The OCD in us cringes when our kids combine different colors of play dough into one large ball. It’s an internal battle. So, instead of fighting the battle to keep the yellow with the yellow, the green with the green and the orange with the orange, we are going to combine fall-toned oven bake clay together, for a fall marbled effect project. So, they can mix and combine the clay to their hearts and hands content. They loved it…and these mama’s were happy, too.

DIY Clay Marbled Leaf Ring Bowls

Materials:

• Oven Bake Clay, white, red, yellow and green {for this project we stuck with fall colors}
• Leaf cut outs
• X-acto knife
• Rolling pin
• Mini, oven-safe bowls

Directions:

Break the oven bake clay into small  pieces. They need to be about the size of a cherry tomato, or a bit larger. Then, roll each color out into long ‘worms’

Starting with two, twist the colors together. Then, one by one, add another ‘worm’ to the twist until all colors are twisted together. Pull the colorful twist tighter, elongating it gently as you twist and pull.

Fold the long, twisted strand in half. Roll it into a ball, then as we so non-eloquently told our kids, squish, then squish from another angle, and squish the ball a couple more times to mix the colors. Be sure not to over mix or everything will start to appear brown.

On wax paper, press the ball flat like a pancake, then with a rolling pin, roll it out into a nice circle.

Place the leaf cut out on top, and with the X-acto knife, cut around the edges.

Gently press the leaf into a small oven-safe bowl so it, too, can take the shape of a bowl in the oven. Make sure to use a shallow bowl, so the leaf retains the shape of a leaf.

Bake according to package directions.

Glaze {optional} the DIY marbled leaf-shaped bowls and set out for fall decor.