When You Can't Afford the Mini Verse Capsules

My daughter came up to me and says, "Mom, can you buy or make doll foods? Our Barbies need some."

Hmm.... Not like I'm Made of Money (even though that's what my kids think Mom means). So... I need to figure out how to make them. I've watched some My Froggy videos on YouTube. It is where I get all kinds of ideas. And I decided to give it a go. After all, my dolls need a variety of foods too. Here goes! Let's check out some ideas.

Key Lime Pie

I started with a pie. After all, they are usually easier. I cut some thin foam to fill in the pie pan - which was the top of the poster tube.

Originally, I thought the bottom pieces needed to be tan for the crust, but you can't see them, so any color would work. The top is lime green, which is why I thought of the key lime pie. I mixed some white paint with Elmer's glue to make the white around the edges for the meringue.

This also allows me to glue down some 'limes' made from tiny bits of the foam I had leftover. The first one definitely came out messier... I thought I could just use a toothpick to dribble in the white. Turns out, that doesn't work so well when you shake too much. 

I made a couple of things a while back from some art mousse that came with an art kit my daughter had. I made a little ice cream. This was from a piece of plastic from a pen, the mousse, and a dot of hot glue on top. It is a little small, so my daughters use this one for their tiny dolls. 

In the jar, I made cookies from the mousse. You have to work quick and roll it before it starts to dry. Then I painted them. The little jar was found at the Dollar Tree in a pack. 

Taking the easier path...

I am so thankful to my dad for giving me a 3D printer! Us... sending us... a 3D printer. It is amazing how many things you can find the files for. Tiny foods included! So I have been printing things almost nonstop. 

How about turkey for Thanksgiving dinner? Except I printed it a little small. So, Thanksgiving for two! This is where you can find that file. 

I have also printed bottles that can be used as soda, or if your dolls are adults who want something stronger - alcoholic beverages. This file has to be resized to fit the doll, but came out great!

I made a couple Romulan Ale bottles as well as a Quantum Cola bottle from Fallout. My dolls are total nerds. Don't judge.

Donuts were next on my agenda as we have sweet tooth galore in this house. I had to fiddle with the sizing and after about 3 tries, finally reached the appropriate fit. I chose to upsize it to 400% of the original file. Great thing about the sizes that came out too small is that the smaller dolls my daughters have now have donuts too! And they have something to stock their food truck with. Now to find a file for a donut box.... But here is the donut file. I also told my daughter that we would get some acrylic paint and make them look glazed. 

I'm not a huge soda fan, but since I found the file, I figured I might as well. Again, had to resize until I found the right dimensions for the dolls.

I was able to resize and print some labels too. They came out pretty good.

I printed some lemons that came out a little larger than you would think. They are also not as easily identifiable. But I love them nonetheless. HERE is the file. I would suggest trying to resize it to 15% of the original.

While I'm with yellow colored foods, I knew that bananas had to be included. So I found a file for those too! These I resized to 209%. Otherwise you are talking about a super minuscule banana! 

I figured yellow was close enough for waffles. And since I love them, my dolls do too! I found this file and printed them at 20% the original. 

I have been looking for things that could also be useful for the holidays that are coming up. I have a turkey, but what else? I saw this platter of what I decided to make cookies and knew it would be a perfect addition. I painted them to resemble chocolate chip, my favorite kind. These can be used for all kinds of photos later. The one I printed for my daughters, they turned into cinnamon rolls! 

I swapped to red. And began printing red foods. Like apples and tomatoes.

And tomato slices! When my husband saw the slices, he said I was going snowflake... This is an inside joke that essentially means I'm getting a Moms version of cabin fever from being stuck inside with my kids for too long. I had to play with resizing on each one to get the size I wanted. I chose to go larger on the apples and tomatoes.

Don't forget your kitchen accessories!

Some days, you just want to chill in bed. And when that happens, you need a tray to enjoy your food in bed. That is why I printed this nifty little tray. (And yes, I 3D printed those eggs too!)

