How to Make Polymer-Clay Business Card Holders

Polymer clay is more predictable in its results than traditional clay.

Polymer clay is a colorful craft product hardened in a conventional oven and has a wide variety of uses, especially when it comes to creating handmade decorations and useful storage items. Create a polymer-clay business card holder as a means of displaying cards in an eye-catching fashion. Customize your card holder with any colors you like, or dress it up with some smaller polymer clay shapes.

Things You'll Need

• Clean work surface
• Business cards
• Kitchen plastic wrap
• Clear adhesive tape
• Polymer clay
• Rolling pin for polymer clay
• Cutting tool for polymer clay or butter knife
• Baking sheet

Instructions

1. Make a stack of business cards about three-quarters of an inch thick.

2. Wrap the business card stack tightly in plastic kitchen wrap. Secure the plastic with a strip or two of clear tape.

3. Soften about three tablespoons of clay. Use a single color of clay, or knead two or three colors into a marble swirl. Form this clay into a ball by rolling it between your palms.

4. Roll out the ball of clay into a quarter-inch thick sheet using the rolling pin.

5. Cut out a four-inch by six-inch rectangle of clay. Peel this piece carefully up from your work surface.

6. Fold the clay rectangle in half, shorter edges together. Stand it on its four-inch side with the fold up to form a tent-like shape. Fold the edges of the clay outward where they touch the ground, making an inch-long "foot" on each side that faces outward in front and back.

7. Roll two small balls of clay, each about a third of an inch in diameter. Place these just inside the edges of the folded clay to help the shape stand up and keep the tented halves apart.

8. Lay the plastic-wrapped stack of business cards on one side of the tent shape, leaning against it and sitting on top of the foot. Curl the foot up around the bottom edge of the card stack.

9. Set the cards aside. Place the tented clay shape on a baking sheet, standing up as it was when you fitted it with the stack of cards.

10. Bake the clay according to the manufacturer's instructions.  

Tips & Warnings

• A toaster oven is more practical for baking polymer clay projects if you plan to work frequently in this medium. Toaster ovens take less energy to heat up, and won't heat up the whole kitchen.

• If you use a toaster oven for polymer clay baking, never use it for cooking food.

References

• "The Complete Book of Polymer Clay;" Lisa Pavelka; 2010