Doll Size Ears of Corn

 

Watch the video here.

This week’s video is going to just the fresh ears of corn. When I started filming I was planning to do both the fresh ears and the corn on the cob that was ready to eat in the same video. However, about half way through what I had planned I realized that I already had a lot of footage filmed and decided to split the one video into two parts. So if everything goes as planned the corn on the cob should hit the channel next Friday.

Now on to the tutorial.

Since the internal structure of our ears of corn won’t really show I am using Original Sculpey. Only a tiny bit is going to show so it will work really well for this project.

Start by rolling a ¼” snake of clay and cut that into about 3” to 3 ½” pieces. This is just the first step in the process and we will be adding some shape to it soon.

For now just make one end come to a rounded point then lay the snakes on your baking surface and bake for about 10 minutes at the recommended temperature for the clay you are using.

Now to give our cob bases some shape, roll some of the same clay out to the thickness of a craft stick and cut that sheet of clay into pieces that measure about 2” by 1”.

Spread a thin layer of liquid clay over one of these small sheets of clay and carefully wrap it around one of the cob bases that have been baked and cooled. Use your hands to make a firm bond and get it smoothly in place.

 

Then at the end of the cob base that has the pointed end blend this clay sheet into the point to create a smooth transition between the core and the sheet.

Once you have all the cob bases covered and you are happy with them bake them at the recommended temperature for 15 minutes.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, we can prep the paper we will be using for the husks that will cover our ears of corn.

 

For the corn husks that we will be wrapping around the ears of corn I thought about what would be the easiest to use to give the effect I was going for. In the end I opted to use wrapping tissue in white. The first step is to cut it into strips that we can work with. I chose to cut some 4 ½” strips the width of the paper sheet (I cut 2 of these) then I cut those across to give me 4 pieces that were still 4 ½” by whatever half the width was. The important thing was for it to fit on my work tile. Then I painted those pieces of tissue with a light green, I used Lime Sorbet color but use whatever you have that is close to the color of a fresh cob of corn. I did protect my work tile with some waxed paper just to make clean up easier. I also laid the wet sheets on some waxed paper to dry so that they wouldn’t stick to anything.

I only painted one side of these because that will give some variation in color by using both sides showing when we add it to the corn cobs.

Allow this to dry.

For the corn silk at the top of the ears I decided to use some cheap pale yellow yarn from Dollar Tree. I cut about 3 short pieces for each ear of corn that were around 1 ½” long. Then I put them on a strip of tape to hold them just like I do with pretty much any small items I want to paint. I then used a toothpick to fray out one end to make it look like the silk. I then colored the frayed end with a dark brown alcohol marker. You could use a dark brown paint in place of the marker if you wish. Allow to dry completely.

Since I found in my experimenting with this project that sometimes the pointed part of the corn cob base showed just a bit at the top of the ear I added just a bit of the same green paint I used on the paper for the husk to color just the tip of each ear. This way if it does peek out just a bit no one will notice it.

 

 

Once everything was dry it was time to start putting this together. We need to start with the silk and for that I used some super glue. That will hold it in place until we add the husks which will do a lot more to hold everything in place.

 

At this time I also added some skinny pieces of the husk paper that I had painted with a dark green paint. Personally I would leave these off if the ears of corn are going to be handled very much.

Once this all dries we can add the first layer of husks to the ears of corn. For the first layer of corn husk we are going to cut 4 or 5 strips of the paper we painted earlier for each ear of corn. Each strip should be about ¾” wide and the 4 ½” I used Mat Mod Podge to attach these strips to the ear of corn being careful to leave the tops free and not glued down. Cover the ear of corn really well and let the Mod Podge dry.

 

While the Mod Podge is drying is a good time to add some shading on the remaining husk paper. Use a slightly darker green and just dry brush a bit a bit of color over the light green paint. This will let the husk pieces stand out a bit from each other when glued in place.

Once the Mod Podge on that first layer of husks is dry trim the loose ends into rounded points.

Now cut the paper that you added the shading to into strips about ½” wide then cut one end of each to a rounded point to look like the husk on a real ear of corn.

Now it is just a matter of cutting each of these pieces to the length you want then using the Mat Mod Podge attach them to the ears of corn, leaving those rounded tips free. I like to put about 3 of these on each ear of corn.

