Doll Size Red Onion Slices

Watch the video here.

I got a request to make some red onion slices for the burgers, so that is today's project.

This is a super easy one it just takes quite a bit of clay.

For the white part of the onion I am using a mixture of Fimo Translucent White with an equal amount of Fimo white. I think any brand of white would work but the Fimo Translucent is a bit different from the Premo. If you use another brand of translucent I think you might need to use a touch more white. The qualities in the Premo that made it perfect for the tomatoes would work against us in this project.

For the red portion of the onion, which of course is really purple not red we need a nice reddish purple. I used Scupley III in Violet because it was the closest to what I wanted. A color a bit darker would be a bit better. Just make sure that the purple you use has a red tint to it not a blue tint.

Just follow the steps that I did to make the cane. I wish I had made my center cane (or core) a bit smaller. Mine turned out to be a little be large in the finished cane for my liking. You can learn from my mistakes on this project.

Another mistake I made was to partially bake the cane before slicing. In the small scales (like the dollhouse scale I usually work in) this works really well. For this larger cane it really didn't help and I think made slicing a bit more difficult. So when you make this just freeze the cane for about 30 minutes and then slice and bake.

I didn't have enough clay to start over and I decided to keep the mistakes in rather than cut them so you can see that I make mistakes and have to work with them sometimes.

Slice the cane as thinly as you can to make the slices look real.

Cut up any scraps and bake them too. They look great in salads and on pizza. I especially like the ones that I wrapped around the dowels to bake. They will look great in future projects. 

Doll Size Pickle Slices

Watch the video here.

This week we are making some pickle slices for the dolls to add to those burgers we have been working on. I decided to go the simple route this week, we could have made a much more complex cane complete with the seeds but I will save that for a future project. I looked at the pickles in my fridge and although you could see the seeds they really weren't that visible.

I know we have used a lot of colors of clay the last few weeks although I have tried to keep it to a minimum. This week I worked really hard to use the same yellow, green and translucent that we used on the tomato slices. They are beautiful colors and we should get as much use out of them as possible.

For the base green mixture we first need to mix together:

2 parts Sculpey III in Lemonade (yellow)

with

1 part Premo Spanish Olive (dark green)

Once this mixture is well combined you need to mix

1 part of the green mixture

with

8 parts Premo Translucent

Combine these really well.

Now make a short fat log, roll out a tiny bit more of the dark green as thin as you can possibly get it and wrap that around the sides of the log.

Now start reducing your clay cane. At the largest I wanted my cane to ¾” in diameter and at the smallest ½” in diameter. I decided to make mine cane range through all the sizes in between by making kind of a cone shape. This gave me a large assortment of finished pickle slices. Make your cane into a rounded triangle shape and chill in the freezer for about 20 minutes.

Once the clay is thoroughly chilled we can cut it into thin slices. I did try to use the wavy blade but it was a bit too big to be in scale and it made it really hard to get thin slices. So I switched to my regular clay blade.

Once you have you have all your pickle slices cut it is time to bake them. I always bake mine on a paper plate. This time it was at 275 degrees Fahrenheit for 5 minutes.

Since pickles are wet we need to add a coat of gloss to them. This time I am using Triple Thick mostly because I wanted to use a paint brush to apply it. In the end it worked out much better which I will explain in a moment.

Once the clear glaze was dry (and I had already uploaded the video to my computer and plugged my camera in to charge the battery) I decided that the pickle slices looked a bit bland. I decided to take my own advice and add just a touch of yellow food coloring (from the kitchen) to more Triple Thick and added a coat of this to the pickle slices. I also added a small pool of this to the container that I put the pickle slices in for display. Just keep in mind this will adhere them permanently to the container.

I think these look great both in the dish and on the burgers!

So what other toppings do you like on your burgers? What are the dolls missing? I was asked to try to make some red onion slices so I am going to try and work on that this week and see if I can come up with those. What else do we need???

Un-boxing Ashlyn

Watch the video here.

Today I have a different kind of video and blog for you. I purchased one of the new Wellie Wishers from American Girl and decided to un-box her on camera. I love to watch un-boxing videos so I thought I might as well film as I opened.

If you aren't familiar with the Wellie Wisher line of dolls they are the newest addition to the American Girl family of dolls. They are being marketed to slightly younger girls (age 5 and up) than the traditional American Girl dolls(age 8 and up).

