Doll Size Pumpkin Spice Rolls

 

Watch the video here.

This week I have another tutorial for our snack cake series. This time we are inspired by the snack cakes of the same name that the Little Debbie company makes in real life. I saw the box of these at the grocery store the other day and thought they would be really fun to make for the dolls. As a bonus they are super simple and would be a good project for a relative beginner in polymer clay crafting. We are only using 2 colors of clay and minimal tools.

 

For the two colors of clay I am using some Original Sculpey for the filling and the bands of icing on the rolls. And some Fimo in Yellow Ocher for the cake part. Since the cake part really has little/no texture we won’t even need to do any texturing on this project.

To start make sure your clays are both conditioned and ready to work with. The Fimo will take a bit more time to condition because it is a much firmer clay. Then roll the clay out into sheets. For the cake part I used a single layer craft stick on each side of the clay to make sure my sheet of clay was a consistent thickness all the way across.

If you don’t have a clay roller like I am using just use a straight sided jar like the kind that capers or olives come in.

For the white (filling) layer I did the same thing except I used my set of double craft sticks to get the right thickness.

Since the white clay is softer than the yellow it will naturally squish out just a tiny bit when we cut so it will look like the filling.

The next step is to layer the white layer on top of the yellow one and trim the edges to even the layer out. Now roll the two layers together using the double craft stick spacers, this will help to thin the layer we are working with and also eliminate any air bubbles that might be between the layer. It will also help the layers to stick together better.

Now just roll the clay like you would if you were making cinnamon rolls with the yellow (cake) layer on the outside.

At this point you should have roll that looks like the snack cake but it is too big. So now we need to gently roll the snake down until it is ½” in diameter. Go slow and be gentle, this is an easy process.

Next cut the snake into pieces that are 7/8” long. This is the size of our finished snack cakes.

Now onto decorating. If you have some white 3-D paint you could use that after the snack cakes are baked to make the lines. However I am out of white 3-D paint so I decided to show you how to do the icing lines with the same white clay that we used for the filling. It is just a matter rolling very thin snakes and carefully putting them in place in the design you want. I simplified the design that is on the real snack cakes but if you are more patient than me you could add the extra lines to create a more similar design.

Then just bake the snack cakes on a paper plate for 15 minutes at the temperature suggested for the clay brands you are using.

 

 

 

And the snack cakes are ready for the dolls to enjoy as the weather turns to fall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And since I love to take pictures of my doll foods with the real thing that inspired it here is that picture too.

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 Lunch Tray

 

Watch the video here.

I have another free pattern for you to download so you make the project. You can find the file here. In the download there are 5 files: a PDF for hand-cutting of the pieces, 3 PNG files to use with your electronic cutting machine and a text file with handy hints and tips (and the sizing information) to use the PNG.

As with most of these projects I cut all the pieces from medium weight white card-stock, the kind used to make cards and such. This is way more economical than having to purchase a bunch of colors and in my experience the paint colors are a lot more stable than the paper colors. I rarely get noticeable fading with the painted projects.

You are free to use the pattern as many times as you wish and even to sell the finished project. But, please don’t give away or sell my patterns. I spend a lot of time creating them and the only compensation I get is from people and checking out the blog post. I really want to keep offering these for free so please if someone else wants to make one send them to the video and blog so they can get their own copy of the pattern.

I did try to make this pattern fit onto just 2 pages but I just could not make it fit. So we have to cut 3 pieces of paper. Do note that there are two sizes of the pieces with the holes cut from them. The 2 layers that will be the top layer of the tray is slightly bigger so that it forms a lip that extends out from the wells of the tray.

Like always with these projects we will begin by gluing the pattern pieces together. Start with the solid pieces and the larger pieces since there are only 2 of each of these. With these like all the projects I make like this take your time lining up the pieces. They are designed to fit together and line up. The better you do at lining them up along the way the better the project will end up. Then tackle the main pieces of the tray. Do these by starting with two stacks of 2 with a leftover single piece. Then once they have dried a bit I combined all of the same size to make one unit that size. In the end I had 3 sets of pieces glued together in stacks ready to build the tray from.

Now the order of assembly is kind of important here. I have set this up in the way that is easiest to do it. Start by gluing the bottom (the solid piece) to the bottom of the thicker stack of pieces. The one that has 5 layers and is smaller. These two are the same size and should be easy to line up. Allow this glue to set up at least long enough that nothing shifts when you go to the next step.

And that next step is to add that last larger set of pieces. This is pretty simple just line up the cut outs in it with the cut outs in the other tray piece. Once glued this will need to dry completely before the next step.

This next step is optional, I decided to add a layer of tissue paper (the kind sold near the wrapping paper and gift bags) using some Mod Podge over the entire tray. My thought on this was that it will add more strength so the tray will hold up a lot better and also I will help to blend the layers together even more. If you are careful and only add a single layer the wrinkles will be minimal but if the threat of wrinkles is something you want to avoid just go on the painting step at this point.

If you do cover yours like I did I highly recommend starting on the bottom side and do your experimenting on there then once that dries turn the tray over and do the top side. This will need to dry completely before going on to the painting step.

Now the fun part pick a color of paint for your lunch tray. I looked online and the real ones seem to come in just about every color of the rainbow. So pick whatever you want. I picked an aqua color simply because I really like the color and I hardly ever had a reason to use it on anything. This color is somewhat transparent so it took about 3 coats of paint to get good coverage. Allow the paint to dry.

 

Now seal the tray with a clear sealer, I used the same Mat Mod Podge that is used for the tissue paper layer. This gives just a light sheen and I like the look for things like this. I used 2 very thin coats of the Mod Podge for this and it turned out just right.

 

Now for the other really fun part- it’s time to add a school lunch for the dolls. I went through some of the foods I have made on the channel and added these. The bottle of “juice” is just a small bottle of bubbles I picked up in the party favor aisle of some store. I’m not sure which store it could have been Dollar Tree or Party City but I am not sure off the top of my head. Click on the names of the other items to be taken directly to the video tutorial for that item.

 

Corn Dogs

Salad

Potato  Chips

Slice of cake (Yule Log Tutorial)

 

 

 

I think our doll looks very happy with her lunch. This should be a really fun addition to your doll accessory collection.

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.