This is an easy spring time project and a chance to get rid of some of that scrap clay. If your like me and you make sculptures with polymer clay, you'll probably have a bunch of random bits and pieces of different colored clay lying around. This is a chance to get rid of it. Or, if you dont have any scrap clay, you could use any clay that you want. Hope you have fun!

Supplies

Scrap clay(or just clay)
Any sculpting tools that you would like to use.
Small leaves
Acrylic paint of your choice (but you will need black)
Fine tip paint brush
Eye pin
Key ring and chain
Small bowl of water
Paper towel

Step 1: Get Your Leaves!

Fist of all you are going to need to go outside and find a few small leaves to press into your clay. They can really be any size, but I chose to keep it small. Here are a couple of the leaves that I found.

Step 2: Getting Ready and Pressing

Take your ball of clay and flatten it to about a centimeter width. To press your leaves onto the clay, gently press them down and slowly start to roll it out by using a tool of your choice as you would a rolling pin. Then carefully pull the leaves out so that you have a beautiful impression of it. NOTE: you want to make sure that the side of the leaf that you are pressing down has the veins sticking out. I added a few extra little designs around the leaves with one of my tools. You can do the same if you want. Then add your eye pin at the top and bake according to your package instructions.

Step 3: Time for Some Paint!

Start by adding a small amount of your black paint into your water, then mix. Now take the concoction that you just mixed up and paint it over the leaves. Then gently wipe away with a paper towel. You should have black paint left inside the cracks of the veins. Note that you might have to do this a couple of times to get the right effect. This step is optional, but I thought it made the veins stand out a bit more. Then paint your background what ever color you want. I chose white. Also paint the back and sides.

Step 4: Finishing With the Paint

To paint the leaves, I used a dry brush method. You dip the paint in the color of your choice, then get off almost all that you can. Brush over the leaf carefully trying not to get it in the veins. You can use as many colors as you want. I painted the little designs also. Attach the rest of the keychain to the eye pin. If you want you can add a gloss finish to seal in the paint.

Step 5: Your Done!

That's it! Congrats! Hope you enjoyed making this easy and fun keychain! God bless you!