Friday, March 1, 2024

Doll Size Pizza Rolls

 

Watch the video here.




This week for our tutorial I decided to stick with the snack theme and show you how to create pizza rolls for the dolls. This is a fun project and I hope you enjoy it.



Since I started out wanting to keep this one simple and I was being a bit lazy and didn’t feel like digging too far into my clay stash I used some Original Sculpey today. Be sure to use the one that is white(ish) for this project. This clay is very soft so it doesn’t like to hold really fine details but it will work for a simple project. It is a bit of any off white color not a true white so if you want to use another clay you will probably need to mix a white polymer clay with a pale beige color (like Fimo Sahara) to get a dough color. One of the advantages of the Original Sculpey is it is much less expensive ounce for ounce. That being said it only comes in larger block sizes. So it does look expensive at first glance. You get a lot of clay in those big blocks so if you are going to be making a lot of doll foods I do recommend getting some to have on hand. It does come in handy for sure.



To form our basic pizza rolls I rolled the clay out to a snake that was 3/8” in diameter and then cut that snake into 3/8” pieces.


 

 


Once you have the clay cut roll each piece into a ball. Then we can begin the texturing process. I like to use one of those scrubbing pads you can get to wash your dishes. I do prefer the ones I get at the dollar store over the more expensive ones from the grocery store but either will work. The thing I like about the cheaper ones is the texture is a bit softer so they give a softer texture on the clay. Just roll the clay balls on the pad.


Next start to make the balls into cylinder shapes by rolling them again. Then using your finger and thumb create the “seam” on the side edges of each one. At the same time tease up a tiny little ear at each corner to give that typical pizza roll shape. Do this with each ball of clay.


Next I decided to try something that had mixed results but I am including it in the video. I made some pizza rolls that were “bitten” into. These are a bit of a more advanced project and only about half of mine worked but I do love the ones that did work. Sadly I didn’t get time to try to make more of these but I do hope to in the future. When I do make more and figure out any tricks I will share those over on my 18” Dolls Facebook page.



To begin I took some aluminum foil and crunched it up to give it texture. Then I rolled small pieces into little log shapes that about ¼” in diameter. This will act as a form to make the open roll on. Be sure to make the end of the log of foil flat not pointed


Roll some of the same clay out into a thin sheet and cut some pieces that are 3/8” wide. Then fold one of them over one of the foil forms you made. Use your fingers to pinch the sides together to look like the seams we created on the whole pizza rolls. Then use both your pointy tool and a clay knife to shorten the length of the pizza roll to look like it has been bitten into.



Then you can use the same scrubber pad to add some texture to the outside of the bitten rolls.


 


Now we are going to add some color with our chalks. I use artist chalks and eye shadow brushes to do this. I first gave each one a quick coat of a yellow ocher color chalk. Be careful to not cover the surface completely. You want some of the color of the clay to shine through the idea is to make these look baked.



Then add just a bit of some reddish brown chalk mostly on the edges and corners of each roll. Just barely brush a bit over the surface of the rolls. Again you aiming to make these look like they have been cooked.


 

 

Once you have the pieces chalked bake them at the recommended temperature for the clay you are using. I normally bake a little cooler than the stated temps because my oven had a habit of drifting up as much as 25 to 30 degrees while it is baking so for my bakes I usually stick to around 225ยบ F. You don’t want to go higher than the recommended temps on the clay. Since the whole pizza rolls are thicker I baked for 15 minutes to make sure they were cured all the way through.



Now carefully pull the foil forms out of the bitten rolls. Like is said I got about half of the ones I did to work. So if you are making these make extras.


As for the whole pizza rolls they are now finished and ready to display.


So let’s add some filling the bitten ones.


To make the sauce that will hold the filling into the bitten rolls I used some liquid Sculpey that was colored with Vermilion Red oil paint. Whenever you are working with liquid clay that you are coloring do a test bake to check the color and that it is going to cure correctly. Simply put a small amount on a scrap of foil and bake for 10 minutes then allow to cool to room temperature. Once cooled check the color and if it is cured completely you can move to the next step.


For the rest of the filling I wanted to make “cheese” and “meat”. For the “cheese” I used tiny balls of a mix of equal parts white and translucent polymer clays. (this is one of the color mixes I keep on hand because I use it so much) For the “meat” I just grabbed a brown lump of clay from my scrap bag to use. For this I used my pointy tool to tear off little bites to look like clumps of meat.


