Wow your party guests with Ellen Kharade's spooky polymer clay cake-topper!

What you need...

• Polymer clay, orange, black, green, silver; glitter, blue; glitter, white, yellow, grey, red, caramel
  
• Polystyrene ball
  
• Cake board; round
  
• Tin foil
  
• Ribbon, green
  
• Cutters, blossom, star and circle
  
• Piping nozzle, star
  
• Polymer clay adhesive, bake bond

instructions

1. Big Pumpkin - 1 Wrap enough foil around the ball to make your pumpkin shape and secure with tape. Apply a little bake bond adhesive to one side of the pumpkin, then mould a sheet of black clay over the bake bond.
   
   2 For extra coverage, apply another sheet of scrap clay over the former: cut into sections to make it easier and mould it over the foil. Smooth the join where it meets the black clay until the shape has been completely covered. Bake for ten minutes at 110°C.
   
   3 Roll out a sheet of orange clay and apply to the pumpkin in sections. Create the ridges with sausages of clay. Using scrap card make templates for the mouth, eyes and nose.
   
   4 Apply glue to the back of the templates and position them on the front of the pumpkin over the black section, then carefully cut around them to reveal the spooky features! Form three spirals from green clay by wrapping them around a pencil, remove and position on the pumpkin head.
   
   5 Form four petal shapes twisting the ends into points, then position on top of the spirals. Mould a stalk and add texture with a knife. Position the stalk on top of the pumpkin head and bake the whole thing for ten minutes at 110°C.

2. Path & Spiders - 1 Draw a winding path across the cake board and cover with a film of bake bond adhesive. Roll out a thin sheet of the brown clay, cut the shape of the path then lift onto the cake board, smoothing out any air bubbles as you do so.
   
   2 Mix various shades of grey clay and pinch off small balls and flatten with your finger to make paving slabs. Arrange along the path in different colour combinations. Add little pebbles of clay to fill in any wide gaps that remain. Bake for ten minutes at 110°c.
   
   3 Condition half a block of green clay and roll out into a rectangle to fit half of the cake board. Apply bake bond to one side of the board and ease the clay into place. Do the same for the other side of the board.
   
   4 Push the star nozzle into the clay to create a texture that looks like grass and smooth the excess clay over the edge of the cake board. Trim and bake for ten minutes at 110°C. Roll out 2cm balls of orange clay to make little pumpkins. Add stalks and leaves.
   
   5 To shape the spiders, roll out a ball of black clay, add a smaller ball for the head and attach eight thin pieces for the legs. Adhere small balls of glow in the dark clay for the eyes and the star on the back. Make two other spiders in the same way then position them on the board

3. Craft trick - Work on the pumpkin in stages and bake in between, ten minutes is usually enough to set the clay. The baked clay can then be added to and re-baked several times with out any harm to your model.

4. Design detail - Once your have got the the hang of modelling free-style, make the witch, broom and cauldron

Fimo Soft polymer clay, The CraftMill, 0161 484 5888 www.craftmill.co.uk