Doll Size Trail Mix

 

Watch the video here.

Trail Mix, I have been thinking about doing this project for a while now. I know there are several parts and some of the pieces look a little bit hard but if you watch how I make each one you will see they are really pretty easy to do.

If I were making this not for a video I would make all the pieces and bake them at the same time. For video purposes I made each component of the trail mix separately. I felt it would be easier to follow that way. The only pieces I would keep separate in baking are the “M&M’s” and I would just put them on their own plate to bake. And that is only because they are the only pieces that are going to get any kind of clear finish.

So for the “M&M’s” I did my best to match the colors from the clays I have on hand. I am going to list the colors I used but feel free to use colors you have or can get easily that are similar.

Red- Sculpey III Red Hot Red

Yellow- Sculpey III Lemonade

Orange- Sculpey II Just Orange

Brown- Sculpey III Suede Brown

Blue- Fimo Blue

Green- Fimo Green

When you are working with different color clays do your best to work from the lightest color to the darkest leaving any red clays for last. That way you minimize color transfer and you won’t spend so much time cleaning up between colors. After you use any of the dark colors and especially red you will need to thoroughly clean everything before you move on to working on anything else.

Condition all the colors of clay then roll a small amount of each color out to a snake about 1/8” in diameter. I like to use my drill gauge to size snakes of clay.

 

Next cut the snakes into 1/8” segments. I use 8 square to the inch graph paper to make measuring easy.

 

Next roll each piece into a tiny ball then use your fingertip to gently flatten each one slightly. You want to make a very round disk shape, like a real M&M,

These are baked at the recommended temperature for 10 minutes and allowed to cool to room temperature.

 

Once cooled make a mixture of about equal parts Satin Mod Podge and water. Coat the pieces and allow to dry on a piece of parchment paper or waxed paper.

 

The raisins are the one piece of this project that took me the longest to figure out. But I am so happy with how they worked out in the end. To start with have you every really thought about what color a raisin is?? I had no idea what color clay to use so I googled it and found that the correct color is a very dark purple red. So that gave some guidance as to what clay color I was looking to create. So my mix was_

 

Sculpey III Plum- 2 parts

Sculpey III Suede Brown- 1 part

Translucent (brand doesn’t really matter here) – 1 part

 

 

Mix these three clays together to get a nice raisin color.

Now roll into a 1/8” snake and cut into about 1/6” pieces. With the raisins you have more leeway in size because they are not all the same size.

Now once again roll into tiny balls.

 

Then on top of a piece of aluminum foil that you have tightly crumpled and flattened out place each ball of clay and use a coarser crumpled piece of aluminum foil to create each raisin.

Again these are baked at recommended temperature for 10 minutes.

Now we can make some peanuts for our trail mix. For those I am using the clay color I many time refer to as my “dough color” and I since I use it so often I normally have a baggie of this color pre-mixed so it is ready to use at all times. It is just a mix of equal parts of any white polymer clay and Fimo Sahara (a light beige)

For these we are stating the very same way we have been a snake that measures 1/8” cut into 1/8” segments, rolled into balls then into ovals.

Then we need to use some light yellow ocher chalk to color the peanuts. For the not broken nuts that is all there is to making them. But I have never gotten anything that didn’t have at least some broken peanuts in it so that is the next step.

Take a few of those finished peanuts and place in a container and then in the freezer for 15 minutes. This will make them firm enough that when we cut them they will keep their shape.

As soon as you take them out of the freezer use your clay knife to cut them in half lengthwise. You will need to work quickly so that they stay firm for this step. Once cut use something pointed to make the mark in the center of the cut surface.

Then bake at the recommended temperature for 10 minutes.

On to the final component- the cashews. We are going to use the same clay as for the peanuts. Make a snake that is just a bit bigger than the 1/8” we have been working with and cut it into pieces that are ½” long. Roll into balls. Then into longer shapes that are about ½” long slightly thicker at o
ne end.

Brush with the same yellow ocher chalk then in a reddish brown chalk.

Form the final shape around a bamboo skewer.

Bake at the same temperature for 10 minutes.

 

 

And that my friends is al there is to this project. I love how it turned out and it really isn’t all that hard to make. Just follow my steps and you will have a batch of doll size trail mix for your dolls in no time. .

