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Saturday, July 20, 2024
How to make a vintage Coca-Cola machine...
Thursday, November 30, 2023
Make Deep Fried Doll Food
Every doll Diner serves the traditional fried foods of the 1950s. These include paper trays of onion rings and french fries. Below you can see that I cut our doll's paper trays from recycled egg cartons.
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Left, are the paper food containers cut from egg cartons. Right are the finished deep fried, single servings of popular, Diner fast foods served in the 1950s. |
Sunday, August 6, 2023
How to craft a coffee maker, pot and grinder for your doll's kitchen...
Our coffee maker is a design that is common for a home use kitchen appliance, not the type you would find in a Diner. However, I will show you how to make one of those later. Gather your supplies and let's get started...
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Left, Coffee maker is shaped using cardboard, jar lids and masking tape. Center, coffee maker decoupaged with layer of black paper. Right, coffee maker painted and silver tape added. |
- scrap cardboard
- masking tape
- two identically sized lids 2 3/4 inch wide
- black paper
- Mod Podge
- silver tape
- buttons or beads
- twine
- black acrylic paint
Step-by-Step Instructions:
- First, make the coffee pot below in order to measure it's size to fit properly into the coffee maker.
- Now cut the back half of the coffee maker's main housing/water tank from sturdy cardboard.
- Hot glue both the top and bottom edges directly into two identical lids. The top lid will hold up the control panel and the lower will be where the pretend warming plate resides.
- Cut a piece of cardboard to glue around the upper lid. Keep it hollow so that the coffee pot fits snugly inside slightly. This would be where the pretend coffee grounds would reside inside of a basket if this were a real coffee maker. This is also where you will use puff paints to make pretend buttons for the control panel on the outside of the coffee maker.
- Now cover everything thus far in masking tape. Black paper and then paint it black, in order to give the coffee maker a smooth, finished surface.
- Add a bit of silver tape for sophisticated trim work to make the coffee maker look like a real one.
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18" Doll Coffee Pot Diagram |
- hot glue gun and hot glue
- scrap cardboard
- soda cap
- soap pump
- acorn capsule
- acrylic paints: dark brown, silver, black or red
Step-by-Step Instructions:
- Make sure your recycled Acorn novelty container is clean and free of dust before filling it with dark brown paint. Don't make the application too thick or it will tale forever to dry out. It is better to layer the paint in thin coats until the coffee pot looks full.
- Snap the lid back on and turn the flat side down, this will be the bottom of your coffee pot.
- Hot glue a recycled lid from a water bottle on top of the inverted Acorn container.
- Cut a cardboard spout and hot glue this to the top of the water bottle lid.
- Remove the pump top spout from a empty bottle of hand soap and hot glue this to the side of the water bottle cap.
- Now paint the coffee pot as you like. I painted all of the parts black, apart from the plastic, faux glass where the coffee resides. Then I cut silver tape to trim the finished example. (see finished photos below)
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Left, see coffee maker, pot and grinder in progress. Center, photo of coffee grinder before paint and tape. Right, coffee grinder from bottom. |
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Left, finished grinder, coffee maker and coffee pot. Center and right, finished electric coffee grinder up close. |
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A modern coffee maker for home use similar to the one we made for our dolls. |
- scrap cardboard
- hot glue and hot glue gun
- white school glue
- acrylic paints: black
- silver tape
- coffee grounds
- a short mini glass container (bean hopper)
- masking tape
- puff paints
Step-by-Step Instructions:
- Fill the tiny jar container with real coffee grounds. Screw the cap back in place.
- Turn the jar upside down. Cover the lid with masking tape.
- Roll cardboard cut to size around the cap with white glue between it's layers. Let dry.
- Trace around the bottom of the play coffee grinder on top of a piece of cardboard.
- Cut out the round and glue it to the bottom of the pretend grinder.
- Cut a long narrow piece of cardboard to glue onto the glass jar and down it's side on top of the cardboard. This is the large button used to grind the beans in the jar.
- Cover this button in black paper.
- Cover the bottom of the grinding chamber with silver tape or paper.
Tuesday, June 6, 2023
How to make ice cream parlor deserts...
Numbered ice-cream parlor desserts that correspond to the listing below. |
I ordered these 18" doll sized ice cream dishes online at Ebay. Then I filled them with faux syrup (puffy paint) before shaping and adding the ice cream (air dry clay) and cookies (Sculpey). The pirouettes (rolled cookies) and stroopwafel (waffle shaped cookies) are made using the oven-bake clay because it shows greater detail when manipulated than the air-dry clay. However, the air-dry clay is perfect for shaping the softer ice cream scoops.
Descriptions of Ice Cream Parlor Deserts Above:
- Pineapple ice cream with fresh fruit and stroopwafel
- Dark fudge mocha ice cream with chocolate syrup pirouette cookies
- Raspberry swirl ice cream with chocolate chips and chocolate syrup and pirouettes
- Rocky road ice cream with chocolate chunks and pirouettes
- Tangerine ice cream with brownies and chocolate stroopwafel
- True blue blueberry topped with strawberry syrup and fresh fruit and stroopwafel
- Strawberry ice cream and whipped cream topped with a cherry stroopwafel
- Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream with chocolate syrup, chocolate decoration and pirouettes
- Peanut Butter ice cream with chocolate chunk brownies and caramel syrup with a chocolate pirouette cookie
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I made dishes of ice cream using air dry clay and Sculpey too. The doll sized dishes were cut from paper egg cartons. |
Saturday, January 28, 2023
DIY 8 Malted Milkshakes for Dolls
Students will have fun combining multiple colors of air dry clay with puff paints to create their own interpretations of these delicious, doll sized, malted milkshakes! |
This adorable craft is fun but a little pricey. The milkshake glasses are a must; and may be ordered online from many craft suppliers. Ours were purchased from ebay, but you can also find them easily at Amazon too. These are about 2 1/2 inches tall. You will also need colorful air dry clay, puff paints, foam mini-balls, cocktail straws, Mod Podge, Sculpey for the finer-detailed toppings and hot glue to apply these.