To bring these more to life I now added a bit of a wash using two darker greens as well as a cream color paint. I just wanted a very thin watery wash for this, so just a drop of paint in some water. The mixture should dry fairly translucent when you are done. Let this dry and add more until you are happy with the results.

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 Red, White & Blue Snack Cakes

 

Watch  the video here.

This is actually something I have been planning for a very long time and just never got around to making for the dolls. Not this version exactly, but snack cakes in general. I love how they look, and there are so much variety on the market in real food. For those that don’t know what I am referring to by snack cake I mean those little baked desserts that are usually packaged either individually or in pairs and are so perfect to grab and take to eat. In the US there are several companies that make these and they come in lots of flavors and shapes. And if the standard ones that are always available aren’t enough there are some that come out seasonally that are themed in some way to either the season or a holiday.

The ones we are making today are inspired by the Red, White, and Blue Snack Cakes that the Little Debbie company has out for summer. I know as a general rule I try to stay away from country specific projects on my tutorials. However, these are just so cute I decided to make an exception. Also you can very easily make these with different colors to make them suit anytime/anyplace you wish.

The idea for the snack cake projects that I have had in my mind for a long time is to make one every month or so at least for a while. So if you have a favorite you want to see let me know.

To make the whole snack cakes I am using original Sculpey, when w get to the ones that have the inside exposed we will use other clay colors. Of course you could use the other colors of clay for these also I just prefer to save my more expensive clays for times when they will actually show and not be covered up.

 

 

I am working on top of some 4 square to the inch graph paper so make cutting to size really easy. I am also using the spacers we made in our clay tools video (you can find that here) to help me in getting the correct thickness of clay when I roll it.

After rolling out the conditioned clay using the spacers to make the correct thickness I cut as many ¾” squares of the clay as I could. Carefully move the cut squares to a baking surface and make as many of the squares as you want. Remember you will need 2 squares for each snack cake you want to make. These will then get baked at the temperature recommended for the clay you are using for about 10 minutes. Allow the clay to cool to room temperature before going on the assembly of the whole cakes.

The the snack cakes that are showing the inside (either bitten or cut open) we will need to use clay in colors to represent the real cake colors. I used my “dough” or “bread” clay mix for the white cakes (white clay with a just enough tan clay to give it a slightly off white color) and for the chocolate ones I used some Suede Brown from Sculpey III. You can use any clays of similar color that you have in your clay collection. To start these we do exactly the same steps- roll out using the spacers and cut into ¾” squares.

Now we can cut our cakes, since I want my top and bottom layers to match I am stacking the pieces together and cutting them at the same time. To make sure they don’t stick I used some cornstarch on the top surface of the bottom one. Then be sure to keep the pairs together.

Now we need to texture that cut edge to make it look like cake instead of clay. Start with a bit of crumpled aluminum foil and follow up by teasing the surface of the clay with a pointed tool of some kind. You only need to texture the cut in the center of the cake not the outside edges this time.

Once the texturing is done you can add just a bit of a baked look to the top surface of the piece that will be the top layer of the white snack cakes. I have noticed that only the top of the top layer has any color from baking on the real snack cakes and this step is totally optional. Just brush a thin layer of artist chalk in out normal baked goods colors (yellow ocher and rust) on the top surface.

Now the clay pieces can be baked at the recommended temperature for 10 minutes and allowed to cool to room temperature.

Once cooled we can use some caulk (the stuff from the hardware store) to act as our filling. Simply add a glob of it to the bottom cake piece and add the top piece. On the whole cakes I just put them together and that is it. For the cut ones I do use a toothpick to try to tease the layer to the edges. On the cut edge tease out a few bits to replicate how the filling oozes a bit when you bite or cut the cakes. Try to get all the cakes filled the same amount and let this dry completely. I tend to let this step sit overnight at least.

Now we can ice the cakes. To make the icing I had several choices this time I decided to go with a thickened craft paint. In other videos I will show other methods to coat the different snack cakes. To thicken the paint simply mix in enough corn starch to make it the texture you want. It should spread like real icing, just a bit thinner than the real stuff that comes from the tubs in the grocery store.

To hold the snack cakes I use some of that removable poster tack stuff to temporarily attach them to craft sticks. This makes working on them so much easier.

Use a craft stick to spread the icing onto the snack cakes and allow it to dry. This paint will take a bit longer to dry than normal paint.