 

 

 

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 Chips

 

Watch the video here.

This week I have another project with a pattern you can download and use for free. The pattern has a version to cut by hand and one to use with your electronic cutting machine. This pattern is free to download and you can use it as many times as you wish. You can even sell the items made from my patterns. I just ask that you don’t sell or pass along my patterns. If someone wants a copy of the pattern send them to the video and here to the blog so they can download their own copy.

The free download has 3 parts in the file. There is a PDF if you want to cut by hand. And for those of you that want to use the pattern with an electronic cutting machine the pattern itself is a PNG and there is a text file that has the information about the sizing as well as hints that I have to make the process smoother.

The pattern is located here.

Depending on how you are cutting your chips will determine when you paint the sheet of paper.

If you are going to be cutting by hand with the PDF, go ahead and print the pattern sheet on regular printer paper. I do suggest using whatever setting on your printer that uses less ink. Sometimes it is called something like draft. Sometimes there might be an “ink saver” setting. Try to pick a setting that will use less ink. You might also need to set your printer up to print edge to edge to get the entire pattern. Once printed I would let the ink dry at least a couple of hours then proceed with the painting process. Most printers I’ve had over the years the ink will not run very much if any. If it does run just trim off any ink that ran when you cut the chips out.

If you are going to be using the PNG with an electronic cutting machine paint the paper first and then let the paint dry at least 24 hours. That way you can be sure it is completely dry before it goes anywhere near the machine.

When you are ready to paint the first layer of paint a wash made up of mostly water with just a touch of white craft paint and a touch of a golden yellow craft paint. The amounts of paint to water will vary depending on the brand of paint you are using as well as the exact colors of paint. You aiming at just tinting the water.

 

 Work on top of a piece of wax paper or parchment paper so that your paper doesn’t stick to the work surface. I found a sponge brush was the best tool for this first layer. Paint one side of paper completely then allow to dry and paint the other side of the paper. Be aware that the coverage will not be even, it will be fairly blotchy because of how watered down the paint is. Allow to dry.

Once the base layer of color dries again tint some water with paint this time using just the white paint. Then using a chunk of kitchen sponge paint the surface with the watered down white. Use a dabbing motion and don’t cover every bit of the surface. Let dry then repeat on side 2 and allow to dry.

Now we need to add a sponged layer of the golden yellow paint that has bee watered down. Do this exactly like we did with the white layer but use less of this layer. If you get too much of the yellow on you can always correct it with another layer of white.

Let this dry before proceeding to the next step. No matter how you are cutting the chips the paper needs to dry all the way through before you cut into it.

 

Once completely dry if you cutting with a machine be sure to anchor the paper to the cutting mat really well. I used wash tape on all four sides of my paper. Between the paint on the surface and the fact the paper is no longer flat it needs to be really held down to the mat. I would not however use one of the mats that has extra grip because that might tear the painted surface off the paper. Just use a regular mat and lots of tape to help hold it.

 

Once cut we can start to work on the detail painting on the chips.

For the first step of the detail painting I used more of the watered down golden yellow paint (this time a bit more paint than before) and using either a cotton swab or small paint brush (or better yet both) add an outline to each chip as well as some random spots of the paint/water mixture. Again laying the chips on wax paper to dry.

 

For a final bit of detail I used a bit of brown paint with a bit of water and flat brush to paint just the outside rim of some of the chips. Not all the way around just a partial outline on some of them. Then also tear a few chips because there are always some broken chips in the bag. Allow this final paint to dry.

 

 

 

And here we have some of the finished chips, I hope your dolls enjoy them as much as I enjoyed coming up with the project.

 

 

 

 

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 Toaster Pastries pt 2

 

Watch the video here.

 

Last week we made some whole toaster pastries and this week I am taking you a step further and making some that have been broken in two (I don’t know about anyone else but I always break mine in two before I eat them) and some that have a bite out of them. If you haven’t seen the video from last week I do recommend watching that one first so here is the link to the video. And here is the link to the blog post where you will find more information.

We are using the same clay mixture for the dough that we used last week as well as the same pattern that told you how to make.

