Air Dry Clay Faux Succulent

Make your own little faux succulent out of air dry clay, you don’t even need to water it!

Today’s craft project, this cute air dry clay faux succulent, has a lesson. The lesson is, if halfway through a work in progress, you think it’s going to be terrible and seriously consider just tossing it in the trash, don’t give up until you give it your best shot. Because I honestly, almost gave up on this one, I just wasn’t feeling it this weekend. But I figured, why not add some paint, it wouldn’t take too long and I could just see how it went. And the end result? I totally love it! Like way more than I even originally thought I would. Even Aa said, “whoa, that looks amazing in the photos!” So if you ever need a crafty pep talk, come visit me and I’ll talk you through it. And actually that’s something I learned in design school, sometimes the best results come out of projects that halfway through you get stuck on or hate. That usually causes you to do some creative problem solving which is always a good thing. So anyway, on to the faux succulent.

I keep seeing adorable projects with faux succulents, you know, planter boxes etc. but with fake plants in them so you really can’t kill them. And I think fake succulents are often much more convincing than other fake plants because their leaves are naturally kind of plasticky looking. Do you know what I mean? So a few weeks back, I thought to myself, I love these faux succulent projects, I want to do one! And I went to the craft store which is when I discovered that a lot of them were like $5 each! I mean, at that rate I might as well buy real ones! Hence the clay succulent. It was really just a challenge to myself to see if I could do it. So what do you think, was I successful? Here’s how I did it:

Air Dry Clay Faux Succulents

My favorite air dry clay

Craft knife and/or clay tools

Acrylic craft paint in sage, light yellow green, and a slightly reddish purple

1.For the first layer, roll out some clay (or just flatten it with your hands) and use your knife or clay tools to cut it into a shape like this:2. Dip your fingertip into a little bit of water and use it to smooth the edges and surfaces. Then gently form the leaves so the are a bit 3D, I made most of mine, go up in the middle and curve down at the tip. It’s helpful if you have a real plant to look at!

3. Then make another layer a bit smaller and with fewer leaves. Stick it on top and repeat the smoothing and shaping step. 4. Make third and fourth smaller layers. 5. And few tiny little spiky leaves for the center. 6. Let your clay succulent fully dry. I left mine for an entire week.

7. When it’s dry, first, paint the entire thing, including all the nooks and crannies with the sage green acrylic paint. 8. Then take the light yellow green, water it down and use it to highlight the center of each leaf. If you can do that while the sage is still wet, it will blend better.

9. Finally, when that is dry, use the purple, very watered down, to highlight along the edges and tips of each leaf. 10. And that’s it! If you wanted to protect it further, a coat of something with a satin finish would be nice but I left mine as is. Doesn’t it look real?! I love it and it’s the perfect thing to fill an empty pot in my kitchen in the winter! If you liked this, you may also like some of my other posts…

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Cassie May

Craft and Knitwear Designer at Little Red Window Design

Welcome to Little Red Window! I’m Cassie, a professional craft and knitwear designer working in the field for more than 10 years. I have a degree in Art History from Northwestern University and a Master's Degree in Architecture and Design from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. I've designed more than 300 separate knitting patterns, hundreds of craft projects, and I love to bring joy to your crafts and knitting with well-designed, easy to understand tutorials and patterns.

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