Baking Pan

Before I start telling you about the project I want to invite everyone to like my 18” Doll Facebook page. I have found my dollhouse miniature dedicated page to be a wonderful way to communicate with everyone so I want to add that to the 18” doll projects too. I will announce when I post blogs and videos but it is also a place where all of you can interact. Feel free to post photos of your doll projects and to ask questions. You can find the Facebook page here

Watch the video here.

here are the finished pans ready for something yummy to be put in them

Today I am showing one way to make an easy baking pan for your dolls. This pan is supposed to represent a 13” by 9” pan in real life. I took a few liberties with the measurements so it is pretty close but if you do the math you will find would not measure exact. This is because I wanted to keep the cutting and folding measurements easy to do. Also I have noticed even in real life these measurements can vary depending on what company made your particular baking pan.

I chose this size for a couple of reasons. Number 1 is that we are going to do a food video next week and we will need this pan for that. And secondly I know that over the years in my real kitchen this is the size pan I pull out the most in my real cooking so I figured it would be something our dolls could use too.

The pan we are making can either be made to look like ceramic/stoneware or metal. That depends on which paints you choose to use.

We are starting with a piece of what I refer to as paper board. By this I mean the lightweight cardboard that is used to package real food like crackers, cereal, etc from our real kitchens. I use these so much that I keep a box of the flattened boxes in my craft room. When I start to run out I put more in there instead of the recycling bin. They really don't take up much space and they are just so handy. I am planning a lot of projects on this channel/blog using this material.

We begin by cutting a piece of our paperboard to 4 ¼” by 6”. Our next step is to score on the lines we want to fold. On the short ends we need to score at ¼” and at ¾” from each end. On the long sides we score at ½” from the edge. I like to turn my paperboard over and score those ¼” score lines from the other side too. They are actually going to fold the opposite direction from the rest of the folds and since it is such a narrow spot the extra bit of scoring makes this soooo much easier.

Pre-fold all these scored lines making sure to really crease the folds flat. This will make your pan turn out much nicer in the end.

Now we need to cut on the lines indicated in this diagram:

 

red lines are the initial cutting lines, score on the brown, then cut away the areas indicated in green

Notice the areas that I indicated to cut away too.

Now we are going to glue our pans at the ends. I make sure that my short tabs are glued on the outside of these to make they look more realistic. Be sure to clamp the glued areas, we want to make sure these stay where we want them. The little steps like this that we take now will pay of in the end with a much nicer finished item. Now walk away and let that glue dry completely. It is really important for the glue to get all the way dry before we move on.

While the glue is drying you can decide what color you want to paint you baking pan. If you want to make it look metal I recommend using the Delta Ceramcoat brand metallic silver. I have much better luck with that brand for the silver paint. If you have another favorite use it but if you are shopping try to find that one. For the metal version you will also need some black craft paint.

If you are going to go the ceramic/stoneware route you will need white craft paint and whatever color(s) you want. Sometimes I paint the pans the same color on both the outside as the inside and sometimes I make the inside white and use a color on the outside. It is up to you. You may even want to paint designs on the sides, if you are undecided take a few minutes to check online for photos of real baking pans for ideas.

I did find out on my prototype pan that some of the color from the box labels will bleed through the white paint after the clear finish is added. (It didn't show until the clear finish was almost dry) I did some experimenting and I have found that Gesso seems to block that bleeding of color. So if you want to make an all white (or other light color baking pan) I would suggest doing the priming coat with a white Gesso rather than with white craft paint. If you are painting the outside a darker color go ahead and use the craft paint.

Once the glue is completely dry we are going to base coat our baking pans. Use either the white or black craft paint and be sure to coat both the inside and the outside of the pan at the same time. I know this is messy but until it has at least 2 good coats of paint to seal the paperboard you need to make sure that you have both sides of it wet at the same time. This step prevents the paperboard from warping as much. You can tell when you have enough on that you can paint the sides separately; at that point you will no longer be able to see the color on the paperboard through the paint. I usually find 2 coats is about right as long as I am using a good quality of paint. The cheaper, thinner paints might need more coats.

Now paint the final color onto your pan. For this step you can paint just one side of the paperboard and be sure to let it dry completely between coats.

If you are going for a metal pan you are done at this point unless you want to coat it with a satin finish sealer. For a ceramic/stoneware finish follow up with a couple of coats of a high gloss sealer. Allow the sealer to completely dry between coats.