Doll Size Crackers

Watch the video here

This week I am showing you how to make some crackers for your dolls. These are loosely based on some crackers I remember having as a child. I have no idea of what they were or even a solid memory of what they looked like. This project is just based on a very vague memory. But you could use another color of clay and a different shaped cutter and make a totally different (but just as cute and yummy) kind of cracker for your favorite dolls.

I used equal parts of Premo Ecru and Sculpey Beige clays to get a mixture that I felt was what I was looking for. I recommend using the colors of clay you find and play with mixing colors to see how they mix together. You could also find a clay in a color that is close to what you want and call it good.

I mixed in some black sand because these crackers I am remembering had black pepper in them. I remember that because I don't like black pepper and I loved these crackers. My mom was so surprised when I ate so many of them. LOL

Whatever shape you choose to cut your crackers in try to make them around ¾” in size to look right for the dolls.

Whatever color or shape you make them I know your dolls will love them! 

Doll Size- Sliced Cheese

Watch the video here.

This week I am going to show you how to make some simple sliced cheese for your dolls from polymer clay.

This is a super easy project and you get to practice measuring out the clay too.

The first step is actually to decide how much clay you want to label as “1 part” this will determine how much cheese you end up with. It also allows you to make one slice or hundreds of slices. The proportions of clay colors stay the same.

First we will make some cheddar slices. I based the color on the color of my favorite brand of cheddar. If you favorite brand varies in color feel free to adjust the colors of clay to reflect that.

The basic formula is-

8 parts white (I used Fimo)

2 parts yellow (I used Fimo Sunflower)

1 part orange (I used Fimo Tangerine)

You can use the brand of clay you have just try to get colors as close to what I used as possible. I think all the brands of clay have these colors (by different names) in their lines.

I cut my cheese squares to 1 ¼” because my slices of cheese in my fridge were 3 ¾” a very easy size to translate to 1/3^rd scale.

Since I needed a larger baking area than my normal paper plate would have provided I baked on some parchment paper on a large tile. Without the paper between the clay and the tile the bottoms of each piece would have been shiny after baking.

For the Swiss cheese the process is clay mixture is as follows:

8 parts translucent (I think I used Sculpey III, not sure they are all in the same bag)

2 parts white (I used Fimo)

½ part yellow (I used Fimo Sunflower)

The process for this one is almost the same as the cheddar you just have to add the holes. I used a combination of some clay cutters and my ball stylus. You can add as many holes you want. I have to watch myself on this step, I tend to get carried away and add way too many.

Both kinds of cheese are baked at 250 degrees (Fahrenheit) for about 5 to 10 minutes.

Now wasn't that easy???

I think we had better make the dolls some crackers next week to go with this cheese. 

Doll Sized Marble Cutting Board

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If you also follow my dollhouse miniature tutorials this is going to be a very familiar project for you. I decided to post the cutting board to both places (with the obvious needed changes for scale) because I think it is such a fun project.

We are using clays in the grey, black and white family to make our marble but there is an entire rainbow of possibilities out there. Have fun and make you marble any color you want. It can either be realistic or a fantasy color combination. Just have fun.

I like to start with mostly a white/translucent clay mixture. (2 parts white to 1 part translucent)This is the clay that I use the most of and it can be any brand of clay. Today I think both of these happen to be Premo (I used what was already out on my clay table) This is the case no matter what other colors I am using.

Next as far as the amount of clay used is a gray, and I was so happy when gray clay came back to some of the clay lines. Today I am using Sculpey Elephant Gray, I love this gray color because it is slightly cooler in color and but still very neutral so it goes with almost any other color.

Color number 3 is Fimo Pearl White, I like to use this because it just adds a tiny bit of glow to the project. I can't say it sparkles but it just looks so pretty in a marble as long as you don't over do it. A small amount goes a long way.

And lastly I like to use just a tiny bit of black. It will blend out to almost nothing, really it usually becomes a dark gray but I always feel something is missing without it. This time I decided to use some Premo in Twinkle, Twinkle. It has some wonderful gold and silver glitter running through it. I was a bit nervous about it but my gut told me it would be wonderful and I was right! I love the tiny sparkle it gives. Not enough that you notice it all the time just a when the finished board is moved a certain way you see it for a second.

Marbling is fun but you do need to patient. Just take your time and work slowly. You don't want to blend the colors together you want they to still be streaks of their own colors, like the veins in the real marble.

After baking you have the option of buffing the top surface to give a gentle sheen. This is totally optional but I felt it was worth the time. The little piece that I did as an example took me about 20 minutes to get the way I wanted it. I did that while watching a Youtube video so the time felt like it went pretty quickly.

Doll Size Tacos

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This week I decided to do some more with that tortilla chip clay we mixed up a couple of weeks ago. If you missed that video you can see it here.

