An Angel for Your Angels

Do you believe in angels? I do! And I know each one of us has been assigned a guardian angel at birth to protect us while we complete our calling here on earth. When I was little, the first prayer I learned was "A Prayer to My Guardian Angel."

Angel figurines have a special place in my heart. They are reminders of all the angels that surround us, whether spiritual beings or people in the form of family, friends, caregivers or service people who lighten our daily load. 

Here is one of the cutest angel figurines I've seen. It was sold in a little shop by the Jersey Shore. I love its simplicity and compact packaging, it makes for a nice token of appreciation for the angels in our lives.

Inspired by this Little Guardian Angel, I'm going to craft my own.

I'm using Air Dry Clay but you can experiment with salt dough clay (note though that you will have to bake your salt dough figurines after shaping them).

With a small amount of air dry clay, I formed a cylinder for the body (flatten both ends) and a sphere for the head, then I attached them together while the air dry clay was still malleable and tacky.

There are many ways to form the angel wings. Here, I am using a small butterfly-shaped cookie cutter. I rolled out the air dry clay into a flat disk and pressed the cookie cutter into the clay. I peeled off the excess clay until I was left with this.   

I attached the wings to the body of the angel. If it doesn't stick, a small amount of all purpose glue will help keep the wings in place. 

Allow this to dry where kids and pets can't reach it. It mustn't feel soft when you carefully press on it. It may take 5 days or longer so be patient and plan accordingly. 

Here is the little angel...TADA!

Make sure to store any left over air dry clay in an airtight container (I kept it in its original packaging, put it in a reusable zipper pouch, and tucked it in a plastic box with a tight-fitting lid). 

Now, let's make the box to house the angel.

The technique is similar to this project where I painted an empty coffee capsule box and added some lettering detail.

I'm adding some angel-related phrases, first with a pencil.

Then I traced over the pencil lines with black marker. 

A new phrase on another side. 

And still another phrase on another side of the box. 

A final phrase for the top of the box. 

Once fully dry, tuck the angel inside the box. 

Make as many to give away to all the angels in your life and tell them that you appreciate them.

And that is how I turned air dry clay and an empty box from blah to TADA!

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