Doll Size Pickles & Olives

 

Watch the video here.

 

 

This for our tutorial I decided to make some olives and pickles for the dolls. I am really happy with how they turned out and I hope you like them also. Remember if you make anything from my tutorials I would love to see pictures!

We start off with the easiest project, the black olives. Normally I would have had a can of larger olives in my pantry but all I had were some medium size on hand for inspiration. So while they were perfect for color and shape I did a little bit of guessing as to size. I was aiming to make the largest size of olives that I find in cans and I think mine are pretty close in size for this scale.

The clay choice for this one is easy any black polymer clay will work for the black olives. That being said I do want to impress on you that a firmer clay will give you a much better end result. It will be harder to condition to begin the project but once conditioned it will be easier to work with. Softer clays tend to stick to fingers and tools and loose their shape very easily. They can be used but just know it will be harder to get a good looking olive than if you use a clay like a Fimo or a Premo for the projects today.

Once the black clay is conditioned roll it into a ¼” snake and cut it into ⅜” pieces. Roll these pieces into oval shapes (olive shape) and then using a blunted wooden skewer make the iconic hole in the olives. While the olive is still on the skewer use a pointy tool to make a small hole in the opposite end. Carefully remove the olive from the skewer and place it on your baking surface.

For the green olives once again my real olive was not what I was hoping for . The day I went to the store to pick up olives I found the shelf bare with the exception of one jar of the smallest olives I have ever seen that were at the far back of the shelf. So while once again I have a reference for the color and shape I will be using my judgement to make them the size I want. I made these the same size as the black ones.

For the color of clay I didn't have a color that I really liked for the green olives, I had close but not exactly what I wanted. The closest I could come was to use equal parts of Sculpey III in Camouflage Green and Fimo in Sunshine Yellow. When mixed and baked this made a color I was happy with. As mentioned earlier though it was a bit harder to work with because of the softer Sculpey clay in the mix. Since it was only half the clay it was alright but I could definitely tell the difference. Make these exactly as we made the black olives and move to your baking surface. We will be adding the red “pimento” center after they are baked.

Now it was time to make the sweet pickles. Luckily for us these can be made of a softer clay than the olives because the mixture I found to be perfect was 2 parts Translucent clay, 1 part Sculpey III in Camouflage Green and a tiny bit of black clay. This mixture will look too light in color until it is baked because of the translucent but don't worry it comes out really nice. Since the shaping of the pickles is a bit easier the softer consistency of this clay mixture won't cause the problems it would have for the olives.

For the little pickles we will once again roll a ¼” snake of clay but this time we are going to cut it into ⅞” pieces. Once cut simply soften the ends than transfer to a dish scrubby pad (not the real name but I have no idea what they are really called) Hopefully this picture will help you to understand the correct kind of pad. Anyway roll the pickles on the pad to get a really cool texture. 

 

Slightly curve some of your pickle, leave some straight and transfer to you baking surface.

Bake all the clay items at 250°F to 275°F for 10 minutes. Cool to room temperature.

For the “pimento” centers for the green olives mix a bit of red clay with just a tiny bit of yellow clay then using some TLS add a bit to the open end of each green olive. Bake these again for about 5 minutes at 250°F to 275°F.

Once cooled give everything a very light coat of mat Mod Podge and allow to dry.

Now the dolls have some olives and sweet pickles to enjoy alongside their favorite meal.

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.

Doll Size Pretzels

 

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Today I thought we would treat the dolls to some of those soft pretzels like you can get at some of the malls. I know I love them and there is usually a line formed in front of the counter whenever I walk by the store.

These are fairly easy clay project to make. We are really only making a snake of clay that is between ¼” and ⅜” in diameter and about 8” long. Since these pretzels come in different sizes depending on where you get them this is just a guide.

To form the pretzel it is just a matter of twisting-

And flipping to make the pretzel shape. Again the exact shape can vary a bit depending on who is making them.

Once you are happy with the shape it is time to use some artist chalks to color the pretzel and make it look all “golden brown and delicious” like they say on TV.

Start with a yellow ocher color chalk and cover most of the surface of the pretzel.

Follow with a reddish brown and finally a tiny bit of dark brown to give a nice baked look.

Once the color is the way you want it time to bake your pretzels in a 275°F for about 15 minutes. Allow them to cool completely.

While the clay is baking we can prepare our “salt” for the top. This was the part of the project that took the most thinking for me. I wanted to use something that would not only be in scale but would also be easy to do. I came up with mixing a bit of white sand with some Mod Podge and allowing it to dry. This can then be broken up and it looks like in scale coarse salt.

