To finish your miniature mouse or rat, use your curved scissors to trim away any excess on the rats front and back paws and tint the paws pink or slightly grey with watercolor or acrylic paints. The paws on the mouse in the photo are not yet fully trimmed. Color your air dry clay and let it fully dry before you trim the paws to their final shape. If you are using Delight clay, test the color on dried scraps of clay before you apply it. You want to make sure that your paint won't wash away your mouse. (if the paint is too liquid) or that your color doesn't adhere in a deeper shade than you want. When the color is right on your test clay, apply pink or grey brown to your mouse paws, and pink to the inner ears and the tip of the nose. If you are posing your mouse or rat with its nose sniffing the air, you may want to add a bit of pink along the mouth line under the muzzle. (See photos of rats and mice before you do this.)
Make any final blending and shaping adjustments (for air dry clay you may need to lightly moisten small areas to blend or shape them with a brush). Make sure your mouse is correctly posed and glue or blend on its head. If you are using polymer clay, bake your mouse or rat according to your clay's directions. The tips of ears will burn or brown very easily with some clays! If you are using air dry clay, set your rodent aside to completely dry. When it is fully dry, protect it with a light coat of matte spray or brush on glaze to help make it water resistant.
