By Lori Garcia, editor-in-chief

SUPPLIES:

Polymer clay
- 2 Blue 
- 1 Yellow 
- 1 Orange
- 1 Green 
- 1 Pink
- 1 table knife
- a couple of straight pins
- 1 5x3.5 plastic picture frame
- glue gun with glue

STEP BY STEP:

1. Open the blue clay and portion off 1/4 of it.  Start rolling it like a lon snake.  (Remember this from Kindergarden.) Roll it till it is 1/8 of an inch in diameter.

2. Place the roll on the top of the picture frame.  Using the knife, cut of the remainer of the roll that falls over the edges.  Repeat with the remainer of the roll making rows of the blue rolls. (Say that 10 times in a row).

3. After placing four rolls in a row, make four side rows or shorter rolls.  Do this on both sides.  Be careful to make them identical.

4. Finally, repeat the long rolls on the bottom of the frame.  How does yours look?  If the sides look uneven, luckly, we're working with clay, and you can easily smooch it into place.

5. Next, open the yellow clay and shape an 1/8 of the package into a teardrop shape.  This will be the duck's body.

6. Take a slightly smaller amout of the yellow clay and round in into a small ball.

7. Slighly smoosh the little head onto the body of the duck.  You might have to use the straight pin and its round head to smooth out the duck.

8. Use the straight pin to engrave a wing on the side of the duck.  Also make pin pricks for duck eyes.

9. Opening the orange clay, form a tiny triangle.  This will be the bill.  Using the straight pin, attach the bill to the duck head.  Slightly smoosh it on.

10. Making thin squares 1 mm long by 1 mm wide, roll them to make cones.  Attach one on top of the other and gentley smoosh them on the botton of the duck.  Once again, the pin will be helpful.

11. After you finish the ducks, place them on the botton of the frame, on the bottom section of the blue rolls you made earlier.  Gently smoosh them so that they will stick.

12. Making the grass:  Open the green clay.  Using your pin, pick off a little sliver of the clay.  Randomly place it by the ducks.  Repeat this step many times overlapping the slivers of green clay to form grass.

13. Making the Roses:  Make thin stripes from the pink clay.  Roll them loosely to make roses and smoosh them in the grass.  Bundles of three, or any odd number look best.

14. Make small balls of yellow and smoosh them in the corners till they are slightly flat.  Using the pin, prick four holes in each "button" to finish the look.

15. Using the green clay again, roll very thin rolls to form the letters.

16. After attaching all the elements, use the knife to remove all the clay from the plastic frame.  Place the clay slab on a cookie sheet and place in the oven.

17. Bake at 250 degrees for 20 minutes.

18. Let cool.  Adhere the clay to the plastic frame using hot glue.

Now you're ready to give it as a gift or place a picture of your little darling in the frame.  These make great shower gifts, are relatively inexpensive, and easy to make.