So this week we are making some tacos. I know that probably everyone has a different idea of what should go on the taco as far as toppings. I chose the items I did for two reasons. They are close to what I would put on a real taco and I thought they would look really cool in the doll size. Also I got to show you a couple of new techniques for working with clay in the process.

You can of course change the topping to whatever you want.

For the meat you can use any brown colors of polymer clay. I do recommend using a light brown/tan and a dark brown. We want to have the contrast so we can add more interest to the project.

For the cheese again use what you have but if you can find Sculpey Sweet Potato it is a fantastic cheese color. Just grate the raw clay like you would real cheese.

For the lettuce I like to use a white/translucent mix along with 2 or 3 various green clays. Just marble them together. Again it makes it way more interesting and realistic than just one color of green.

It is the little touches that make our projects look more realistic.

The “tomatoes” were added simply because I had the cooked clay on my table and I love how they look. I did add a bit of our “lettuce” to help hide the TLS it just makes them look more natural.

Do follow the baking instructions for your clay. I however do usually bake my clay at a slightly lower temperature than on the package. I find that my clay looks better this way. Temperature is our enemy not how long we bake our clay. These did bake for 15 minutes since they are fairly thick.

I had thought about baking part way through like I do on a lot of larger projects but I wanted to keep the taco shell unbaked until I was through filling it. I was worried about it either closing at the open top if I baked it before it was full or breaking it trying to get more topping inside of it had it been baked before completely filling it.

Doll Size Nachos

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This week I decided to take some of those tortilla chips we made last week (if you missed that video it right here) and make some nachos. I know my kids love nachos so I bet the dolls will too. (heck I love nachos too)

For this project we only need a couple of things in addition to the chips we made last week. We need a container of some kind to put them in. I used one of the small square plates from one of those appetizer sets from the party store. I also thought about using some card stock to make one of the boat things that some of the fast food nachos come in. Maybe we will do that for a future project. The only other things you actually need is glue (Beacon 527) and some fabric paint in a nacho cheese color. I am using up a bottle of a brand I have never seen since I got this one. I know that Scribbles 3-D paints has a color that is really close. You want a yellow orange color. Optionally you might want some toppers, I mixed up small amounts of red, black and a leafy green clay with equal parts translucent clay, rolled them really thin, baked them off and cut tiny bits to represent chopped tomatoes, olives and pepper. I also took some scrap white clay to make a bit of filler for my plate so I could get a bit more height to my finished nacho without using so many chips. At the end I also used some white Scribbles 3-D paint for some sour cream.

Making a doll nacho is pretty similar to making a real one at this point other than you have to use some glue and you have to wait for everything to dry.

If you add the sour cream to yours be sure to let the cheese dry first so that the sour cream will sit nicely on top of it and not mix in and sink down. 

Doll Size Tortilla Chips

Watch the video here.

This week we are going to make some really adorable tortilla chips for the dolls from polymer clay.

I admit it does take a while to get the right mixture of clay colors to make these look like the real thing. I do like to have some chips on hand but I also keep in the mind that different brands of chips are slightly different colors, so don't be too hard on yourself. Aim to get a believable/recognizable color. Basically you are going to need 3 colors of clay- a white, a yellow and a brown. I used Original Sculpey for the white, Premo Cadmium Yellow, and Fimo Caramel. Use the colors you have on hand. Starting with a piece of white clay add one of your colors (I suggest starting with yellow) and mix them together completely. This will give you a clay that is too yellow, add some brown and mix completely, if you are really lucky you will have a color that is close to the chip in front of you. (or a picture if that is all you have) if the color isn't right yet, decide if you need more brown or more yellow and add just a bit of that color.

Just so you know, I have been making these chips in the dollhouse scale for over a decade and I never get the mix right the first time. I have to go back and forth adding a bit of yellow and a bit of brown and I usually have to repeat that a few times. Remember it doesn't take much of the colored clay to tint the whole batch so add in small amounts.

Now we need to add some brown sand to make the little brown bits that are visible in most real tortilla chips. Again just add some and work it in and add more until you have a good sprinkling of brown bits throughout the mixture.

After you get your clay the way you want it the fun can begin.

To make tortilla chips it is simply a matter of cutting a circle and then wedges of the clay. Then the most important part make sure they have some shape to them. Remember the real chips aren't flat and your doll size ones shouldn't be either.

When you get to the end of the clay be sure to add some little bits of the rolled out clay. After all when was the last time you got a bag of chips that didn't have a bunch of little bits at the bottom? 

just because I can never resist taking a picture of the mini food on top of the real thing.

Doll Size French Fries

Watch the video here.

Snacks are always better when you share them with a friend

I decided it would be fun to show you how to make some French Fries for your dolls today. This is a really simple polymer clay project. It only uses two colors of clay (white and translucent) and some basic colors of chalk pastels. It is also a really good beginner project as far as learning to use the chalks to shade your food.

The fries are such a simple shape and come in so many sizes in real life you really can't go wrong on this project.

I thought you might also like to see a side by side comparison on the the fries we made today with the real one.