While the paint dries we can color our “sugar” that will be sprinkled on the tops.

For this you will need a small container, a blue alcohol marker, Isopropyl alcohol, and some white sand. If you have sand that is already blue you can skip this step. Simply color the bottom of the plastic container with the pen, add some of the alcohol and stir it together. When you have a colored liquid add the white sand and stir. Allow it to dry and you have colored sand to use on to decorate your doll foods.

One of the most noticeable parts of the decoration on the top of this particular snack cake are the red lines. To add these to our doll size cakes we are going to use some 3D fabric paint. This is pretty easy to find at craft and fabric stores. With the paint draw on some thin lines diagonally on each snack cake. Allow this paint to dry completely.

 

Now onto the sprinkles. On the real cakes these are star shaped. I couldn’t find any stars that were small enough so I went with a more “sugar” sprinkle look. For this simply swipe on a thin coat of satin Mod Podge and then sprinkle on the blue sand. I like to use the soft brush method of adding the sand because it spreads so nicely that way.

 

Allow the Mod Podge to dry and your snack cakes are ready for the dolls to enjoy.

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.

Tools For Making Doll Food

 

Watch the video here.

This week I have a different type of video for you. This week we are making a couple of tools we are going to need for some upcoming projects I have planned.

I had actually been planning to do a totally different tutorial today however when I went to grab my materials to make it I realized I needed to make a new set of spacers to roll out my clay. (my old set had gotten damaged a while back) Since I was going to be making those I decided to go ahead and make another tool I have been working out that we will need soon also. And since I was making these I decided to go ahead and turn on the camera and teach you all how to make these at the same time.

So I started with the easiest one, the spacers I use to roll out clay. I like to have these on hand in a couple of thicknesses so I can easily roll out thicker sheets of clay. I make them out of craft sticks that I glue together and clamp while the glue dries to prevent both warping and spreading/shifting of the craft sticks. I just use Tacky glue for this.

You will need these in pairs since you will need one for each side of the piece of clay you are rolling out. I made a set 3 craft sticks thick on camera, this makes a spacer that is about ¼” thick. Off camera I made a pair that were 2 sticks thick, these measure about 1/8” thick. The amount and type of glue you use can affect how thick yours end up as well as the brand of craft sticks you use. Do be sure to use glue that is polymer clay safe and make sure the glue has time to cure at least a day or so before you use them the first time.

Now onto what I am calling a “grill mark tool” I have been planning to make some summer foods over the next few months for the dolls. In my mind that means at least a few of them will be things that have been cooked on the BBQ grill. I knew I needed to come up with a way to do the those all important grill marks easily. So for the last couple of months I have been thinking over how to do this. I came up with this design a while back and I am happy with how I think it is going to work.

I also spent some time debating about how to present the making of this tool to you all. I didn’t want to have to go over the how to make the tool each time we used it but also by itself I didn’t feel it would make a very good tutorial but since I needed to do the other tools also I felt the combination would be the solution. Now in future tutorials when I use either of the tools we make today I can just link this tutorial so you can find out how to create the tools.

For the grill mark tool we will need 4 craft sticks and 6 bamboo skewers. You will also need glue (I used tacky glue) some wide masking tape and some 4 squares to the inch graph paper.

Start by setting up your work surface. Tape down a piece of wide masking tape sticky side up, make sure it is wide enough to slip the graph paper under it. Cut a piece of the graph paper about 4 ½ wide and slip it under the wide masking tape. I do highly recommend taping the graph paper down once you have it placed where you want it.

Now cut the bamboo skewers down to 4 ½” long, I got two pieces from each skewer with a tiny bit of the pointed end left over.

Carefully lay the skewers onto the tape lining them up so they are centered on the vertical lines of the graph paper. Work your way across lining up each skewer with the lines so they are equally placed. Do your best to line them up and to have the ends lined up also.

 

 

Once you are happy with how the skewers are placed carefully remove the graph paper from underneath everything.

Now add glue to 3 of the craft sticks and carefully place them across the skewers to hold them together. 

 

 

Once you are happy with the placement very carefully add a weight to the top. I am using a brick from the hardware store. You could use a book or whatever is heavy enough to hold all the pieces in place. Now let it sit to dry, at least a few hours. I ended up leaving mine overnight since I got busy. You want that glue to have time to dry.