Once the pretzels have cooled all the way to room temperature coat just a small area of the top at a time with some Satin Mod Podge and sprinkle on a bit of our “salt” You will need to work in small areas because the Mod Podge needs to be wet to work as our glue for the “salt”. Allow to dry then just dab a bit more Mod Podge on top of the “salt” to help it stay in place.

Once completely dry you are all finished. I love how these turned out. I hope you also like them. Remember if you make things from any of my tutorials I would love to see them. Also I am always open to suggestions of what to make for these tutorials so if you are looking for something in particular let me know so I can add it to the list.

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.

Doll Size Candy Canes

 

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I decided there was just enough time before Christmas to post one more quick Christmas candy tutorial. When I was a kid candy canes were among the very small amount of candy my mom would actually buy. She wasn't really into candy so she didn't buy me much of it. But at Christmas there were always some candy canes around the house. So for me they are really a sign that the holiday is really approaching.

These are really easy to make and take a minimum number of clay colors. You could get by with just some red, pearl, and translucent if you want. I did add in a tiny bit of green for some of the candy canes today simply because I think those are so pretty. If you don't have pearl you could substitute white for it. I do feel the translucent is a necessary color for this project though. Without the translucent you will find the candies just look too dense and plastic like. With the addition of the translucent clay they look so much better.

For the mixing ratios use equal parts translucent and pearl and for any other colors mix 2 parts colored clay (including white) to 1 part translucent.

The process of making the candy canes is really just making snakes of clay and combining them I like to keep the colored stripes to a minimum. If you add too many stripes they blend together as you reduce the canes and you loose the effect.

Since candy cane stripes vary from company to company pick the ones you love the look of to use as inspiration.

I baked all the candies today at 250°F. The candy canes for 5 minutes and the larger candy sticks for 10 minutes. Both the pearl and the red clays have a bad habit of turning dark very quickly in the oven so watch these colors closely when baking them.

I added a thin coat of Satin Mod Podge to the baked and cooled candies. I like the sheen it gives but it is optional.

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.

Doll Size Yule Log

 

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This week for our tutorial we are making a Yule log cake from polymer clay. I decided to make this on the channel after I made the same project on my dollhouse miniature channel last week. I really wanted to share this with all of you and I wanted to be able to do a bit more in the way of details which this scale lends itself too so well.

This is a fairly easy project and while I wouldn't recommend it for a very first clay project I think once you have followed a couple of my other clay food tutorials you will be able to do a very good job on this one. Another perk to this project that it uses a limited number of clay colors, just two for the cake and frosting and then an optional third color for the decorations.

We start out with our main two colors a dark brown (I'm using Chocolate Brown in Fimo Soft) and a white (in the video Original Sculpey). You can use any dark brown clay and any white clay you have on hand or can purchase easily. I do feel this project works a bit better if the white clay is softer than the brown but that is personal opinion. For this project I used half a of regular size block of the brown and just a bit more of the white clay for this step.

I started off by giving myself a head-start on the cake texture by working in just a bit of sand into the brown clay. I used white because that is what I have on hand but either white or brown will work equally well. You just need a small amount, and it needs to be worked in really well so it runs evenly through the clay. And don't use too much, you don't want to see the sand, it is just there to help loosen up the clay for texturing and you could leave it out entirely if you wish.

Once the brown clay is ready roll both colors of clay into flat sheets of clay. I don't usually measure this but I would guess less than ¼” thick with the white slightly thicker than the brown. Now layer the two clays together with one edge of the brown not covered by the white like I did in the video. Trim the opposite side of the clay to a straight edge and roll the clay up like the cake would be rolled in real life with white filling encased by the cake layer.

Now roll the clay to get a snake anywhere from 1” to 1 ½” in diameter and about 3” long. This is your basic cake now cut a thin slice off one end to check the interior swirl. Then cut 2 slices each around ¼” thick.

Now for the fun part, we are going to texture the cake to look like cake and not like clay. Use a “pointy” tool, I use my dental pick and make tiny swirls in just the cut side of the brown layer. These need to be very tiny and barely touching the surface. It is really easy once you get the hang of it. Do this to sliced end of the cake roll and to one side each slice. Be careful not to texture the white “filling” in this step.

Now we are going to take a small ball tool and make larger swirls in just the white layer of clay. This will make the filling look fluffy like the real filling would be.

Once you are happy with your texturing it is time to bake the clay. I baked mine at 250°F for 60 minutes for the cake, I did remove the slices after 30 minutes but they would be fine left in for the entire time. I wanted to check the oven thermometer at that point so I just removed the pieces that were already done then.

