Paper Clay Fishing Game

While making our Marionettes, we ended up with some extra paper clay.  I decided to press it into some ikea ice cube molds that I bought the other day.  I thought the little fish and flowers would make a fun magnetic fishing game since the paper clay would be very light when it dried.  We used acrylic craft paint and sprinkled a little gold glitter on the fish and flowers while the paint was still wet.

Acrylic paint is permanent when dry, so make sure you have your painting clothes on if you use it!  When the fish were dry, I put small screws into the ends of each one and into the tops of the flowers.  You may have to go in at an angle to make sure that you don't go out the other side with the screws.  If your fish seems to be falling apart, just take the screw out and try again.  The paper clay holds together surprisingly well.

To make the fishing lines, I took apart some old refrigerator magnets.  I threaded a piece of cotton yarn through a large button and tied it off with nine knots so that the yarn would be very secure and I glued down the loose end with a bit of white school glue.  Then I hot glued the button onto the magnet.  
We made a fishing pond out of a piece of cardboard covered with tin foil.  We may add fishing poles later, but I kind of like just using the yarn and the magnets.  We can make the fishing line as long as we want and we can store it all in an old wooden tray which used to have beads in it. Aren't the fish pretty?  We also made a few red paper hearts that I'm going to save for Valentine's Day. I plan to glue them onto some small boxes that I can fill with candy.  Looking at them makes me realize that if I had painted them brown they'd also make some really cute play food truffles.  Sweet idea!