Travel & Leisure: Pocket Paradise

Wouldn't it be nice to have a miniature paradise handy when you're stressed out at work or school? This one is small enough to take along anywhere or to hang as a decoration.

Supplies:

• Small plastic dome from gum/toy machine. (Ours measured 1 1/4"/3 cm tall)
• Polymer clay; we used Sculpy, but any kind of oven-drying clay will do.
• Acrylic paint in various colors such as brown, red, green and blue.
• Small paintbrushes.

Here's the plastic dome we used. Ours was about 1 1/4" / 3 cm tall, really quite small.

Place a ball of polymer clay on the base of the dome.

Shape the ball to form your scene.

Our idea of paradise happens to include volcanos and lagoons; you should feel free to change this scene however you'd like. (Perhaps you've always had a hankering to go to the Moon or you think the domed cities in science fiction stories are neat?)

Use a moist ear swab to shape a volcano with a lagoon alongside.

Remove the shaped clay from the dome and bake it as directed on the polymer clay's packaging.

Paint the baked clay to add realism to your scene. A little red paint inside the volcano makes nice lava, while patches of brown on the outside give the impression of dirt and rocks. Feather on green for plants. Paint the lagoon area blue and, after the paint is dry, daub on clear acrylic to make the "water" glossy.

Here's another view which gives a closer look at the foliage creeping its way up the back of the volcano.

The finished dome, with the paradise safely tucked away under plastic.

If you'd like to use your dome as a hanging decoration, drill or pierce a hole in the top of the clear plastic and thread a ribbon or yarn through it.