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Left, the plastic milkshake glasses we ordered online. Right, here I have added puff paints inside of four examples to look like syrup. I left the remaining four without. |
I made a large menu to display our milkshakes above the counter of the Diner. You may wish to print it out and post it inside your dolls diner or ice cream shop too.
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8 Different milkshakes look so good; I want one right now! |
- Banana cream milkshake topped with toffee and caramel chunks (butterscotch syrup drizzled on top)
- Nutella malted milkshake topped with crunchy coffee crumbles and chocolate sprinkles (chocolate syrup drizzled inside)
- Malted Strawberry Delight topped with fresh berries and cream (strawberry syrup drizzled inside)
- Cool Creamsicle Shake topped with mandarine orange slices, mint leaves and a maraschino cherry
- Blueberry Cheesecake Surprise topped with fresh picked blueberries and cream cheese fluff
- Minty Leapin' Leprechaun Cream topped with chocolate chips and cherries
- Birthday Bubblegum Shake topped with mixed fruity candies
- Classic vanilla milkshake topped with butterscotch cream and chocolate fudge chunks (caramel syrup drizzled inside)
Watch how other crafters made similar shakes for doll diners:
Sunday, March 27, 2022
Sculpt French toast for dolly's breakfast!
French toast is a dish made of sliced bread soaked in beaten eggs and typically milk, then pan fried. Alternative names and variants include "eggy bread", "Bombay toast", "gypsy toast", and "poor knights" (of Windsor).
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Above, I included strawberries, syrup and powdered sugar here to top our doll's French toast breakfast. |
In New Orleans Louisiana Creole cuisine, French toast is known as pain perdu and is most commonly served as a breakfast dish. The recipe calls for New Orleans-style French bread; the batter is an egg-based custard. Common toppings include cane syrup, strongly flavored honey, or fruit syrups; a dusting of powdered sugar is also traditional.
Wednesday, August 18, 2021
Poster and Enamel Signs for A Doll Diner
Children may download and print this clip art for their doll sized diners. The bottled Coca-Cola poster is an original ad from 1922 and both the Ice Cream 'n Cake Roll and the Hires Root Beer signs were originally printed onto enamel. All three very nostalgic and also typical of what you might have found decorating the walls of both a Diner or a Soda Fountain during the 1950s. Back the prints with cardboard and seal them with Mod Podge.
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Text reads, "you'll Enjoy Ice Cream 'n Cake Roll Just slice and serve...Try some Today! Jack and Jill Ice Cream Cake Roll." |
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Text reads, "It's High Time for Hires Root Beer" |
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Text reads, "Sell Bottled Coca-Cola Delicious and Refreshing, Every day and every hour we are making sales for you!" |
Tour Diners Online:
Tuesday, March 9, 2021
A Jukebox for Your Doll's Diner
- Retro Diner Bite to Eat OG Stop Motion - from Our Generation
- American Girl Diner vs. Our Generation Diner by Totally Rudy - from 2015
- American Girl Doll Maryellen's Jukebox Review by Bigmoon
See the music selections up-close. These are a mix of tunes from the 70's and 80s. |
Song-popularity counters told the owner of the machine the number of times each record was played (A and B side were generally not distinguished), with the result that popular records remained, while lesser-played songs could be replaced.
Jukeboxes were most popular from the 1940s through the mid-1960s, particularly during the 1950s. By the middle of the 1940s, three-quarters of the records produced in America went into jukeboxes. Billboard published a record chart measuring jukebox play during the 1950s, which briefly became a component of the Hot 100; by 1959, the jukebox's popularity had waned to the point where Billboard ceased publishing the chart and stopped collecting jukebox play data.
The invention of the portable radio in the 1950s and the portable cassette tape deck in the 1960s were key factors in the decline of the jukebox. They enabled people to have their own selection of music with them, wherever they were. Jukeboxes became a dying industry during the 1970s, before being revived somewhat by compact disc jukeboxes during the 1980s and 1990s, followed by digital jukeboxes using the MP3 format. The greater selection and track length flexibility of digital jukeboxes offered more for the listener, with lower space requirements and operating costs making jukeboxes more attractive to establishment owners. While jukeboxes maintain popularity in bars, they have fallen out of favor with what were once their more lucrative locations—restaurants, diners, military barracks, video arcades, and laundromats.
Monday, March 8, 2021
Soda Fountain/Ice Cream Parlor Clip Art Pages
Our soda fountain clip art/ Ice Cream Parlor pages are for little ones to decorate the shelves and counters of their doll's soda fountain, diner or ice cream parlor with. Neopolitan ice cream, Soda fountain colas, chocolate sundaes, egg creams, Sweet Peach Ice Teas, Phosphates, and many more delectable looking ice cream scoops are included in three pages of colorful clip art below!
Sunday, May 10, 2020
Sew a Stack of Felt Pancakes
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Barbie would enjoy eating these breakfast cakes! |
Friday, April 3, 2020
Decoupage a Spool Canister Set
The finished canisters on top of our doll's diner shelf. You can cover your faux canisters in any scrapbooking paper you like. |
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Four varieties of text for your doll's canister sets. Canisters may be marked: Flour, Sugar, Coffee, Tea, Rice, Salt Oats, Barley and or Cookies. |