Once the pieces are cooled to room temperature so we can work with them again it is time mix our frosting color. I decided to make a “milk chocolate” color frosting for several reasons. First off, I was inspired by one of the pictures I was using for inspiration for the project, it was a lovely dark chocolate yule log with a creamy milk chocolate frosting. I loved how the two colors of chocolate complimented each other and you had a definite line between the two colors, after all if we are going to the work of doing the work to make the different textures let's make sure they are really noticeable. Secondly, I wanted to use up the clay I already had on my work tile and by combing the two colors used earlier I was able to make a nice light brown, milk chocolate color that complimented the rest of the cake. You will need to play around with the colors of clay a bit to get the perfect color, I did pull out just a bit more of my brown clay to adjust the color. Also note that I did have more than the clay that was left from the first step since I had also make a yule log cake for my other channel so I had extra of both white and brown clay on my tile.

Once you have the color mixed it is ready to use. Since I used a lot of Original Sculpey in my mix it was really soft so I didn't need to add any TLS to the frosting mixture this time. If your clay is not really soft you might want to add the TLS to get it to a soft sticky consistency.

Roll out the frosting color to fit the cake, coat the outside of the cooked clay log with some TLS then work the frosting around the sides and top of the log of clay. Don't cover the bottom of the log and skip the ends for now. Trim the frosting clay to fit then add some TLS to the end that is not textured (I forgot this step on the video) and cover that end of the cake log. Now using a tool and your fingers, both coated with some cornstarch to smooth the frosting especially the seam where the side and the end meet. Also cove the same edges on the slices of cake.

Once you are happy with the frosting add some texture with a ball tool coated in cornstarch.

Once you are happy with the way your frosting looks bake it at 250°F 10 minutes.

Allow to cool to room temperature.

If you want to add the same “sugared berries” that I did in the video roll some red clay into a very thin snake, cut into small pieces and make tiny balls. Bake these at 250°F for 5 minutes.

Once the “berries” are cooled coat them with mat Mod Podge and coat in white glitter. Separate them and allow to dry completely.

Meanwhile coat the frosting and filling areas only of the cake and slices with mat Mod Podge. Keep away from the textured cake areas.

Once dry add some more mat Mod Podge to the top where you want to place your decorations. I first added some of the same white glitter then added small blobs of Mod Podge and placed the “sugared berries”.

Allow to dry completely and add an additional coat of Mod Podge to the glitter and berries only.

There you go, that was really easy once you started and I bet you have a yule log to be proud of.

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.

Doll Size Christmas Cake Pops

 

Watch the video here.

 

 

This week for the tutorial we are getting out the clay again, this time to make a batch of doll sized cake pops for Christmas. I was looking online for ideas of things to make and cake pops just leaped out at me. I knew I had to make them. These are super easy and you can decorate them in so many ways. I picked just a few this time to highlight for you. I did try to concentrate on ideas that took a minimum of supplies and were all really easy. Even a beginner in clay could do these.

I decided to make some sprinkles to top some of mine and chopped up candy cane for the others. All of these were made from polymer clay.

For the sprinkles I am using 3 colors of clay- white, green and red. The brands of the clays make no difference here just try to get nice bright colors. We will be using the same red and white to make the cake pops too.

For the Jimmies, just roll a snake of clay as thin as you possibly can and cut very tiny pieces. Transfer these to a paper plate and bake at 275°F for 5 minutes to harden them.

For the sequin shaped ones I again started with a really thin snake and cut into small pieces. I then made tiny balls that I flattened with my fingertip. Again transfer to a paper plate and bake at 275°F for 5 minutes to harden them.

For the peppermint bits I used pearl clay for the white layer (you could definitely use white in its place) and the same red clay. Roll the clays out individually to get them really thin, the red layer needs to be much thinner than the pearl one. Then layer, trim and roll a bit thinner. Cut into tiny pieces, I didn't bother to separate them until I used them. And again transfer to a paper plate and bake at 275°F for 5 minutes to harden them.

I kept mine on separate paper plates so that I could keep the types separate. I also make more than I needed today so that I could bag them up and put them with my clay supplies to use on later projects. Just like having the real thing on hand when you are ready to bake having these little decorations on hand will save you time on later projects and it really takes no more time than doing just what we need today.

Once these are taken care of it is time to make some cake pops. Off camera I painted some round toothpicks with white craft paint and trimmed them to 2” long. These will be our sticks to place our cake pops on.