Then add a small amount of the liquid clay to the inside of the bitten roll, just a bit not much then top with a couple of the bits of filling. Then top with a really small amount of the sauce to help hold everything. Bake for 10 minutes at recommended temperature. Allow to cool before you handle these because the liquid clay sometimes is a bit soft coming out of the oven until it cools.



 

So that is all there is to it, I love how they turned out.




 

 

As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.

Friday, February 23, 2024

Doll Size Trail Mix

 


Watch the video here.




Trail Mix, I have been thinking about doing this project for a while now. I know there are several parts and some of the pieces look a little bit hard but if you watch how I make each one you will see they are really pretty easy to do.


If I were making this not for a video I would make all the pieces and bake them at the same time. For video purposes I made each component of the trail mix separately. I felt it would be easier to follow that way. The only pieces I would keep separate in baking are the “M&M’s” and I would just put them on their own plate to bake. And that is only because they are the only pieces that are going to get any kind of clear finish.


So for the “M&M’s” I did my best to match the colors from the clays I have on hand. I am going to list the colors I used but feel free to use colors you have or can get easily that are similar.



Red- Sculpey III Red Hot Red

Yellow- Sculpey III Lemonade

Orange- Sculpey II Just Orange

Brown- Sculpey III Suede Brown

Blue- Fimo Blue

Green- Fimo Green


When you are working with different color clays do your best to work from the lightest color to the darkest leaving any red clays for last. That way you minimize color transfer and you won’t spend so much time cleaning up between colors. After you use any of the dark colors and especially red you will need to thoroughly clean everything before you move on to working on anything else.


Condition all the colors of clay then roll a small amount of each color out to a snake about 1/8” in diameter. I like to use my drill gauge to size snakes of clay.



 

Next cut the snakes into 1/8” segments. I use 8 square to the inch graph paper to make measuring easy.


 

Next roll each piece into a tiny ball then use your fingertip to gently flatten each one slightly. You want to make a very round disk shape, like a real M&M,


These are baked at the recommended temperature for 10 minutes and allowed to cool to room temperature.



 

Once cooled make a mixture of about equal parts Satin Mod Podge and water. Coat the pieces and allow to dry on a piece of parchment paper or waxed paper.


 

The raisins are the one piece of this project that took me the longest to figure out. But I am so happy with how they worked out in the end. To start with have you every really thought about what color a raisin is?? I had no idea what color clay to use so I googled it and found that the correct color is a very dark purple red. So that gave some guidance as to what clay color I was looking to create. So my mix was_



 

Sculpey III Plum- 2 parts

Sculpey III Suede Brown- 1 part

Translucent (brand doesn’t really matter here) – 1 part


 

 

Mix these three clays together to get a nice raisin color.


Now roll into a 1/8” snake and cut into about 1/6” pieces. With the raisins you have more leeway in size because they are not all the same size.


Now once again roll into tiny balls.



 

Then on top of a piece of aluminum foil that you have tightly crumpled and flattened out place each ball of clay and use a coarser crumpled piece of aluminum foil to create each raisin.


Again these are baked at recommended temperature for 10 minutes.


Now we can make some peanuts for our trail mix. For those I am using the clay color I many time refer to as my “dough color” and I since I use it so often I normally have a baggie of this color pre-mixed so it is ready to use at all times. It is just a mix of equal parts of any white polymer clay and Fimo Sahara (a light beige)


For these we are stating the very same way we have been a snake that measures 1/8” cut into 1/8” segments, rolled into balls then into ovals.



Then we need to use some light yellow ocher chalk to color the peanuts. For the not broken nuts that is all there is to making them. But I have never gotten anything that didn’t have at least some broken peanuts in it so that is the next step.


Take a few of those finished peanuts and place in a container and then in the freezer for 15 minutes. This will make them firm enough that when we cut them they will keep their shape.




As soon as you take them out of the freezer use your clay knife to cut them in half lengthwise. You will need to work quickly so that they stay firm for this step. Once cut use something pointed to make the mark in the center of the cut surface.


Then bake at the recommended temperature for 10 minutes.




