Bookmarks from Clay!

I have been desperate to have a play with Fimo Leather Effect since seeing it featured on Kirstie's Handmade Christmas so I chose this for our most recent Crafterzoom session. The concept of a clay that tranforms into a leather-like material that can be sewn and cut after hardening was inticing and the stuff has not disappointed. We've only been playing with it so far but Jessica and I have enjoyed our initial experiements which culminated in these bookmarks. 

The clay can be used in the same way as other polymer clays before hardening; we experimented with marbling and dotting before rolling out our clay as thin as we could and stretching it gently by hand to add additional texture. We also stamped messages into the clay using small rubber letter stamps ahead of hardening in the oven. It takes 30 minutes at 130^oC to harden and fix into this strange rubbery material. Once this is done, it can be cut and sewn just as you would leather. I used punches to create holes and fringed a rectangle of the fixed Fimo before rolling and gluing into a tassle whilst Jessica used a paper punch to cut out a heart that she stitiched onto hers.

There are loads of ideas and tutorials online but this one, from Hobbycraft, gives you a good sense of what can be done with Fimo Leather-effect: Luggage Tag.