The big difference this week is the addition of the colored filling for the pastries. This is made with a mix of about 8 parts translucent polymer clay to 1 part of the color of you choice. Since I am making strawberry I used a fairly bright red for mine. You can use whatever color matches the filling of the pastry you are trying to replicate.

 

I do recommend baking off a sample of the mixed clay since it is hard to predict exactly what color it will bake out to be. The translucent clay is very white in its unbaked state but depending on the brand it goes to a translucent color. I have found with experience that it is best to bake a sample rather that guessing.

Once I was happy with my color mix it was time to get to work on the project.

To add a little bit of additional texture to our filling I added just a bit of white sand to mine. This will make the filling look more like the jam filling in the real pastries. It doesn’t take much and you could skip this if you wish.

Once the sand is worked into the clay it is time roll it out just like we did last week. Then using the pattern for the filling cut out as many pieces as you wish.

Then you will use the same dough color clay as we used last week and for each pastry cut 2 of the larger pieces.

Then the assembly is the same as last week just using the red filling in the center of each pastry. I used the same tools as I did last week and the same process.

Once I had all the pastries I am making today put together with the edges sealed and the tops have their little holes in them. I used the same chalks to color the pastries to make them look like they have been toasted.

Remember all of these steps were covered in last week’s tutorial so I am not going into great detail this week and why I recommended you watch that tutorial first.

Now we start to do things a little bit different. At this point put your pastries into the freezer for about 15 to 20 minutes. You want them to get really cold. This will make the clay a bit firmer and easier to work with in the texturing part of the process.

Once they are really cold you can proceed to make either the pastry that is broken into 2 parts or the one with the bite out of it. You could of course do both to the same pastry if you wish.

For the broken pastry- use your clay knife to cut across the pastry but don’t cut straight across, come from both sides and then make a shallow cut to connect the two cuts and break the rest of the way. When you break the real pastry it is not straight and we don’t want a straight cut here either. Then use a pointed tool (I use a dental pick but a sewing pin works well also) just barely tease or tickle the cut surface of the pastry. You want to bring up little tiny crumbs of clay to make it look like the pastry in real life. Then use the point of the same took to make a swirl of two in the filling that is exposed.

For the bitten pastry- use a round cutter that has a scalloped shape. I have a set of plastic cutters that have lots of shapes that I have moved to using with clay. I never liked the for real cookies but they work really well for clay. The only thing is since the plastic they need to be cleaned as soon as I am done with them because raw polymer clay will eat holes in some plastics if left in contact.

Use the scalloped cutter to cut off a corner of the pastry and then texture as before. You can use you knife to adjust the cut to make it just the way you want it.

Once you are happy with the way the pastries look go ahead and bake them for 10 minutes at the temperature recommended for your clay. And allow them to cool to room temperature before moving to the next step.

Once cooled we can add the frosting to our pastries. Since I am making “strawberry” toaster pastries I am just using the white Liquid Sculpey as is. If you want to make other flavors that have a colored frosting just follow the instructions from last week where we mixed a couple of colors. This time we need to be much more careful in our application of the frosting so that it stops at the cut/bitten edge and doesn’t run over the edge. Once you have the frosting in place add the sprinkles and bake for another 10 minutes at the temperature recommended for your clay. And once again allow them to cool to room temperature before you touch them.

And that is all there is to this project. I am so happy with the way they turned out and I hope you are enjoying them also. Remember to send me a picture of your dolls with some the foods you’ve made from my tutorials I would love to see what you are making. Also if you have something you would like to learn to make let me know and I will try to come up with a tutorial for you.

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 Toaster Pastries pt 1

 

Watch the video here.

This week I am showing you how to make some toaster pastries for the dolls to enjoy. This will be part 1 of a 2 part project and we will make just basic whole toaster pastries. I will be showing you how to chalk them to look like the ones fresh out of the box as well as after a light toasting.

This is a really easy project and would be a good one if you just have a bit of experience working with polymer clay.

To begin we need to condition the clay we are using as well as mix a dough color of clay. If you are not familiar with what I mean by conditioning the clay I highly recommend you check out my polymer clay tutorial playlist on my channel. You can find it here. In that series of videos I go over a lot of the terms and techniques of working with polymer clay.