On to the final component- the cashews. We are going to use the same clay as for the peanuts. Make a snake that is just a bit bigger than the 1/8” we have been working with and cut it into pieces that are ½” long. Roll into balls. Then into longer shapes that are about ½” long slightly thicker at o

ne end.


Brush with the same yellow ocher chalk then in a reddish brown chalk.


Form the final shape around a bamboo skewer.


Bake at the same temperature for 10 minutes.



 

 

And that my friends is al there is to this project. I love how it turned out and it really isn’t all that hard to make. Just follow my steps and you will have a batch of doll size trail mix for your dolls in no time. .



 

 

 

As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.

Friday, February 9, 2024

Doll Size Potato Chips

 

Watch the video here.



This week I have another project with a pattern you can download and use for free. The pattern has a version to cut by hand and one to use with your electronic cutting machine. This pattern is free to download and you can use it as many times as you wish. You can even sell the items made from my patterns. I just ask that you don’t sell or pass along my patterns. If someone wants a copy of the pattern send them to the video and here to the blog so they can download their own copy.


The free download has 3 parts in the file. There is a PDF if you want to cut by hand. And for those of you that want to use the pattern with an electronic cutting machine the pattern itself is a PNG and there is a text file that has the information about the sizing as well as hints that I have to make the process smoother.


The pattern is located here.


Depending on how you are cutting your chips will determine when you paint the sheet of paper.


If you are going to be cutting by hand with the PDF, go ahead and print the pattern sheet on regular printer paper. I do suggest using whatever setting on your printer that uses less ink. Sometimes it is called something like draft. Sometimes there might be an “ink saver” setting. Try to pick a setting that will use less ink. You might also need to set your printer up to print edge to edge to get the entire pattern. Once printed I would let the ink dry at least a couple of hours then proceed with the painting process. Most printers I’ve had over the years the ink will not run very much if any. If it does run just trim off any ink that ran when you cut the chips out.


If you are going to be using the PNG with an electronic cutting machine paint the paper first and then let the paint dry at least 24 hours. That way you can be sure it is completely dry before it goes anywhere near the machine.




When you are ready to paint the first layer of paint a wash made up of mostly water with just a touch of white craft paint and a touch of a golden yellow craft paint. The amounts of paint to water will vary depending on the brand of paint you are using as well as the exact colors of paint. You aiming at just tinting the water.

 


 Work on top of a piece of wax paper or parchment paper so that your paper doesn’t stick to the work surface. I found a sponge brush was the best tool for this first layer. Paint one side of paper completely then allow to dry and paint the other side of the paper. Be aware that the coverage will not be even, it will be fairly blotchy because of how watered down the paint is. Allow to dry.



Once the base layer of color dries again tint some water with paint this time using just the white paint. Then using a chunk of kitchen sponge paint the surface with the watered down white. Use a dabbing motion and don’t cover every bit of the surface. Let dry then repeat on side 2 and allow to dry.


Now we need to add a sponged layer of the golden yellow paint that has bee watered down. Do this exactly like we did with the white layer but use less of this layer. If you get too much of the yellow on you can always correct it with another layer of white.


Let this dry before proceeding to the next step. No matter how you are cutting the chips the paper needs to dry all the way through before you cut into it.



 

Once completely dry if you cutting with a machine be sure to anchor the paper to the cutting mat really well. I used wash tape on all four sides of my paper. Between the paint on the surface and the fact the paper is no longer flat it needs to be really held down to the mat. I would not however use one of the mats that has extra grip because that might tear the painted surface off the paper. Just use a regular mat and lots of tape to help hold it.


 

Once cut we can start to work on the detail painting on the chips.




For the first step of the detail painting I used more of the watered down golden yellow paint (this time a bit more paint than before) and using either a cotton swab or small paint brush (or better yet both) add an outline to each chip as well as some random spots of the paint/water mixture. Again laying the chips on wax paper to dry.

 



For a final bit of detail I used a bit of brown paint with a bit of water and flat brush to paint just the outside rim of some of the chips. Not all the way around just a partial outline on some of them. Then also tear a few chips because there are always some broken chips in the bag. Allow this final paint to dry.

 

 


 

And here we have some of the finished chips, I hope your dolls enjoy them as much as I enjoyed coming up with the project.

 

 

 

 

As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.


Friday, February 2, 2024

Doll Size Toaster Pastries pt 2

 


Watch the video here.

