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.

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

Watch the video here.

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.