Thursday, December 2, 2010

Sugar n' Spice PART 2


By now you have your flooring down, the kitchen cabiniet assembled and 
trimmed with holly.  You have filled the shelves with an array of gingerbread
treats and are now ready to work on the baking prep section of Sugar n' Spice.
Enjoy!




BAKING PREP

Flour Bag:  Print on bright white paper.  Cut out and fold on lines and between
bag sections.  Glue side over tab.  Fold the bottom section in from the sides until
the edges meet and then fold the peaks formed on the front and back of the
bottom, in and glue in place.  Fill the bag about ¾ full with soft tissue or tp. 
Crease the top section of the bag as was done with the bottom section but do
not glue it shut.  Open it up and slightly distress the top edges for a used look.

Brown Sugar:  Fold in tabs and glue the front over them.  Cover whole bag
with packing tape, trimming off excess evenly.  Stuff lightly with soft facial tissue
or tp and then glue the top edge shut.

Spices:  The spices are best printed on semi-gloss photo paper.  Score on all
lines.  Glue side over tab.  Glue top and bottom tabs to inside.

Baking Powder:  Cut a 7/16”W x 11”L strip of paper and roll up tightly until it
has a ¼” diam.; cut off excess paper and glue to hold.  Glue label around roll,
cutting off excess so ends meet in back.  Punch ¼” round of poster board and
another of silver cardstock.  Glue the two together and then glue to top of roll,
silver side up.


Molasses:  Lite Brite pegs (as pictured) are plastic pegs from a child’s game
that come in assort. translucent colors.  They can be purchased as replacement
parts (check online or in toy stores) and are often found bagged in 2nd hand
stores.  Using them is a fun and fairly easy way to make a wide assortment of
bottles and jars.  Simply insert the fat end of one into a variable speed drill or
Moto Tool and setting the tool to a medium speed use files, craft knife, and
sandpaper to reshape the peg as desired.  Use a razor saw to cut it to size
desired.  For this project create the bottle shape pictured.  The finished shapes
may be buffed to a sheen or coated with clear nail polish.  For the molasses
bottle chose a yellow peg and when it is done use a brown, permanent-marker
pen or glass stain to color.  Glue label  around bottle.  Punch a 1/8” round lid
from gold cardstock and glue in place on bottle top.

Shortening:  Print label on bright white paper.  Cut three strips of paper
½”W x11”L.  Roll one paper strip up tightly and hold with glue.  Add a 2nd strip
where the first ended and continue with roll; repeat with the third strip.  Trace
the top of the roll, twice onto white cardstock and twice onto metallic silver
cardstock.  Cut out the circles.  Glue a plain and a silver circle together to
form two double thickness circles.  Glue one each to the top and bottom of the
paper roll, silver sides showing.  Paint the label with one coat of clear nail enamel. 




                                 Click on photo to enlage and then save to your computer.
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Bowl of Dough:  Just about any bowl will do.  I used half of a hollow plastic ball
(just as an aside, every 5th of July I walk our beach picking up a dozen or so of
these half balls in various bright colors that are some sort of detritus from
fireworks.  And I also find a handful of square bass stripwood…always looking
with miniatures in mind).  Cut a 2” to 2-1/2” circle of gingerbread brown
cardstock.  Lay it in the palm of your hand and “draw” over it, again and again,
in a circular motion with the rounded end of a paintbrush until the paper is
softened, embossed, and malleable.   Gently turn the edges of the paper to
the back side until it is puffed in the middle and will fit into your bowl.  Glue in
place.  Of course you may also choose to fill the bowl with clay of some sort. 
For the wooden spoon, sand the end of a wooden sandwich pick to about half
its thickness and cut it off to a ¾” length.  Make room for it in your dough and
glue in place.

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Rolling Pin: Cut a 7/8” length of 3/16” diam. dowel.  Sand smooth with
finishing sandpaper.  Drill or ream a 1/8” deep hole in the center of each
end of the dowel.  Nip off a bit from the pointed end of a round toothpick
and insert the toothpick into the hole.  Mark on the toothpick where it meets
the dowel.  Remove the toothpick and measure up ¼” from the mark. 
Cut the toothpick at the mark and round off the end with sandpaper. 
Repeat for other side of dowel.  Glue more pointed ends of handles into
prepared holes.  Handles may be painted; red or green being good choices
or the handles along with the roller may be oiled with linseed or olive oil.


