Doll Size Mini Donuts

 

Watch the video here.

This week I thought we should make another entry into the snack cake collection so I picked one of my favorites the powdered mini donuts. I think most of the snack cake brands have these under different names but I’m pretty sure they are all the same size and look pretty much the same. The ones I picked up to use for my model were the Hostess brand.

This is a super easy clay project using minimal tools. I am using some Original Sculpey for mine because for this project the off white color works really well.

First step (after conditioning your clay) is to roll a snake that is ½” in diameter. Then cut that snake into pieces that are 3/8” long. Each piece will make 1 mini donut. Roll the piece of clay into a ball. I like to use the palms of my hands for this project because then the ball has a bit of texture. Once you have balls of clay one at a time flatten the balls using your finger in the palm of your hand until you have a rounded disk shape that is about ½” in diameter and about 3/8” tall.

Now time to make the hole in the center of the donuts. For this I am using a Phillips Screwdriver bit. Just an average size one. This will give that shape to the hole that these donuts always seem to have. You can use a screwdriver bit like I am or an actual screwdriver whatever you have on hand. (do make sure it is clean since you don’t want to transfer anything to the clay) Press the screwdriver into the top side of the clay piece then flip the clay over and press it in the center from the other side. Repeat this until you are happy with the way the hole looks.

Next we are going to add the “cooked” color to the outside of the donuts. For this we only need to use the Yellow Ocher colored artist chalk. Just brush the chalk over the entire surface of the donuts. Once we cover our donuts with the powder sugar we won’t see very much of this but if this step is skipped you will notice a difference in the finished look of the donuts.

Now it is time to bake the donuts at the temperature recommended on your package of clay for about 10 minutes. Allow the clay to cool to room temperature.

For the powdered sugar coating on the donuts we are going to use white artist chalk. You will need probably more than you think, it does take a bit of the chalk to give a nice thick coating. Use a knife to scrape the chalk dust into a small container. Then working with one donut at a time coat the donut with some Mat Mod Podge using a brush. Then plop the donut into the container of white chalk dust and run it around until it is completely coated.

Put the donut onto a non-stick surface (like wax paper) and allow to dry. Repeat with all the donuts. Once they are dry you can add more chalk the same way if needed. I was lucky and got good coverage with the first coat.

If you have a lot of excess chalk coming off the donuts a careful crushing with a very soft paint brush will help.

And there they are mini donuts for the dolls to enjoy!

 

 

And since I love to take pictures of the doll size food next to the real one here is that view.

 

 

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 Potato Salad

 

Watch the video here.

This week I wanted to add some potato salad to the doll’s table. This is a fairly easy project and we can use some of the items we have made in the past to make it even better.

Our first step is to create the ingredients for the potato salad. I started with some cubes of white clay (I just used some Original Sculpey, any white or almost white clay will work) I rolled it out to be around ¼” thick then quickly cut it up into cubes around ¼” some were smaller some were bigger.

Since I almost always add some pickles, celery and hard boiled eggs to my potato salad they were next.

Now if you have make any of those food items from my prior tutorials and have some of the clay from those left in your stash this is a great place to use it up. If not do what I did with the celery and pickles, I mixed some clays to give me colors that were close and cut those up into fairly small chunks. (about 1/8” cubes)

For the hard boiled egg chunks I used some the left over cane from last week's tutorial and cut some slices (about ¼” thick) then cut those into pieces each.

 

All the clay was then baked at recommended temperature for 10 minutes and cooled to room temperature.

 

 

Once the clay is ready we need a bowl to put our potato salad into. You could use another of the small bowls like we used for the green salad that would be lovely. I’m using this small cup from the Dollar Tree fruit cups. These are smaller than the ones from the grocery store so they are pretty much the perfect size to use as a serving bowl. All you need to so is wash them and carefully cut the rim off.

Now we can make the “dressing” that will hold our potato salad together. For that I think it is important to mix and store this in a container with a lid so it will stay fluid while we are working. The dressing is simply a mix of white craft paint, a touch of a light yellow craft paint and some Mod Podge. Mix the paint colors together until you have a creamy colored mixture then add some Mat Mod Podge to thin it out. I think I used about twice to three times as much Mod Podge as paint.

Working in batches add enough of the potato cubes to a mixing container to fill the serving bowl about 1/3 of the way. Add a few of each of the green cubes and any other colors of cubes you wish to add to yours (maybe some red for red pepper) I am holding off on the egg pieces until the top layer so that they will show up. Now add just enough of the paint/Mod Podge mixture to coat everything lightly. Don’t go too heavy you want to be able to see the colors of the clay through the dressing.

