Doll Size Doughnuts

 

Watch the video here.

I have a very good reason for making doughnuts this week for the dolls, I have been craving them like crazy but the weather has not been cooperative to going to the store to get any. So I decided to make some from polymer clay this week instead.

This is a really simple project and only uses one clay, Original Sculpey, although you could use any white clay you have on hand.

Start by shaping a ball of clay fro each doughnut you want to make. For regular doughnuts I find a 1” ball to be a really good size. If you want to add some maple bars (long johns in some areas) make the ball slightly larger about        1¼”.

For the doughnuts simply flatten the ball slightly (I did this on top of a piece of sandpaper to keep the bottom from getting too smooth) then use a round tool to make the hole in the center. I used the handle from my chalk brush.

Once you have the basic doughnut shape use a small ball of tightly crumpled aluminum foil to make a textured banc around the center of the sides of the doughnuts.

For the Maple Bar, simply roll the ball into a slight log shape then flatten the same way. And texture all the way around the clay shape.

Once you are happy with the shape add some yellow ocher color chalk to the doughnuts. Go a bit light around the textured area and down the center hole in the doughnuts.

To finish add a coat of a reddish brown chalk to the top and bottoms of the doughnuts doing your best to stay off the textured area.

Bake the doughnuts for 20 minutes at the temperature recommended by your clay. And allow to cool to room temperature.

Now onto decorating our doughnuts. I kept it really simple today but you can go all out, just check online or at the local bakery for inspiration. For mine I just used my favorite icing to coat finish mine.

For the icing I am mixing TLS (Translucent Liquid Sculpey) and oil paint. You just use a tiny bit of oil paint in the mixture. If you use too much it will not cure properly. So for the blobs of TLS I just used a tiny bit of the paint on the tip of the toothpick I used to mix them.

For colors I used: Burnt Umber, Yellow Ocher, Titanium White, and Rose Madder.

Keep in mind that these mixtures will be lighter in color in their raw state than they will be after baking. If you are unsure about colors I suggest baking a tiny bit of the icing mixture on a piece of parchment paper to test your colors.

For the chocolate icing I used the Burnt Umber by itself in the TLS.

For the maple icing I used a mix of the yellow ocher with just a tiny bit of the Burnt Umber.

For the white I used the white alone.

For the pink I used mostly white with a very tiny bit of the Rose Madder. A note on red oil paints- I have found that most reds do shift to an orange hue when cured in TLS, Rose Madder seems to be the most predictable for me.

I suggest mixing this on a disposable surface, I use aluminum foil for easy clean up.

I know there are a lot of instructions out there tell you that it is okay to mix acrylic paint with TLS. I have even seen people that are supposed to know better saying this is alright. The problem lies in the fact that one of the ingredients in acrylic paint is water. When that water gets heated during the curing of the TLS it can boil and in some cases explode your project in the oven. I know that the worse case doesn't happen very often but it can happen. If the water in the paint boils in the heat of oven it will ruin your project.

I do love the way this icing looks when it is baked because it has a wonderful sheen that looks like real icing and makes whatever doll food you put it on look so much more realistic. 

On the white frosted doughnut I added some micro no hole beads to act as sprinkles because they look so nice also.

I hope you enjoy this project, be sure to show me your doughnuts if you make them.

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 Cheese Puffs

Watch the video here.

Today I have another simple polymer clay doll food project for you, some cheese puffs! As I was walking through the grocery store this morning I saw that almost all the salty snacks were on sale and since I hadn't had any cheese puffs in a very long time I decided to pick up a bag of them.

Since they are such a basic shape I knew immediately that they would be a perfect subject for a clay food tutorial.

For this one you need a light yellow clay, a softer brand is going to work better for this project than on of the firmer ones. I am out of light yellow clay so I mixed 1 part yellow Fimo with 2 parts Original Sculpey to give me the color I was looking for. Since we are going to be mostly covering this color up and only a little hint of it will show in the finished project you don't need to get this color perfect, just don't go with a really bright or dark color of yellow since we want the contrast between the yellow clay color and the bright orange of the chalk we will be using.

Start by rolling a snake of the clay and cutting bits off that will for balls about ¼” in diameter. 

 

 

 

 

Once you have the little balls start to roll each ball into a snake then move onto a dish scrubby pad (the kind that is made up of a sponge covered in mesh) and continue to roll to form the shape.