Now carefully lift the brick off and set it aside. Remove the tape from the work surface, turn the everything over and carefully remove the tape from the tool check all the skewers to make sure they all are held tight. Since both the craft sticks and skewers tend to not be completely straight you might find that you have a couple of places that the glue didn’t hold. Carefully add some glue to those spots and clamp them in place to dry.

Next I added an additional craft stick to the back of the center one to act as a handle to make this easier to use. Be sure to clamp this also until the glue at least sets up a bit.

As with the spacers allow all the glue to at least a day or two before you use it.

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 Guitar (Dollar Tree Makeover)

 

Watch the video here.

I got a lot of really positive feedback on the last Dollar Tree makeover I did on this channel so I when I noticed these guitars at the store I decided to see what I can do with them.

My Dollar Tree had these over on the aisle with the card games and such. They had the style I got and also some other styles. They also had this shape in a couple of different colors. I chose this one because it reminded me more of just a classic guitar.

As far as size these are really good for our 18” dolls. The big thing that bothers me is that they only have 4 strings instead of 6. I did play around with another one off camera to try to figure out a way to add 2 more strings but so far I haven’t come up with an easy way to do that. So for now the dolls will just have 4 strings on their guitar.

Today we are going to focus on adding a strap to the guitar. To do that I decided to add a “button” to the body of the guitar for the strap to attach to. For this I first looked through my jewelry supplies and didn’t find anything. Then I decided to dig through my tool box. 

 

 

In there I found a package of mending plates that came with some screws. I looked online and found out they are called flat head screws. The ones in this package are fairly short (about ¾” long) and not too fat. I found a drill bit that was just a bit thinner also.

 

Then I marked the center of the end of the guitar and used the drill bit to just start a hole then carefully screwed the screw into the guitar just leaving the slopped part out. This way I have a “button” to hook the strap to.

 

Now that we have a way to hold the strap to the guitar we can start making the strap. I am going to start by creating the loop to go over the button we just added to the guitar. To do that cut a piece of embroidery thread a few inches long. Then add a small bead to the thread.

 

Now fold the thread in half, add some glue to the make the ends stay together into a stiff point (once dry you can even trim the hardened end to a better point) then slip the bead onto the ends to form a shape like this.

 

I know that looking at black on black makes it really hard to see the details so I made the same loop with light colored beads so you can better visualize what I am doing.

By moving the second bead up and down you can snug the loop to the button to help keep it in place.

To create the other end of the strap cut another piece of the embroidery thread a few inches long (probably about 4” or 5”) then fold it in half and tie a knot near the fold. This will help it to stay in place when we glue it by giving it a bit more surface area to catch the glue.

Now cut a piece of the ribbon 14 ½” long (my ribbon is 5/8” wide) then glue the two pieces we just created from the embroidery thread to each end. Be sure to have them glued to the same side of the ribbon. Let the glue dry.

 

 

Once dry add some more glue and fold the corners of the ribbon up to make a point covering the ends of the embroidery floss parts. Then use some small clamps to hold this in place until the glue dries.

 

Once the glue dries simply slip the loop over the button on the end of the guitar and snug the sliding bead up close to help it stay in place. I did make the loop on mine a bit on the small side so I do recommend you make a slightly larger loop when you make yours.

Then slip one of the ends of the floss on the other end of the strap under the strings up by the adjustment knobs and tie it in place.

 

And I think the dolls are going to have a lot of fun playing guitar. I love this one and I am so happy I noticed the guitars hanging the store.

I’m thinking about working on a guitar case for the dolls to too. Let me know if you would be interested in that also.

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 Corn Dogs

 

Watch the video here.

I decided to make some corn dogs for the dolls this week. I know my kids loved to eat these as they were growing up (and to be totally truthful I still enjoy one once in a while) so I thought the dolls might be fans also.

To get ready I mixed my clay mixture off camera. I am using a combination of approximately 2 parts Original Sculpey with 1 part Sculpey III in yellow. You could use any white and yellow clays for this. You could even work with just the Original Sculpey if you wish. I used to the combination because by using a light yellow clay it will make the process of added the “cooked” color to the outside much easier. If you just used white you will need to spend more time working with the chalks to get the right golden brown delicious color. The downside to the mix I used is both of the clays are very soft and while that makes working with them easier on my hands it means the clay does become misshapen much easier than a firmer clay would have. I used what I did simply because they were easier to find and I didn’t have to go dig through my clay stash to find them.