My goals now are to try my hand at making playdoh foods. Make, dry, paint and play! Not sure how well that will work, but can't hurt to try, right? What suggestions might you have? Leave me a comment below and I'll see what I can do.

3D Printing for the Whole House

My Dad gave me one of the most amazing gifts imaginable. A 3D printer! The first time I remember seeing a 3D printer, was in Jurassic Park 3. Remember that? They printed the resonance chamber of a velociraptor. Wasn't called a 3D printer back then though. Okay, nerdy moment over. The next time I saw a 3D printer, was when I worked for Target. They were donating one to the School for the Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine. We did art with the kids there. They would draw a picture that would be scanned in, and then it would 3D print it for them to feel their creation. I loved seeing what they wanted to make! Fast forward to now. I have my own. Thankfully, it does not rely on my artistic skills. There is this great website where people have already done the CAD work or scans and created the file to input into the printer. Though I wish I had remembered my Dads training in using CAD... There have been things I wished I could create. Thingiverse.com has become one of my favorite places to browse through. I've even made gifts for family from it. 

When we first received it, we were printing little things. My husband made extensions to add to the printer. I printed various things for the girls' and I to use with our dolls. Since then, our collection of prints has just grown!

Since moving, I have been printing upgrades to this old house of ours. Starting with a different light switch cover in every room.

Yes, this switch flips like a mad scientist one and even makes a clicking noise while doing so. I have walked by my husband just in time to hear him switching it on while crying out, "We have light! Muhahaha" 

Painting is out of our budget right now. So these walls are getting just a temporary beautification until we have a little more funding to change the cosmetics. Ugly orange from the... what? 70's? Meet Star Wars!

I really can't wait to redo the kitchen. Especially the cabinets. *shudders* Why they thought orange was a cool color back in the day, I'll never understand. However, at the very least, my kitchen has been taken over by Star Wars. Salt and pepper shakers, oven mitt gloves, knife set - I have pulled out all my Star Wars aesthetics to really make it home in there. And this plate cover just adds icing to the cake for me.

And then my second love, Steampunk, is also being introduced. How could I not have some of that in our new home? Sadly, not all prints work as well as they are claimed to. This one is stuck in this position. Not functioning, despite my husbands efforts to adjust it. But it works out. This one controls a fan that is left on all the time to keep the kitchen cool. 

This one is still a work in progress as we have to adjust how to hang it better. For now, this was the engineers fix my husband came up with. There is nothing to attach it by except command strips. My husband is waiting for the day when he can use it to prank someone.

One by one, our light switch covers around the house are slowly being shifted from plain to nerdy! I have a Nintendo controller plate for the game room. The girls have a unicorn. Boys have a lovely Legend of Zelda plate. We even have a key ring hook for the first time ever in Zelda theme.

I've printed stands to hold my sons geode slices, and plan to print another one for a hand-painted plate that my husbands Great Grandpa gave me. 

This is just around the home. There are so many other amazing things you can 3D print. Like Christmas gifts! This year, Christmas is not going to be the same. One, we are in a town at least 6 hours from anyone we know. Two, we be broke. Let me rephrase, before I get frantic phone calls and my husband revokes my blogging rights - we have what we need to get by paycheck to paycheck. Not for extras. I really miss having that small cushion we had before the move. However, I'm glad to have the home of my dreams. So I'd say it is a fair switch off. But that means that unless I make the gift myself or find something super cheap for a person on our list, they are getting nothing more than a card this year. Which isn't so bad. I have plenty of filament in various colors. The trick has been finding something for each person. The second trick will be getting the gifts either mailed or delivered to them... I'm still working on a plan for that. 

There are so many ideas on there! I even found things that are customized to have unusual names on there. That is something you hardly find in stores. 

My son loves the Halo game ships. So I printed these and hung them from the ceiling for him. See that gas station set he has? For his birthday, we are giving him accessories to add to it. Including a car lift like they would have in the garage to lift the car and work under it. 

What do you think? Are you impressed where technology has gone? I know I am! I can't wait to see what other creations I can make.