Unicorn Cafe Paper Food Trays & Drive-In Trays

My daughters wanted to give the Unicorn Café a retro vibe so we decided that our café was also going to be a drive-in.  Today I will share with you how we made our doll sized drive-in trays for our doll cars.  I will also share with you a free printable for the Unicorn Café paper food trays.

For the Unicorn Café we decided on a lavender diamond checked pattern.  The trays came out super cute!

You can find your FREE Unicorn Café paper food tray printable here: Unicorn Cafe Paper Food Tray Printable

1. I suggest using a 65 lb cardstock paper for extra sturdiness.
2. Cut out the outside of each tray.  Then cut the small black line in each of the four corners.
3. Fold along each solid purple line.
4. Bring corners inward.
5. Use glue stick and glue corner angles down.
6. Outside corners should look like this…  (below is the red tray from Tenney’s Chicken Truck series…same steps)

I have always loved going to the drive-in diner as a kid!  My daughters have only been once to the one back in my hometown.

We wanted to keep the look of the doll drive-in tray pretty basic because we knew the Unicorn Café food was going to be very colorful.  The doll sized drive-in trays turned out so great and are sturdy too.

To create the drive-in trays we used gift tines found in the check out lanes at Michael’s craft stores.  We got these tins for $1 each.

You will be using both the top and bottom parts of these tins in the Unicorn Café.  Initially I had hoped to use the tin lid for the drive-in tray, but it was a bit flimsy and didn’t hold up well when doll food items were placed on it.  However, the tin base worked FABULOUS for the doll drive in tray!  The base was a bit deeper and very sturdy.  

We attached the drive-in tray to the doll car with small binder clips.  If your doll’s car door is wider just use larger clips.  To give the drive-in tray a little unicorn bling we cut a piece of gold cardstock to use a paper liner.

We recycled the gift tin lids into doll sized baking trays.  You can leave your baking tray colorful or paint silver.  My daughters wanted all of their lids spray painted silver; they wanted them as realistic as possible.  lol.  

The gift tin lids really do make a perfect doll sized baking tray.

Here’s a blast from the past…back in 2012…another drive-in post that I did for Karen Mom of Three :  http://karenmomofthreescraft.blogspot.ca/2012/06/brandys-special-surprise-for-her-girls.html

See here for other Unicorn Café posts: http://brandyshappyhome.com/the-doll-room/unicorn-cafe/

Craft on!