To get the dough color of clay I mixed some white clay and some Fimo Sahara clays together. You could use any light beige type color in place of the Sahara. I mixed them in equal parts to create a nice light dough/pastry color of clay.

 

I also created a couple of patterns to help me cut my pastries all the same size. For the patterns I used some 8 square to the inch graph paper. I have a PDF I downloaded from online that I print out a few sheets when I need then but you could certainly buy the graph paper or just use plain paper and measure and draw the pattern that way. I like the graph paper because it is so easy to measure out my pattern quickly.

The pattern for the pastry measures 1” by 1 3/8” and the pattern for the filling measures ¾” by 1 1/8”.

Now we can roll out the clay. Since the filling in our pastries today will never be seen I am using the same clay for the filling as for the outside of the pastries. You could use any color for this “filling” this week.

 

Since we need a thin sheet of clay I used 2 of the Hobby Lobby version of skinny sticks to help me get a nice thin even sheet.

 

 

 

 Once rolled I used the patterns to cut two pieces from the larger pattern and 1 from the filling pattern. 

 

 

Be sure to use some cornstarch on your work surface to help prevent sticking. Be very careful when lifting/moving the thin pieces of clay. Use your clay knife to help lift it off the work surface so you don’t stretch it out of shape.

 

 

 

 

Layer the pieces like a sandwich with the filling piece centered in the middle between the other two pieces.

 

Now we need to smooth the top layer of clay down around the filling and seal it to the bottom layer. I used a large ball tool but you could use the clean handle of a large paint brush or your finger tip. You want to have a shape like shown in this picture. Trim to size with your clay knife and the pattern.

 

 

 

 

Now use a pointed tool like the pointed dotting tool I used or a toothpick to make the little holes that are on the pastries in real life. I tried to make neat rows alternating between 3 and 4 holes in each row offsetting them so they lined up between the holes in the rows above and below. Like in this photo.

 

Now we can use some yellow ocher artist chalk and an eye shadow brush to add just a bit of color over the surface of the pastry. If you are making your pastries to look like they are fresh out of the box your pastry is ready to bake.

 

If you want to make your pastry look like it has been through the toaster add just a bit of a light rust brown color chalk around the edges and at the corners. Then follow up with a bit more of the ocher color to blend it.

Now time to bake, follow the instructions on your package of clay for temperature and bake for 12 minutes.

Allow to cool all the way to room temperature before the next step.

Next we are going to frost our pastries, for that I am using some liquid clay. If you want just white you can use the white liquid Sculpey and it will be perfect and I am going to do that on one of mine. But I want some color of two of my pastries so I need to add color to the white liquid clay. To add color I use oil paint. If you not familiar with this process I again recommend you you check out my clay 101 series to learn more about liquid clay and how to use it.

To make the caramel color frosting (like on the brown sugar cinnamon pastries in real life) I used white oil paint with a touch of burnt umber and a touch of yellow ocher.

For the pink frosting I used white paint with a touch of rose madder paint.

Mix a very small amount of the mixed paint into the liquid clay. Just use enough to color the liquid clay. Then put a drop of each of the colors you mixed onto any bake-able surface and do a test bake for 10 minutes at the same temperature you will be baking the project at. This will tell you a couple of things. Since the colors do sometimes shift a lot when doing this you will know if you have the color you want. And most importantly you will be able to determine if the clay will cure. If you add too much paint to it you will find it remains sticky and not set up when baked and cooled. You do have to wait until it is cooled to room temperature to check this.

Once you are sure that the colors are the way you want them to be spread a small amount on the top center of each pastry. Then if desired sprinkle on some tiny no-hole micro beads to act as sprinkles. Once you have them decorated the way you want them bake again at the recommended temperature for another 10 minutes and allow to cool before touching them.

 

 

And there you have it toaster pastries for the dolls to enjoy.

In part 2 we will be making pastries that are broken open or bitten so we can see the filling.

 

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 Potted Plant

 

Watch the video here.

The first step is to start the prep work on the pot we are going to use. I have some of these cool shaped containers from yogurt that I decided to use. Look through what you have and find a container you like.

I do want to take off the edge/rim at the top of the container. I don’t like how it sticks out so I used some scissors to simply cut it off. Once you get your scissors lined up with where the edge bends out it is really easy to cut because in that area the plastic is a bit thinner.

