Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Doll Size Mugs





This week I decided to adapt a recent project from my dollhouse miniatures channel and make it for the 18” dolls. So today we are making the dolls some mugs and we aren't even looking at our clay, we are using scrapbook/ cardmaking cardstock. Yes, that's right we are making the dolls some really sturdy mugs out of cardstock. And they will look like they are made of ceramic when we are done.


On camera I made just a basic mug but I have been making mugs for a few days using this method and have made a small variety of mugs so I will share the variations here on this blog.

All the mugs require the same basic materials/tools to make them.

We need some heavy cardstock, the kind you would make cards out of that measures 12”. The piece I used in the video came from one of those books of cardstock that you can get that have a bunch of sheets that all coordinate for projects.

You will need a dowel or something similar to form your mug on, in the video I used a piece of 1” diameter dowel that is just a couple of inches long. It is covered with a strip of parchment paper to keep the mugs from sticking. You could also cover it with plastic wrap of waxed paper.

You will need a good glue stick as well as tacky glue.

Something to cut your cardstock accurately, I like to use a straightedge, craft knife and self-healing mat.

The best clear finish to give the “ceramic” finish to our paper in this scale is Triple Thick, you will need the brush on variety.

A soft paint brush.

Optional: embellishments (stickers, etc)

For most of my mugs I cut my strip of cardstock 1 ¼” x 12” this gives a good height and thickness for the mugs.

Mug #1 (the one from the video) is just a basic mug and you saw how it went together.









Mug #2 Again just a basic mug, the handle is slightly different is about all.








Mug #3 This one is taller and thinner, and was inspired by my favorite mug for tea. The cardstock strip was cut 1 ½” x 12” and it was formed over a ¾” dowel. It is decorated with some stickers to give it a bit of a different look.






Mug #4 For this one I again cut the strip of cardstock at 1 ½” x 12” but I used the same 1” dowel that I used for the rest. This gives a nice oversize mug. My youngest son has several mugs like this in real life and he loves them.








Mug #5 For this mug I actually used plain white cardstock for the mug and added a single layer of a lightweight scrapbook paper. The lighter paper was cut at 1 ¼” tall by just enough length to go around the base mug. It was glued on with glue stick.







Mug #6 This is a basic mug but before I glued it around the dowel I drew straight lines ¼” from each long edge. Then I cut 2 strips of the cardstock that were ¼” by 12” and using glue stick I glued them to the mug base while it was still on the dowel using the lines I had drawn to guide me. I then glued both ends of the handle to the strips. I had intended to leave the mug like that but when I was going through my stickers I had the perfect silver strips to glue on and I just had to do it.

Mug #7 This one is short and I think it is cute with the others. It is made exactly like the basic mug except I cut the cardstock strip at 1” x 12” and then used the same 1” dowel. I also formed the handle slightly different.






As you can see the variations are probably endless, I can think of a dozen more variations just sitting here.


A couple of things in closing:

If you have stickers you want to use, be sure to test them with the Triple Thick, I had a couple that the ink ran. So test first so you don't ruin your project.

And secondly check for loose brush hairs as you work. I found out too late that one of my brushes was shedding and I now have hairs stuck in the finish of some of my mugs. Hopefully I can get them out without destroying my work.






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