Once thoroughly coated put the mixture into your serving bowl and let it dry for at least 15 to 20 minutes. Now repeat this until the bowl is almost full. Adding some of the egg pieces to the top layer. By working in layers the paint mixture will get a better chance of getting dry.

Be sure to cover your paint mixture between layers.

Once the bowl is filled the way you want it let it dry overnight.

The next day I coated some more of the egg pieces with the same paint mixture and added them to the top of the salad where I felt like they would look nice.

 

 

Now using a small brush apply some spots of the paint mixture across the top of the salad and immediately add a dusting of a dark reddish-brown chalk to look like paprika sprinkled over the salad. Let it dry again.

 

I think our potato salad makes a nice addition to our doll foods we have been making lately. They have quite the spread for their summer meal don’t they??

 

 

 

 

 

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 Deviled Eggs (plus sliced hard boiled eggs)

 

Watch the video here.

This week I decided to make some deviled eggs for the dolls and since they take the same clay colors and I had a request for hard boiled egg slices I did those at the same time.

We only need a couple of colors of clay for these two projects. A very pale yellow and a white/translucent mixture. About the white/translucent mixture, this is just what the name implies I mix equal parts of white polymer clay and translucent polymer clay. I use this particular combination so much I keep some mixed in my clay stash pretty much all the time. When I find a good deal on clay I pick up a block of each and spend some time mixing them thoroughly. Then whenever I need to use this I have it on hand.

Roll the pale yellow into a snake that is ½” in diameter to begin. Then using a set of double craft sticks as a thickness guide roll the white/translucent into a sheet about 1/8” thick. 

 

 

 

 

 

Use the sheet of clay to just cover the snake of clay trimming and butting the edge so that there is no overlap.

 

 

 

 Now carefully roll the covered snake of clay to reduce it to ½” in diameter. Once you have the snake the diameter we need it place the snake in the freezer for about 15 minutes to help firm the clay.

 

Once the 15 minutes is up the clay should be very cold and much firmer than when it went into the freezer. Now it is time to carefully cut slices from the cane. Use your clay blade and with a rolling motion carefully slice off as many slices as you wish. I like to rough up the yellow yolk area a bit with the tip of my clay blade to give it a more realistic look. Now bake the slices at the temperature recommended for the clay you are using for 10 minutes and cool to room temperature.

Any extra egg cane can be wrapped in a clay safe wrapping and stored in a safe place until you need it again.

An optional step to give these a more realistic appearance is to give just the white portion of the baked slices a very thin coat of Mat Mod Podge. This will give just the hint of a shine like the real egg slices have.

Now onto the deviled eggs.

Start with some more of the same white/translucent clay mix we used earlier. This time make some ½” balls each ball will give one egg and therefore 2 deviled eggs (just like in real life). Once you have the number of clay balls made very carefully use your fingers and the palm of your hand to make that ball into an egg shape. In the end you want the egg to be around ½” at the fat end gently tapering just a bit and around 5/8” long. The shape needs to be very gradual and gently.

Once you have your egg shapes make move them to the freezer to firm up. This time for about 20 minutes. They will need enough time to become firm but not so frozen that you can’t cut through them safely.

Once they are firm carefully cut the eggs in half to form the half egg shapes. Use your fingers to gently correct the shape as needed. I do like to flatten the rounded bottom so that they sit a bit better but that is personal preference.

Once you are happy with the shape of your egg whites it is time to make the filling. Start with a ball of the same yellow clay that is just under ¼” in diameter. Flatten it on your work surface then use a tiny clay tool (I’m using a small dotting tool) start to work on the texture, paying attention to bottom edge of the dome shape. You want the bottom of the shape to be flat so it sits on the egg and looks like it goes down into the hole where the yolk came out.

Now move the filling to the egg half and continue to texture the top of the filling as much as you wish.

Once you have your eggs filled bake the clay at the recommended temperature for about 20 minutes and allow to cool to room temperature.

 

 

Once cooled give a coat of the same Mat Mod Podge to just the egg whites just like we did with the slices and allow to dry.

 

 

And there we have our finished deviled eggs on the plate with some of our other foods we have made recently. I even sliced a few more slices of the egg cane and stacked them to lay on the salad.

 

 

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 Cherry Pies

 

Watch the video here.

This week I decided to add another item in our Snack Cake Collection, some cherry pies. I remember my mom putting these in my lunch box when I was in grade school. I was always excited to find them in with the rest of lunch and when I happened to see they were on sale at my grocery store a while back I knew they had to be the next in this series.