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Rolled Dough:  Cut a piece of your gingerbread colored cardstock into an
irregular oval shape of a size that will fit on your bread board.  Lay it, back side
up, on the palm of your hand and “draw” around the edges with the end of a
paint brush or some such tool, until the edges turn up just a bit…this will give
the paper some dimension.  Glue to breadboard.  If desired you may “flour”
the breadboard first by finely stippling some white paint on to it.   Glue a
gingerbread cookie cutter atop the dough.  The 9/16”H x 7/16”W cookie cutter
used here is a classic metal miniature.  It is available thru an online search or
thru brick and mortar stores.


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Baking Sheet:  Cut a piece of matboard or chipboard 1 ½” x 1”.  Slightly
round off the corners.  This piece will be your form to shape the baking sheet. 
Using pewter color embossing metal (this product is extra soft metal sheets
that usually comes in a roll and can be cut with scissors and has many uses in
miniature work. Art Emboss is one brand found in craft shops.  If you can’t find
it you can substitute a disposable aluminum baking pans etc. Cut a piece
1 ¾” x 1 ¼”.  Slightly round off the corners.  Working on a flat surface, center
your form over the metal rectangle.  Pressing down on the form, use a knife
blade or plastic credit card (great way to put to use junk mail) or such, to lift up
the sides of metal around the form, crimping the rounded corners as you work. 
Don’t bring the sides all the way up; let them flare out just a bit. Remove form
and check baking sheet for even flare of sides etc. and make any corrections. 
Do be careful in the project not to cut your self on the metal.  Add your cookies.

Gingerbread Boys:  The gingerbread boys on the baking sheet were made by tracing the aforementioned metal miniature cookie cutter onto gingerbread
color cardstock and then cutting them out.  Lay the cutouts on the palm of your
hand and with a small ball stylus trace around their outer edge to give them a bit
of dimension.  The tooled side is the down side.  Glue to baking sheet.

                                           Metal Miniature Gingerbread Cookie Cutter
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Spatula: For the handle, nip the tip off of a round toothpick and sand the new
tip smooth.  Measure from the new tip down 3/8” and cut off at this point. 
Sand the cut end smooth.  Paint the handle either red or green and glaze
with an acrylic gloss.  Cut a ½” length of a straight pin, from the head down. 
Glue the head of the pin to the fatter end of the handle using cyanoacrylate
glue…super, crazy, etc.; set aside.    Click on spatula pattern to enlarge;
copy and paste to your computer. Set printer to print image out at .90” x .90”
and then print onto lightweight paper.  Rough cut image from paper and use
glue stick to adhere it  to a piece of thin aluminum, as from a piece of
disposable roaster pan or pull-out inner lids from peanut cans etc.
Use a pointed stylus to make the nine indentations and then carefully cut it out. 
Remove paper from metal.  Use liquid solder to adhere 1/16” of the pin to the
back of the spatula, centered side to side.

                                          Click on photo and copy and save to your computer. 
                                             Set printer to print image at 0.90"H x 0.90"W
.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Part 2 of Sugar n’ Spice should keep you busy for a few days, and then I will have
the final segment, Part 3, the table and its contents ready for you. 

If you are working on this project please let us know how it is going for you….
it is fun and interesting to share progress with one another, especially if you have
little hints that made things go smoother for you or have added your own “spice”.

Joann

PS 
“Stay-tuned” because some items from my projects may soon be offered as
kits to make your creating a bit easier.



11 comments:

  1. Yipee - Part 2! Sad to say, but I haven't even started Part 1 - not that I haven't wanted to, just too busy with life getting in the way of my play time! Thanks again for sharing your great projects!

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  2. Great ideas and instructions, thanks :)

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  3. Great followup project! Looking forward to the next part.

    Many thanks.

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  4. This is adorable! Glad you were able to use AMACO's ArtEmboss for this project. I'd like to post on our Facebook page and link back to your blog.

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  5. AMACO offers quality, reliable products;I have used & suggested uses for many of them in my DIY projects over the years...so of course you may link to my blog.

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  6. Thank you so much for such a detailed tutorial, Joann! It's always a pleasure to visit your blog :).

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  7. I am very happy that I found your beautiful blog, Joann.

    Thank you so much for your tutorials and the lovely photos and for your printies.

    Hugs and greetings from Bavaria, Germany
    Marion

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  8. Kits, kits? Did you say kits might be available??
    Where, when, and how much? I'll be there...
    Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  9. Hi Joann your blog is full of amazing ideas and tutos,miniregards from Spain.

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  10. I am so happy to find your blog! You used to do how to in dollhouse miniture magazine? If so I made many of your projects. The greenhouse, the baby store, washer and dryer and a modern 2 door frig and many others. I just could not wait to see whatvyou made next! I feel like I've known you for years. Yay I'm so happy!

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  11. Hi Joann, I finished your Sugar N' Spice kit a couple of years ago. It turned out beautifully. What I want to know is, what is the paper material that most of the hutch is made from?

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