 

 

For the sticks that the corn dogs will be on I am using some flat toothpicks. I made a mark with a pencil 1” from the wider/round end then cut them down about ½” past that mark.

 

 

 

Next I rolled the clay into a snake about ½” in diameter and cut 1 3/8” long pieces from this snake.

Roll each piece into a ball, the ball should measure around ¾” in diameter.

Then roll the balls our to be shaped like a corn dog. I like to start with the ball shape because the makes getting the ends to be rounded so much easier than trying to work from the snake shape. You are aiming to make a corn dog that is about ½” in diameter by about 1 3/8” long.

Now add a bit of the liquid clay to the stick in the area between where you marked the 1” and the place you cut off. Then insert the stick into the clay corn dog up to the pencil line. This will give you the proper 1” handle on the end of the corn dog and all of the ones you make will be the same.

Now roll the corn dogs in a piece of fine grain sandpaper to give just a bit of texture so they look like they are coated in batter.

Use a pointy tool of some kind to ease just a bit of the clay down the stick to look like that little bit of batter that is always on the real ones. (this not only looks good it helps to cover that pencil mark up)

 

Now we can add some artist chalks to make these look all “golden brown and delicious” Start with the yellow ocher chalk and cover the clay completely. This is the step where starting off with the yellow clay really pays off. Because you want the chalk to still look translucent but you need to also have the color to be there. Once you are happy with the yellow coverage repeat this same thing with the rust color chalk. Then use just a bit of the brown chalk on the areas that would normally cook more.

 

Now bake the corn dogs at the recommended temperature for your clay for 25 minutes. And allow to cool to room temperature before handling then.

 

 

 

And that is all there is to making these. If you wanted to you could give them a coat of a mat clear finish if you wish.

 

 

 

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.

Watch the video here.

I decided to make some corn dogs for the dolls this week. I know my kids loved to eat these as they were growing up (and to be totally truthful I still enjoy one once in a while) so I thought the dolls might be fans also.

To get ready I mixed my clay mixture off camera. I am using a combination of approximately 2 parts Original Sculpey with 1 part Sculpey III in yellow. You could use any white and yellow clays for this. You could even work with just the Original Sculpey if you wish. I used to the combination because by using a light yellow clay it will make the process of added the “cooked” color to the outside much easier. If you just used white you will need to spend more time working with the chalks to get the right golden brown delicious color. The downside to the mix I used is both of the clays are very soft and while that makes working with them easier on my hands it means the clay does become misshapen much easier than a firmer clay would have. I used what I did simply because they were easier to find and I didn’t have to go dig through my clay stash to find them.

For the sticks that the corn dogs will be on I am using some flat toothpicks. I made a mark with a pencil 1” from the wider/round end then cut them down about ½” past that mark.

Next I rolled the clay into a snake about ½” in diameter and cut 1 3/8” long pieces from this snake.

Roll each piece into a ball, the ball should measure around ¾” in diameter.

Then roll the balls our to be shaped like a corn dog. I like to start with the ball shape because the makes getting the ends to be rounded so much easier than trying to work from the snake shape. You are aiming to make a corn dog that is about ½” in diameter by about 1 3/8” long.

Now add a bit of the liquid clay to the stick in the area between where you marked the 1” and the place you cut off. Then insert the stick into the clay corn dog up to the pencil line. This will give you the proper 1” handle on the end of the corn dog and all of the ones you make will be the same.

Now roll the corn dogs in a piece of fine grain sandpaper to give just a bit of texture so they look like they are coated in batter.

Use a pointy tool of some kind to ease just a bit of the clay down the stick to look like that little bit of batter that is always on the real ones. (this not only looks good it helps to cover that pencil mark up)

Now we can add some artist chalks to make these look all “golden brown and delicious” Start with the yellow ocher chalk and cover the clay completely. This is the step where starting off with the yellow clay really pays off. Because you want the chalk to still look translucent but you need to also have the color to be there. Once you are happy with the yellow coverage repeat this same thing with the rust color chalk. Then use just a bit of the brown chalk on the areas that would normally cook more.

Now bake the corn dogs at the recommended temperature for your clay for 25 minutes. And allow to cool to room temperature before handling then.

And that is all there is to making these. If you wanted to you could give them a coat of a mat clear finish if you wish.

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.