Our cats have been wandering about with quite out of date nametags. They have our old information from the UK on them, and the collars were looking kinda past their best, so I bought them new ones for Christmas………then didn’t do anything with them… Christmas came and went in a whirlwind of…. mainly unpacking, and our poor little kitties went without. I even forgot to treat them to some wet food (yes, wet food is a treat!)

Such a bad kitty Mother.

I do have an excuse, in my mind at least, as I had been planning to make them some new tags once our stuff arrived and I could get at my tools, but of course that didn’t end up happening until the 23rd.

Anyhow….. I  thought they needed something a bit more special and individual, so wanted to make them some ones appropriate to their names.

Did I mention that one is named after a type of bacteria, and the other after an operating system? Erm… yep!

I used a craft knife to cut circles of polymer clay using a circle from one of my ruler/protractor things as the template. Then used a cocktail stick to poke holes through the clay discs, so that I could attach them to the new collars with jump rings. I also made a little penguin out of clay to go one one of the white discs, experimenting with whether it would be easier to sculpt one, or draw one later.

The white, yellow, and black clay is Fimo, which I had in my stash already, the sparkly blue stuff is Sculpey. I couldn’t resist the sparkles. Check your packet to confirm baking conditions, but for my Sculpey it was 275F for 15 minutes, and Fimo was the same, but for 30 minutes. I had to be double sure not to overbake the white stuff, as wanted it to stay white.

Once baked, I got my Sharpies out to embellish them. But… it turns out I am worse at drawing than I am at sculpting, so failed completely at drawing Tux, the Linux mascot. The bacteria fared a little better, and I drew Serratia marcescens colonies using a pinky purple pen, then used some Mod Podge Dimensional Magic to add a little extra somethingsomething!

Used some jump rings to attach them to the new collars, then they were done!

I wasn’t sure whether I would be able to get any shots of them in situ, but managed. Just about. Marcie is not particularly photogenic, but look at my handsome Mr Linux on the right!

What a handsome little guy he is! Marcie is actually quite beautiful too, but it’s so difficult to get a good shot of her, a mixture of reasons including being black, kinda little and pointy faced, and her being unable to sit still for any length of time.

We love them both though. And now they look very snazzy indeed!

Note: Both the polymer clays, and the Mod Podge are non-toxic, so are safe for use in this manner (just in case you fear kitty nibbling), but always use as directed, do not overbake your clays, and ensure a ventilated environment just in case!