 

 

 

 I like to use a toothbrush to roll the clay on the scrubby for this because it mutes the texture just a bit and I get just the look I am after.

Once you have your cheese puff shapes rolled move them to a container to chalk them. I like to use a plastic lid for this. It contains the mess and makes the job of coloring all the pieces of clay with the chalk much faster, easier, and neater.

 

 

Scrape a piece of bright orange artist chalk onto the container you are using and then using a slightly damp brush coat the clay pieces with the chalk. By using a damp brush we get a very different look than you get when we normally use a dry brush.

You can see in this picture with examples of clay cheese puffs colored with chalk using a dry brush vs a damp brush. The pieces on the left were done with a dry brush and the ones on the right with a damp brush,  I took the photo with the real cheese puff so you can really see how much more realistic the damp brush effect is.

Once all your cheese puffs are colored with chalk, you can bend a few of them just slightly if you wish.

The finished clay cheese puffs need to be baked at the temperature recommended for your brand of clay for 10 minutes.

Once cooled you are ready to use them as you wish with your dolls.

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 Divided Serving Tray

 

Watch the video here.

 

 

In last week's video I had asked for you guys to suggest things you want to see tutorials on and one of the suggestions was a veggie tray. As I was looking at ideas for veggie trays I ran across this really cool serving tray that a veggie tray was on. I decided I just had to make it this week. Then we can fill it up not only with veggies and maybe some dip but it could be used for all kinds of other foods too. I think this is a project that will see a lot of use in my photos of the foods we make in tutorials in the future.

The entire project is in 6 parts- 4 wedge shaped bowls, 1 small round bowl, and a larger tray that the other 5 pieces all fit into.

To start you will need to draw a circle that is around 3” in diameter. I had a container on my craft table that measured 3 ¼” so it was perfect. I would say it should be at least 3” but no more than 3 ½” to stay in scale.

Draw this circle on some lightweight paper then add to dissect it into 4 equal quarters. Then draw a 1” diameter circle in the very center.

You need to use these two pieces as your pattern to start the project so glue them to some heavy paper or poster board. I like to use 140 lb watercolor paper.

Once the glue on these patterns is dry go ahead and trace 8 of the wedge shape onto some card-stock and cut them out. 

 

 

 

 

Also cut 4 strips of the same card-stock that measure 2” by 8 ½” and score these ½” from one long edge and ¾” from the other.

 

 

 

 

 Cut a small notch to create an overlap as shown in the video and glue the strips so you have the ½” wide flap free and a piece about ¾” wide that is two layers. When the glue is dry cut tiny notches the length of the ½” flap to help in following the curves when gluing.

Glue each strip around one of the wedge shape pieces cutting the excess off to fit. Once dry use the other 4 wedge shapes to cover the bottom of the bowls.

Now cut 2 1” circles and another 2” strip of card-stock and score and glue the strip the same as before.

Carefully glue the strip around one of the circles, it does help to have something about the correct diameter to use to hold this while working. Add the other circle to the bottom and allow the glue to dry.

Once dry set up your dishes around the round one and measure the diameter of your set of bowls. Depending on the thickness of the card-stock you are using this could vary. Mine was around 4” in diameter this is the size you need to make your tray.

Give the pieces you have finished a good coat of gloss Mod Podge and allow to dry.

Meanwhile find something to trace around to make a circle the size you need for your tray. Cut one circle from card-stock and one from a heavy paper (I used my watercolor paper) and glue these together. Cut a strip of card-stock long enough to go around your circle and 1 ½” wide. I cut mine diagonally from a 12” by 12” sheet of card-stock and it was perfect. Score this strip ½” from each long edge and glue just like before. Cut notches in the flap as before.

Glue the strip around the circle and allow to dry. Glue this to some more matching card-stock and once dry cut as close to the edge as possible.

I was planning to add a strip of colored card-stock around the base of the tray at this point but I liked the clean lines that the tray had and decided to skip this step. If you want to add one just cut a ¼” wide strip long enough to go around the tray and glue to the outside at the base.

I decided instead to add a rim of gold paint and I love the way it looks.

Now add a coat of gloss Mod Podge and allow to dry.

Your divided serving tray is ready to fill with all sorts of goodies for the dolls to snack on.

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.