The first part of the video we will make the whole pies just like they come out of the package. Then at the end I show you how to add some cherry filling to a couple that are broken open to reveal the pretty inside.

The hardest part of this project was getting the crust color the way I wanted it. At first I was trying to match the crust on the real cherry pie I had brought home. I just did not like that color at all. Frankly, when you look at the real pie the crust color is not appetizing. The color of the crust on the box is much better and much easier to match.

The clay formula that made the best crust color for this project for me was to mix equal parts of Original Sculpey and Fimo in Yellow Ocher. The ocher color clay I have is from the classic line and very hard, (it is also very old and needed a lot of off camera conditioning) but by mixing with the softer clay we get a very nice workable clay. Be sure to mix the two colors until the colors are completely combined with no streaks left.

 

 

Once the clay is ready roll out a sheet of clay that is the thickness of a single craft stick. Then cut a 1 ½” by 2” piece of this clay for each pie. We are cutting them just a bit bigger than we need and will end up trimming them again but it is easier to work with the clay at near the final size.

 

 

Once you have the rectangles of clay cut roll a snake that is 3/8” in diameter and cut a 1” long piece of this snake for each pie. This will be your filling.

 

 

 

 

 

Lay the snake piece in the center of the rectangle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fold the rectangle over it. Now work out any air and press the edges together firmly. This will make the clay “grow” a bit don’t worry we are trimming it next.

 

 

 

 

 

I like to lay my pie on a piece of 1/8” graph paper for this trimming step. Line the fold at the bottom edge with a line and trim the pie down to be 1 ½” wide by 7/8” the other direction.

 

 

 

 Now we need to remove the corners at the edge of the pie. This looks best if the edge is kind of curved when cutting them off. Because of this I use a 1 ½” round cutter to do this step.

 

 

 

 

Once the pies are trimmed move them to some coarse sandpaper. I used a brush like applicator from hair dye to do the initial texturing but you could use anything that will give a similar texture. 

 

 

 

Then I followed up with a toothbrush to mute the texture a bit and add some finer texture at the same time.

 

 

 

 

 

Next we do something we do on most baked goods, we are going to add some color with chalk. These are artist chalks and I have an entire video on using chalks on our polymer clay in my clay 101 series on the channel. For these pies we are going to start by brushing on a good coat of a yellow ocher chalk, this won’t show a lot but it makes the rust color that goes on over it look much better. 

 

 

Now brush on some rust colored chalk over the yellow ocher chalk. Don’t go too heavy with this. If you feel your rust is too dark brush more of the yellow ocher over the top of it to mute it a bit.

 

 

Once you are happy with the baked color, mix some water into a small amount of the white chalk and using a soft brush splatter on some drops of the water chalk mixture over the pies. This will become the thicker parts of the final glaze. Allow this to become completely dry before going on to the next step so you don’t smear the drops.

 

Repeat these chalk steps on the bottom side of the pies. And allow that to dry also.

This is a good time to make sure everything looks the way you want it to. Make sure the edges are pinched really well and the pies are trimmed the way you want them.

 

Now using a fingertip apply a very thin coat of liquid polymer clay to coat the outside of the pies. This will give the look of that glaze on the pies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now bake the pies at the recommended temperature for 15 minutes and allow to cool before handling.

 

 

Now we are going to work on the cherry pies that are broken open to reveal the filling. For that make your pie just like we just did for the whole ones stopping once you have the chalk step done and the white chalk/water mixture is dry. Then stick them into the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes or so to firm them up and make them easier to work with to get details.

Carefully starting with your clay knife and ending by breaking open up the pies.

Now using your tools make a small opening at the cut edge to put some filling into. This doesn’t want to be very deep just enough to stick a few clay balls for the cherries into.

Use a pointy tool to text the cut rim to create the crust texture.

Now for the cherries, I mixed some Premo in Alizarin Crimson with about an equal amount of Sculpey III in Translucent. Then I rolled a thin snake, cut small pieces and rolled those into small balls.

You will also need some liquid clay mixed with some Rose Madder oil paint.

Coat the inside of the cavity you made on the cut end of the pies with the colored liquid clay and then roll a few of the red balls of clay in the liquid clay mixture and insert in the cavity. I found that 2 or 3 cherries were about all I could get in there without it looking crowded.

Once the cherries are in place use you finger to apply some more liquid clay (not colored, straight from the bottle just like for the whole pies) Then bake at the recommended temperature for 15 minutes and allow to cool before handling.

 

 

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.