I conditioned my clay and rolled it out with my roller (shame on me, can't find my pasta maker that is dedicated to my clay work), and I used a tear drop shape cutter to cut out the shapes. Then I used a sharp piercing tool to do little dotted lines for the veins and then played connect the dots to fill in the lines. I learned that trick on Pinterest.
Here is another trick I learned on Pinterest. I found out that you can microwave Polymer clay. You heard me right. You use a microwave safe dish, put plenty of water in it and nuke it for about 10 - 15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the clay. The only thing that I read was not to do this in a ceramic dish. The ceramic changes the composition of the clay and it will break down or something like that. IT WORKED LIKE A CHARM!!!! I poured out the hot water and replaced it with ice water and my leaves are super hard.
Then I took red acrylic paint and painted them. I used a damp paper towel to wipe most of the paint off, leaving it in the crevices. I also dabbed some paint on the edges. That was another Pinterest find too. I didn't glaze them yet. I am thinking I will leave them as is to make them look more organic than shiny.
Now, just if I could find my pasta machine. I have not played with my clay in so long that I put it away somewhere. I had to hunt for all my clay tools too. Found those. I looked all over my craft room. I am either over looking it or it got packed into a tote and taken to the basement for storage when I cleared out my craft room to make room for all of my paper crafting stuff.