There are 5 dolls in the collection currently. I have no idea if they plan to add more later but I do hope so. The site describes each doll's personality and they have a range of colors of skin and hair. They are all very cute and it was hard to make a choice but I had a particular role in mind for this doll.

The dolls measure 14 ½” tall so they are smaller than the traditional American Girl dolls. They are also have a younger appearance to both their faces and body shape than the larger dolls. These two features also mean that they will look perfect as younger siblings in our doll collections.

They feature a completely hard body as opposed to the soft body of the larger dolls. I saw a few photos of dolls that people had gotten that had large gaps in the side seams of their dolls. Mine seems to be fine in that respect.

I think this doll's hair is her best feature, it is sooooo soft and silky. It has beautiful highlights too. Although that face is almost too cute to believe.

The price of $60 is high for a doll in my opinion but compared to the $115-$120 price tag of the larger dolls it seems almost reasonable. Currently (through the end of July 2016) they are offering free shipping on the Wellie Wisher dolls so that helps a bit.

As for delivery time for me I ordered on June 27^th and it arrived to my post office late in the day on July 7^th. Keep in mind we did have a holiday during the shipping too.

Now onto how this doll will fit into my doll family. This blog post is the last time you will probably see/hear her referred to by the name Ashlyn. This doll is now named Maria, and she is Jeremy's little sister. I had been wanting to get a little sister for him since the beginning but the doll I had planned to get is no longer made and I was never able to find one.

I took some pictures of Maria and Jeremy side by side so you see how they look together. I think they are going to make wonder bother and sister. Don't you?

I did get one outfit completed for Maria before she arrived and I love the way it looks on her. I have a couple more outfits cut out but didn't get time to finish them in time for the blog.

Both pieces are made from patterns from Pixie Faire.

The top is from the Trendy T-Shirt pattern which is a free pattern on the site. I made this one pretty much by the pattern. I did do my favorite finishing technique on the edges.

For the shorts I actually used the Piccadilly Pjs pattern bottoms. I simply made a guess where to cut them off and added a cuff the legs. I love how they turned out.

I need to get busy sewing for this little dear so she can have a few changes of clothing. Then you will see her here on my blog in some Allison's Journal posts very soon. 

Doll Size Tomato Slices

Watch the video here.

I do want to preface this blog post by telling you that if you also follow my dollhouse miniature channel/blog I am doing the same project over there this week. In fact some of the video will be the exact same footage, but then will cut to scale specific to finish the project.

This week I decided to tackle a cane that I have wanted to do for a couple of years. I have just been to chicken to try it. I have looked at several of my resource books at directions and the tomato cane just looked so complicated that I was a bit scared to try it. But I really wanted to make this so I made the decision that this was a good time to just jump in and do it already! So here you are, tomato canes.

I am really happy to tell you that it really wasn't as hard as I feared it would be. Just go step by step and take it slow, it really isn't any harder than some of the other canes I have demonstrated on this channel in the past.

I did manage to make this entirely out of Sculpey III and Premo clays this time too. I know that some of you have a lot of trouble both getting Fimo and using it once you do find it.

Here are the colors I used today:

Sculpey III Lemonade (a light yellow)

Premo Spanish Olive (a dark green)

Premo Translucent

Sculpey III Beige (a pinky flesh color)

Premo Pomegranate (an orange red)

I have put a description of sorts after the colors to help you find other colors in your collection that might work. The only ones I didn't do this for is the translucent because other than Cernit I don't think any of the other translucent clays will be translucent enough for this project.

After you get your cane reduced to the size you want, remember that tomatoes come in a variety of sizes, place the cane into the freezer for about 30 minutes to firm up.

Now just slice the cane into as many slices as you think your dolls will need.

Bake at 250 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes if you just have slices or 20 minutes if you decide to take some of those leftover ends and create a whole tomato too.

Once baked you can add the optional gloss to the liquid areas of your tomato slices.

If you made the whole tomato my favorite coating for that is Future floor polish. Here is a link to what the bottle looks like now so you can find it. A little bit of this goes a long way.

A little note on the floor finish stuff, I did a bunch of searching online and this is what keeps coming up as being the same thing. I am not sure since they have changed the name of it significantly, but I am pretty sure it is the same. (fingers crossed)

I hope you enjoyed the project this week. Be sure to share pictures with me if you make any of my projects I love to see what you make.  

