My daughters and I are getting ready for the “launch” of American Girl’s, Girl of the Year, Luciana Vega! The 2018 GOTY doll is a STEM lover! While we wait for her upcoming release, we decided to make a few STEM inspired items. We love making doll food, so we decided to make astronaut ice cream for dolls.
We have visited several museums, exhibits, and galleries over the years. We always make a stop at the gift shop; on our shopping list is always astronaut ice cream! Our flavor of choice is Neapolitan ice cream! For some really cool history on space food see here: https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/postsecondary/features/F_Food_for_Space_Flight.html Check out this great article in The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/12/astronaut-food-international-space-station/548255/
Let’s get started! We used white Crayola Model Magic clay to make our ice cream squares.
The clay was rolled out into 1/4 inch thickness. We used a square 1 inch fondant cutter to make consistent sized squared. Once cut out, the clay was slightly shaped and molded by hand. Honestly, I thick these squares could be made completely by hand and without a cutter. Make each piece about 1 inch square or slightly smaller. Let your squares dry overnight.
We found this size fit an American Girl doll’s hand perfectly!
Once your squares have dried, you can add coloring.
I purchased inexpensive markers from Target. I think these markers were around $2.
Eye up the square into thirds and use the pink and brown markers to draw on the strawberry and chocolate ice cream. I always use a napkin or paper towel to slightly blot away excess marker…just make sure to always blot with a clean portion of paper towel each time.
While the marker dries you can make the Neapolitan Astronaut Ice Cream packaging. You can find your FREE doll sized Astronaut Ice Cream packaging printable here: Astronaut Ice Cream
Print the packaging printable on regular computer paper, not cardstock. Computer paper is thinner and will be more flexible when molding around the inserted ice cream. I used hot glue because I’m an impatient gluer. LOL. But a glue stick will work fine too. Tip – use clips to make sure sides stay together while glue is drying. Glue the bottom and sides together first. Then insert the ice cream into the top opening and glue shut.
Most real astronaut ice cream is crumbly. To give that broken look to our doll astronaut ice cream we used a straight razor blade and went straight down and through the clay. Tip- when pieces are apart, make sure the inner edges are colored appropriately. This way the color looks as if it is all the way through the ice cream. When figuring out the inner edge color it can be very fun, like putting together a puzzle.
It looks as if our Dr. Shelley Cazares doll enjoyed getting her care package of doll Astronaut ice cream!
What’s great about this DIY is that you can set the scene by having one of the packages torn open. The ice cream is sitting on folded small squares of parchment paper; this was to mimic the thin paper that is folded around real astronaut ice cream.
Maybe we will have to craft up some astronaut mint ice cream or an astronaut ice cream sandwich sometime in the coming year!
Up tomorrow is our DIY rocket ship that is NASA inspired. Then…stay tuned for 2018 for our doll sized DIY Virtual Reality Training Googles and a DIY Missions Control Panel!
For other posts in our Luciana STEM series see here: http://brandyshappyhome.com/the-doll-room/lucianas-stem-room/
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