clear Liquid Sculpey into a small bowl or cup and stir with a popsicle stick for about 45 seconds to thoroughly combine.
Step 2
Add a few drops (we used three) of Sculpey Clay Softener & Thinner – this will help make the Liquid Sculpey a little easier to pour and work with later. Add more as needed.
Step 3
Set your clean oven-safe silicone mold onto a baking sheet. For a clear letter, pour the Liquid Sculpey directly into the mold, nearly filling the cavity – you want to leave some room to add and stir in glitter.
Step 4
To make bright colored letters, add a few drops of alcohol ink and stir well to combine. The color that you see in the cup will be less vibrant than the final product, so keep that in mind and do some tests first if you have an exact shade that you’re going for.
Step 5
You can also use chalk pastels to add color Liquid Sculpey! Use a clay tool to gently scrape the side of the chalk pastel so that the powder sprinkles on top of the Liquid Sculpey. Mix thoroughly and ensure there aren’t any specks of color left. This shade of blue looks almost white, but once it’s baked it will get quite a bit brighter!
Pour the colored Liquid Sculpey into the mold, and use a popsicle stick to gently tap glitter into each letter – it’s very hard to shake glitter in without adding a whole lot by accident! Use a clay tool to gently stir in the glitter and then sprinkle a little bit more glitter on top. You can also leave the letters plain, like we did for the neon pink C. Don’t worry too much about little drops and spills around the letters like you see here – most will separate on their own and whatever remains can be trimmed away easily later.
Step 7
Following the directions on the bottle, bake the letters for 15 mins at 275 F. Depending on your mold, you may need to adjust the baking time if the letters are thicker or thinner, so read the directions on the bottle for guidance. Set on a cooling rack to cool completely and then remove from the mold.
If you notice that your letters have some bubbling and cracking similar to the ones above, you may need to adjust your baking time or oven temperature. It is super helpful to have an oven-safe thermometer to test the actual temperature inside your oven. Our oven runs hot so we found that setting the temperature to 250 F for 15 minutes gave us the best results. Do a few letters first to test your oven before you do the whole alphabet!
Step 8
Use a craft knife and/or scissors to carefully trim away any bumpy or uneven edges.
Happy crafting!!