How to Make Bread Dough Roses for Claw Clips and Other Crafts

 Carolyn J. Braden • 4 Minute Read 

How to Make Bread Dough Roses for Claw Clips and Other Crafts

I am loving making crafts with my bread dough or bread air dry clay! From my mushrooms to flowers and more, you can sculpt many things with bread clay. Use my tutorial below to create a recipe for bread dough and make bread dough roses for a claw clip and more!  

Air dry bread dough claw clip

I’ve made other craft tutorials for bread dough and it’s super fun to make. If you are looking for a quick and easy air-dry clay project that is very “vintage” and low cost, definitely make bread dough and try my roses. Bread dough is an old recipe used in crafting basically because air dry clay and other art supplies weren’t available at the time. Now you can buy air dry clay from all kinds of stores, but making bread dough is fun to try.

Use bread dough for many crafts

Can You Eat Bread Clay/Dough?

No, you cannot eat bread dough creations nor can you eat the bread clay/ bread dough. It’s a crafting clay that dries without the use of a kiln, making it homemade air-dry clay. It has glue in the recipe, so please do not eat it.

My claw clip hairstyle idea

Will Bread Dough Mold?

My aunt used bread dough to create the roses that you see framing my baby photo in the photos in this article. She made that over 40 years ago, and there is no mold on them, so I do not think that it will. I believe the glue acts as a stabilizer, which prevents the mold. If you are still afraid your bread dough creations will mold, use Mod Podge or paint to seal them as I did in this tutorial.

How To Make Bread Clay/ Bread Dough for Crafting

I wrote my full tutorial for bread clay in this article here (which shows you how to make a bread clay rose too), but I am including it below so you can make it right from this article. If you want to see photos of me making the clay to go with the steps below, definitely read the full article for my bread dough. Or you can watch me make it below in my video. 

See me make bread dough clay in my 1-minute tutorial below or via my YouTube channel @carolynjbraden:

Discount Code Alert!

I get many of my craft items via Temu. If you use my discount code afe55197 at checkout or shop via my link, you’ll receive 30% off!

Things You Need:

• White Bread (1 slice, mine was a bit stale, so it crumbled easily, which is a good thing)

• Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue (Get it at Walmart here or via Amazon here)

• Cold Cream (I used Noxema, get it at Walmart here or via Amazon here)

• Acrylic paint (I used a matte white for the dough, but other colors and finishes can be used if you want your clay to be a certain color, buy white acrylic paint here on Amazon or here at Walmart and buy other colors of acrylic paint too if you are making other creations like my roses

• Measuring spoons (Buy it on Amazon here or via Walmart here)

• Mixing bowl with tight fitting lid (lid is only needed if you plan to store this for later use)

• Something to stir it with (small spatula, spoon….I LOVE these mini spatulas via Amazon)

• Plastic wrap (if you plan to store this for later use)

• Clear Claw Clip (Mine is from Temu, but Amazon has the same set I bought too here)

• Iridescent flatback pearls (I got mine here on Amazon)

• Rhinestone tray (Amazon)

• Aleene’s Liquid Fusion Glue (for the pearls, Amazon)

• Wax pencil (Amazon)

• Small detail or miniature paintbrushes (Amazon)

• Optional: Acrylic Seal Spray with a Gloss Finish or Mod Podge (Amazon)

How To (Bread Dough):

1. Remove the crust from your bread crumble it into tiny pieces into a bowl. Mine was a bit stale, so it crumbled easily. If you use fresh bread and want it to crumble easily, leave a slice out on a plate for about an hour before you do the craft. It should dry up a bit, leaving it “stale” enough for crumbling.

2. Measure out 1 tablespoon of the Aleene’s Tacky Glue and add it to the crumbled bread.

3. Add a ½ teaspoon of cold cream to the mixture.

4. Add 15-20 drops of acrylic paint. I used white, so all my clay would be white (then I could paint it later). If you want to use colorful acrylic paint, you can (but your clay will all be that one color).

5. Mix with the spoon or spatula until it starts to all come together.

6. Spread a little cold cream on your hands and pick up the dough and knead it (basically “squish” it in your hands) until the ingredients combine and forms the dough.

7. If your dough is extremely sticky and cannot be molded, you can add a bit more crumbled bread OR let it sit out for a bit. Mine was a tiny bit sticky, so I just added a bit of cold cream to my hands so it wouldn’t stick.

 Roses Directions:

For the roses, I pinched off a tiny piece of clay (pea-sized or smaller) and rolled it into a ball.

Rolling the bread clay into a ball

Then I used my fingers to flatten it into a circle and rolled the circle into the “center” of the rose.

Flattening the bread dough ball

I rolled several more balls and flattened them into “petals” and wrapped them around the center. I added about 3-4 petals to the center and formed a rose the size of my thumbnail or slightly smaller.

Forming the center of the bread dough rose

Making them as tiny as my aunt did for my baby photo is hard and mine was definitely a bit bigger, but you can make them as large or as small as you need them.

Adding the petals to the bread dough rose

I was able to make 5 small mushroom ornaments (see that project here) from my batch of air-dry bread clay for my bread dough mushroom ornament tutorial and used the rest to make the 6 small roses for this project. 

The bread dough rose

 I cut the backs off them with a plastic spatula to make them lay flat.

Cutting the rose to make it flat

I let them dry for about 2 days. Then I painted on 2 coats of acrylic paints on them.

The finished bread dough rose

I let all the paint dry and then laid them out on some wax paper outside and sprayed 1 coat of acrylic paint sealer on them all. You do not have to do this, but I wanted to make sure mine would last. You could also use Mod Podge.

Painting the dry bread dough roses

When the sealer was dry (24 hours is what I gave mine to fully dry), I glued them to a clear claw clip with the Liquid Fusion glue.

DIY air dry clay rose

I then applied more glue to my claw clip and used my wax pencil to grab pearls that I put in a rhinestone tray and added the to the glue. I added the pearls all around the clip and on the top side of it too.

Gluing the roses to the claw clip

And then they clip is done! You can make the roses bigger or smaller and make earrings, glue them to ornaments, add them around a photo like my aunt did and more.

Adding the flatback pearls to the claw clip

Bread clay is easy to shape, sculpt and it will last in the fridge (wrapped in plastic wrap and placed in a sealed container) for 2-3 weeks and can be frozen too.

The finished bread dough rose claw clip

If you loved this article, we think you’ll love this one too: How to Make a Varsity Letter Ornament in 10 Minutes

Carolyn J. (C.J.) Braden is the owner of Carolyn’s Blooming Creations is a regular contributor and editor for CBC. She has been featured in numerous media publications such as InStyle Magazine, on HGTV, on Bustle.com, and more. She is the author of the books Georgia McMasters in Amethyst Lake Cemetery, How To Be Yourself: 3 Ways To Help You Being You, and the illustrator for the children’s book Bridging Connections. She is a former classroom teacher that now dedicates her life to educating others on how to live their most healthy, creative and happy life. Learn more about her visiting our About Us page.