how to make a panda bear

here's how to make a panda bear out of polymer clay, according to my ten-year old niece, alyssa. first, take one very sweet, creative, and talented ten-year old with extremely kissable cheeks; add some polymer clay (okay, so i put the "sweet, creative and talented, kissable cheek" part in, but the rest of the directions are hers.....).

"roll the white clay into a ball to make a head. then roll two small black balls and smash to make ears. do the same for the eyes and nose. the mouth is a little tricky....make a very skinny snake and form it into a mouth shape. put all of these things onto the white head."

"now take a big black ball and form it into a panda bear looking body. make two back legs with the black clay and attach to back of body. make two white legs with two black feet and put onto front of body. stick the head onto the body by pressing pretty hard....you don't want the head to fall off! bake it in a toaster oven until it's done. you can set it on top of a block of turquoise polymer clay to make a nice picture if you want. and that's it....pretty easy!"

um, well, easy for a sweet, creative, talented, ten-year-old with extremely kissable cheeks, anyway (did i mention already that she's only ten years old?!! and, that i'm the proud aunt?!!).