 


Last week we made some whole toaster pastries and this week I am taking you a step further and making some that have been broken in two (I don’t know about anyone else but I always break mine in two before I eat them) and some that have a bite out of them. If you haven’t seen the video from last week I do recommend watching that one first so here is the link to the video. And here is the link to the blog post where you will find more information.


We are using the same clay mixture for the dough that we used last week as well as the same pattern that told you how to make.



The big difference this week is the addition of the colored filling for the pastries. This is made with a mix of about 8 parts translucent polymer clay to 1 part of the color of you choice. Since I am making strawberry I used a fairly bright red for mine. You can use whatever color matches the filling of the pastry you are trying to replicate.

 


I do recommend baking off a sample of the mixed clay since it is hard to predict exactly what color it will bake out to be. The translucent clay is very white in its unbaked state but depending on the brand it goes to a translucent color. I have found with experience that it is best to bake a sample rather that guessing.


Once I was happy with my color mix it was time to get to work on the project.


To add a little bit of additional texture to our filling I added just a bit of white sand to mine. This will make the filling look more like the jam filling in the real pastries. It doesn’t take much and you could skip this if you wish.


Once the sand is worked into the clay it is time roll it out just like we did last week. Then using the pattern for the filling cut out as many pieces as you wish.


Then you will use the same dough color clay as we used last week and for each pastry cut 2 of the larger pieces.



Then the assembly is the same as last week just using the red filling in the center of each pastry. I used the same tools as I did last week and the same process.



Once I had all the pastries I am making today put together with the edges sealed and the tops have their little holes in them. I used the same chalks to color the pastries to make them look like they have been toasted.


Remember all of these steps were covered in last week’s tutorial so I am not going into great detail this week and why I recommended you watch that tutorial first.


Now we start to do things a little bit different. At this point put your pastries into the freezer for about 15 to 20 minutes. You want them to get really cold. This will make the clay a bit firmer and easier to work with in the texturing part of the process.


Once they are really cold you can proceed to make either the pastry that is broken into 2 parts or the one with the bite out of it. You could of course do both to the same pastry if you wish.


For the broken pastry- use your clay knife to cut across the pastry but don’t cut straight across, come from both sides and then make a shallow cut to connect the two cuts and break the rest of the way. When you break the real pastry it is not straight and we don’t want a straight cut here either. Then use a pointed tool (I use a dental pick but a sewing pin works well also) just barely tease or tickle the cut surface of the pastry. You want to bring up little tiny crumbs of clay to make it look like the pastry in real life. Then use the point of the same took to make a swirl of two in the filling that is exposed.


For the bitten pastry- use a round cutter that has a scalloped shape. I have a set of plastic cutters that have lots of shapes that I have moved to using with clay. I never liked the for real cookies but they work really well for clay. The only thing is since the plastic they need to be cleaned as soon as I am done with them because raw polymer clay will eat holes in some plastics if left in contact.


Use the scalloped cutter to cut off a corner of the pastry and then texture as before. You can use you knife to adjust the cut to make it just the way you want it.


Once you are happy with the way the pastries look go ahead and bake them for 10 minutes at the temperature recommended for your clay. And allow them to cool to room temperature before moving to the next step.



Once cooled we can add the frosting to our pastries. Since I am making “strawberry” toaster pastries I am just using the white Liquid Sculpey as is. If you want to make other flavors that have a colored frosting just follow the instructions from last week where we mixed a couple of colors. This time we need to be much more careful in our application of the frosting so that it stops at the cut/bitten edge and doesn’t run over the edge. Once you have the frosting in place add the sprinkles and bake for another 10 minutes at the temperature recommended for your clay. And once again allow them to cool to room temperature before you touch them.



And that is all there is to this project. I am so happy with the way they turned out and I hope you are enjoying them also. Remember to send me a picture of your dolls with some the foods you’ve made from my tutorials I would love to see what you are making. Also if you have something you would like to learn to make let me know and I will try to come up with a tutorial for you.



As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.



Friday, January 26, 2024

Doll Size Toaster Pastries pt 1

 

Watch the video here.



This week I am showing you how to make some toaster pastries for the dolls to enjoy. This will be part 1 of a 2 part project and we will make just basic whole toaster pastries. I will be showing you how to chalk them to look like the ones fresh out of the box as well as after a light toasting.