Also off camera I quickly made myself a little baking, drying rack by cutting a piece of scrap wood and drilling holes into it for the sticks of the cake pops to be placed. This will prevent the cake pops from being damaged when baking and again while the final finish is drying. This is a really handy little tool and will be store with the rest of my clay tools for future projects.

For the cake pops I used three colors of clay the same red and white that I have already been using as well as a rich dark brown. Brand of clay is not important here just use what you either have or can easily purchase.

For the cake pops our goal is to make balls that are ⅜” in diameter. I did this by rolling my clay into a ⅜” snake and cutting it into about ⅜” segments. When rolled into balls these will be close enough to the size we are looking for. I then dipped the pointed ends of our trimmed, painted toothpicks into some TLS and then into the balls of clay. Wipe off any excess TLS that forms at the base of the cake pop. Stand you cake pops into your rack or onto a paper plate and bake at 275° F for 10 minutes.

Once cool we will start decorating.

I then mixed some white clay with some TLS to make a spreadable “icing” for the cake pops. This will not only act as our icing on the cake pops but will also glue our decorations on as well.

Use a toothpick to spread your icing onto your cake pops and add your sprinkles and/or peppermint bits. I like to use the dampened end of a piece of un-cooked spaghetti to position my tiny pieces onto projects.

Once decorated bake again at 275° F for 10 minutes.

After cooling completely add a thin coat of mat Mod Podge to both seal the decorations on and to give the clay a slightly glossy appearance. I like mat for this project because real cake pops just have a slight sheen.

There you have your finished cake pops. I love how they look in this little Christmas mug I made using the same method as in this video. 

 

 

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.

Doll Size Christmas Cookies

 

Watch the video here.

 

 

This week I decided to make some Christmas cookies for the dolls specifically Spritz. I know as Christmas cookies go these look really plain. However, they are a tradition at my house. Every year they are the first Christmas cookie I make and my kids always looked forward to them. In real life I use the same recipe that has been handed down from my grandma to my mom and then to me. My grown kids now make them also. I think my great grandma made them too but I am not sure. Whatever the case for my family these are the signal that Christmas baking has begun.

I had to work with this project a bit to get the look I was going for and I tried to do my best to make them simple enough that even someone that is not very experienced with polymer clay could still get good results.

We are starting with just two colors of polymer clay- a white and a tiny bit of a yellow. As you saw in the video we just want a tiny bit of yellow, just enough to warm up the white and make it look a bit buttery and richer. 

 

 

 

It is just a slight cream color which you can see in this picture next to the real cookie.

Roll this clay out into a snake that is ⅜” in diameter, then cut this into ⅜” long segments.

 

 

 

 

Roll each of these clay pieces into a ball and use you finger to gently flatten to make a disc about ½” in diameter. Don't make it too flat just press it gently.

Now use the back of your clay blade and lightly mark each disc into 8 equal segments. Again gently we just want to mark the clay not cut through it.

Now using a toothpick make a small dent in the outside edge of the clay at the 8 points where the marks you made touch the edge of the disc.

Next use your toothpick to make a round center hole in each cookie. Then lightly trace the lines with the toothpick making segments in the clay to look like the flower petals.

Once you are happy with the cookie set it aside to rest while you get your chalks ready. If the clay is really soft and hard to work with you can also slip it into the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes to firm it up.

Now if is time to texture the cookies. For this I like to move them to a sheet of sandpaper so that the bottom of the cookie has a bit of texture. While it is sitting on the sandpaper use a toothbrush to lightly texture the top of the cookie.

For chalks I am using 4 colors today. A light version of yellow ocher, regular yellow ocher, a reddish brown and just a bit of a medium-dark brown.

I am using two different brushes to apply the clay today, the normal eye shadow brush I almost always use and also a flatter firmer brush that I think is for lining the eyes.

Now that the chalk is ready check each cookie and make sure you are happy with it's shape. I like to use the rounded end of the eye shadow brush to soften the edge of the center hole in the cookies.

Now using the fluffier brush to apply the darker of the 2 yellow colors to the bottom of the cookie. Then use the firmer brush to apply just a bit of the reddish brown color around the perimeter of the base of the cookie. Then just add a tiny amount of the darker color to a couple of spots of the same area to look a bit more cooked.

Turn the cookie over and lightly dust the lightest color to top concentrating around the sides and just barely dusting the top.

Now it is time to bake the cookies on a paper plate at 275°F for 10 minutes.

I think these look pretty good and I hope you also like them.

If you have any special holiday items you would like to see let me know and I will try to include as many as I can over the next month.

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.