DIY Cabochon Flowers Tutorial

Resin and clay sculpted cabochon flowers are *everywhere* right now. I personally think they are spontaneously reproducing with a goal of taking over the entire interwebs. I’ve seen them on earrings, necklaces, home décor projects, bobby pins, cards, and scrapbook pages, of course.

But they tend to be expensive… at least if you’re buying from a papercrafting manufacturer. So, what do I say to myself? I say: “Self, let’s see if we can make our own flowers for way cheaper!” and then I say: “AND we’ll (that’s the “royal we”) give some away on the blog… ‘cause that’s just how we roll".”

I bought these here awesome rubber molds from Mold Muse on Etsy. She has tons of inexpensive molds that will take poured resin or clay. They withstand a boatload of heat so you can bake the molds right in your oven without worrying about melting. Awesome.

I decided I didn’t really want to mess around with resin goop and went the clay route instead. I used generic Sculpey and Fimo.

- warm a small bit of clay in your hands till it is soft and pliable
- firmly and tightly pack the mold impressions with clay
- swipe your finger across the tops of the indents to remove any excess clay… you want the bottoms of your flowers to be flush with the edge of the mold

At this point you may either:

- bake the clay IN the molds for 15 minutes in a 275 degree oven (I use my toaster oven)
- OR veryyyyy carefully press the molds so the clay flowers pop out onto a foil lined baking sheet and then bake them as above.

The advantage of popping them out first is that you can bake many at the same time, however, I will warn you it is tough to get a crisp impression if you do it this way. I tried but got too frustrated by squishing my flowers and ended up deciding to bake them in the molds instead. I clearly just need to buy more molds!

When they are done in the oven you will want to take them out and let them cool for a bit before trying to pop the flowers out. Ouch!

And here is what you’ll have:

We’re having a pretty gray day here at the moment so the colors are a bit off but you get the idea. I think these would look pretty sweet with a layer of Diamond Glaze or Glossy Accents on them to shine them up a bit, too.

So what do you think? Not bad for a fraction of the cost of the manufactured ones!

Want some?? Leave me a comment and let me know what you think and what three colors you would like if you win and one random winner from the continental US will be chosen this weekend.

(color choices are: gray, flat white, light pearl gray, orange, yellow, light teal, dark teal, and that dark one at the back of the photos is actually a purple/burgundy)