This is a really easy project and would be a good one if you just have a bit of experience working with polymer clay.


To begin we need to condition the clay we are using as well as mix a dough color of clay. If you are not familiar with what I mean by conditioning the clay I highly recommend you check out my polymer clay tutorial playlist on my channel. You can find it here. In that series of videos I go over a lot of the terms and techniques of working with polymer clay.



To get the dough color of clay I mixed some white clay and some Fimo Sahara clays together. You could use any light beige type color in place of the Sahara. I mixed them in equal parts to create a nice light dough/pastry color of clay.


 


I also created a couple of patterns to help me cut my pastries all the same size. For the patterns I used some 8 square to the inch graph paper. I have a PDF I downloaded from online that I print out a few sheets when I need then but you could certainly buy the graph paper or just use plain paper and measure and draw the pattern that way. I like the graph paper because it is so easy to measure out my pattern quickly.



The pattern for the pastry measures 1” by 1 3/8” and the pattern for the filling measures ¾” by 1 1/8”.


Now we can roll out the clay. Since the filling in our pastries today will never be seen I am using the same clay for the filling as for the outside of the pastries. You could use any color for this “filling” this week.



 

Since we need a thin sheet of clay I used 2 of the Hobby Lobby version of skinny sticks to help me get a nice thin even sheet.

 

 

 


 Once rolled I used the patterns to cut two pieces from the larger pattern and 1 from the filling pattern. 

 

 


Be sure to use some cornstarch on your work surface to help prevent sticking. Be very careful when lifting/moving the thin pieces of clay. Use your clay knife to help lift it off the work surface so you don’t stretch it out of shape.


 

 


 

 

Layer the pieces like a sandwich with the filling piece centered in the middle between the other two pieces.



 

Now we need to smooth the top layer of clay down around the filling and seal it to the bottom layer. I used a large ball tool but you could use the clean handle of a large paint brush or your finger tip. You want to have a shape like shown in this picture. Trim to size with your clay knife and the pattern.


 

 


 

 

Now use a pointed tool like the pointed dotting tool I used or a toothpick to make the little holes that are on the pastries in real life. I tried to make neat rows alternating between 3 and 4 holes in each row offsetting them so they lined up between the holes in the rows above and below. Like in this photo.



 

Now we can use some yellow ocher artist chalk and an eye shadow brush to add just a bit of color over the surface of the pastry. If you are making your pastries to look like they are fresh out of the box your pastry is ready to bake.


 

If you want to make your pastry look like it has been through the toaster add just a bit of a light rust brown color chalk around the edges and at the corners. Then follow up with a bit more of the ocher color to blend it.


Now time to bake, follow the instructions on your package of clay for temperature and bake for 12 minutes.


Allow to cool all the way to room temperature before the next step.



Next we are going to frost our pastries, for that I am using some liquid clay. If you want just white you can use the white liquid Sculpey and it will be perfect and I am going to do that on one of mine. But I want some color of two of my pastries so I need to add color to the white liquid clay. To add color I use oil paint. If you not familiar with this process I again recommend you you check out my clay 101 series to learn more about liquid clay and how to use it.



To make the caramel color frosting (like on the brown sugar cinnamon pastries in real life) I used white oil paint with a touch of burnt umber and a touch of yellow ocher.

For the pink frosting I used white paint with a touch of rose madder paint.


Mix a very small amount of the mixed paint into the liquid clay. Just use enough to color the liquid clay. Then put a drop of each of the colors you mixed onto any bake-able surface and do a test bake for 10 minutes at the same temperature you will be baking the project at. This will tell you a couple of things. Since the colors do sometimes shift a lot when doing this you will know if you have the color you want. And most importantly you will be able to determine if the clay will cure. If you add too much paint to it you will find it remains sticky and not set up when baked and cooled. You do have to wait until it is cooled to room temperature to check this.



Once you are sure that the colors are the way you want them to be spread a small amount on the top center of each pastry. Then if desired sprinkle on some tiny no-hole micro beads to act as sprinkles. Once you have them decorated the way you want them bake again at the recommended temperature for another 10 minutes and allow to cool before touching them.



 

 

And there you have it toaster pastries for the dolls to enjoy.


In part 2 we will be making pastries that are broken open or bitten so we can see the filling.



 

As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.