Doll Size Hamburger Buns

Watch the video here.

This week we are continuing our ongoing project of creating hamburgers for the dolls by making some hamburger buns. I love making breads of all kinds out of Model Magic from Crayola. This air dry clay remains a bit on the squishy side when dry to it is just fun to use for things like bread.

For this scale I am making the buns in two pieces rather than one piece and cut them like I do with the smaller scales. To begin portion your clay out in balls that are 1” in diameter and an equal number of balls that are ¾” in diameter. By starting with slightly different sizes of clay balls we can make the buns more in proportion, keeping the top bun a bit taller than the bottom.

When you form the bun parts try to keep the diameter the consistent throughout the project. Remember real buns are all about the same size in the package. For the bottom buns use the smaller balls of clay and try to make them fairly flat. For the top buns try to make the tops a bit domed just like the real thing. I am forming these on a piece of sandpaper so that it will texture the inside part of the buns.

Next we need to add some color with chalks to make our buns looked baked. This is a fairly easy procedure and one we use a lot in making doll foods. Just be sure to start with the lightest color (the yellow ochre) and work up to the brown. I like to use an eyeshadow brush for this rather than a paint brush. I find I have better control with the eyeshadow brush.

Now allow your buns to dry at least over night. I did find that mine were not all the way dry on the sides that had been against the sandpaper. So flip them over and allow them to set up a while to dry that side too.

So there we are, we now have some buns for the hamburgers. 

Doll Size Condiment Bottles

Watch the video here.

This week we are making some of those cute condiment bottles for the ketchup, mustard and mayo just like I used to have when my older kids were little. They were sure a lot easier to take with when we ate outside in the yard or had a picnic somewhere.

Since the shape of these bottles is so simple they are easy to replicate with paper and wood. If you have ever made any paper beads the technique I am showing you should be somewhat familiar.

The first step is to create the nozzle for our bottles. For this (after trying several ideas) I decided that using a bamboo skewer from the kitchen was going to be the best option. I didn't want that long sharp point so I used my pencil sharpener to make a more gradual blunt point. This then becomes the center of our bead.

For the bulk of our bottle I used 1 strip of regular printer paper cut 11 ½” by 2 1/8”. Wrap this around the skewer really tightly using some Mod Podge to secure it. Follow this with 4 strips of the same paper cut 2” by 11 ½”. Keep the cylinder as tight and straight as you can. Keeping the bottom flat is the hardest part of the process.

When you have finished wrapping the paper around the skewer give it a good coat of Mod Podge and let it sit long enough to completely dry. Overnight is probably a really good idea.

When they are dry use some sand paper or emery boards to smooth everything up. Spend more time on yours than I was able to on mine. I really needed to finish up quickly so I could get this video up on time. Take you time and get yours a lot more even.

Follow up with a good coat of craft paint and a clear finish.

If you are feeling especially creative you can add a cute design to the side of your bottles. Or just leave them plain like mine.

Doll Size Burger Patties

Watch the video here.

This week I am showing you how to create some burger patties from polymer clay for the dolls. This is actually part one of a multi-part series. I decided that it would be nice to offer some longer projects that require several parts by dividing them into a series rather than one long video.

The meat mix for the raw patties does look really complicated but if you stick to the ratios it is easy to do. Here are the amount for all the color mixes I used in the video:

Raw patties:

mix 1

1 part white

1 part translucent

(note the brands really don't matter on this one since these clays are comparable in all brands for this use)

mix 2

2 parts Premo Pomegranate

1 part Premo Alizarin Crimson

(note you can use other brands but you will have to find very similar colors to get the same results)

mix 3

2 parts Sculpey Tan

1 part white (any brand)

1 part Premo Pomegranate

½ part Sculpey Elephant Grey

4 parts Premo Ecru

just a touch of Sculpey Sweet Potato

For the cooked burgers:

use mix #2 from the raw burgers

Premo Raw Sienna

As far as making the meat mixtures the longer you spend chopping the snakes of clay and the finer the texture you get the better they will look. This is especially true of the raw patties. The cooked ones are a bit more forgiving since we coat them with the Gallery Glass and sand for a cooked look.

So I hope you enjoyed this project be sure to check out the Facebook group to get the latest information on blog and video posts.

And remember if you make one of my projects be sure to send me a photo. I want yo see what you making.

Next tutorial will be another part of our burgers.