Since my container had a label that was removable I was able to remove it and I had a nice white pot at this point and I could have just used it that way. But I wanted to add some color to mine.

Since the container was very shiny I used a sanding block (you could use sand paper) to rough up the surface a bit. I then wiped it down with some Isopropyl Alcohol (you could use white vinegar) this removes any dust from the sanding process and any oils that might interfere with the paint.

If your container has printing on the surface instead of a removable label I suggest painting it with a coat of white paint then painting it with the color you are going to use. If you are going to make a really dark color pot you could use black for the base coat.

Now just paint the outside and down a bit on the inside at the top. You will most likely need multiple coats of paint to get full coverage.

 

While the painting is going on let’s work on the plant.

For the plant I have created a free downloadable pattern for you to use. You can find it here. You can make as many plants with the pattern as you would like, you could even sell or give away the finished plants just please don’t give away/sell my pattern. The download contains 3 items, a PDF if you want to hand cut the pieces as well as a PNG that can be used in your electronic cutting machine. The 3^rd item is a text file with sizing instructions and tips for using the PNG with your cutting machine.

I did my best to try and place more of the palm fronds on a page but the Cricut cutting area wasn’t big enough for more that two, so for each frond of your plant you will need a separate sheet of paper. We are using printer paper, and mine is super cheap so it is pretty lightweight.

The pattern is designed with the two pieces on each sheet being a mirror image of the other one. So you will need to keep track of which side gets glued together.

You will also need a piece of 20 gauge stem wire for each frond cut about 9” long. 

 

Start with a bead of thick tacky glue down the center stem area of each frond then coat the remainder of frond with a coat of Mod Podge.

 

 

 

 

Add the wire to the center. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then add the other frond on top creating a sandwich with the wire in the center. Carefully lift this off your work surface and place standing up in a container so that the leaves are not touching anything. Allow to dry completely.

Once the glue/Mod Podge dries go over each frond and do any trimming you need to do to neaten them up.

 

Once you are happy you can gather some green craft paints (I also ended up using a yellow) and paint the leaves.

 

 

 

 

While the paint on the leaves dries we can move back to working on the pot providing the paint on it is dry.

 

 

 

 

The next step on the pot is to fill it with some foam. I’m using some floral foam from the dollar store but you could even use styrofaom packing, any kind of solid foam pieces that you can fill the pot with. Use some Tacky glue to hold it in place while we are working.

Once the foam is in place let the glue dry at least most of the way. Note I didn’t mention it in the video but you could use hot glue for this if you are very careful to not melt the foam.

Once you are happy with the way the top of the foam looks and you have most of the top filled in to the edge of the pot it is time to paint the top of the foam with any dark brown craft paint. Ideally we will never see this paint but just in case there are thin areas in our “soil” we don’t want to see the color of the foam through those areas. Just put on a nice thick coat of paint and allow to dry.

Once dry if you find you have been a bit sloppy with the painting job take a few moments to touch up the painting until you are happy with it.

Once the paint is dry we can add the “soil” and the plant.

We do need to add both the “soil” and the plant at the same time because once the thick layer of glue dries it is next to impossible to add the plant stems without damaging the plant.

So start by adding a thick layer of a foam friendly glue. I would normally use tacky glue but I am almost out of tacky glue and didn’t want to use it all up on this project. Instead I used some school glue. Basically any white glue will work for this.

Once the glue is added to the top of the foam spread it out as well as you can. Try not to have any bare areas. I use a toothpick to spread mine and for me that works really well.

Now we add the soil. For soil I used my go-to, very well dried used coffee grounds. The key things in that description are very well dried and used coffee grounds. As long as you follow that these will work really well. Just pour them over the wet glue, spread them out and pour of the excess.

Now we add the plant fronds, I’m grouping mine in the center of the pot since I have something like a palm plant in mind.

As for the number of fronds for your plant you could have made as many as you wished to, as long as they will fit in the pot and look nice.

Now let the glue dry somewhere that the pot will not get knocked down.

 

 

Once the glue holding the soil in place is completely dry you can arrange the leaves the way you want to make the plant look the way you want it to.

 

 

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.