Introduction: Homer Simpson's 3D Doughnut Trophy

About: Eldest of five, son of two doctors, 10 years in Graphic Design and marketing, then retrained as a Biomedical Materials Engineer, don't ask me why, I think it was because I had always wanted to design artificia…

Mmmmm doughnuts. now the Simpson's Movie is out surely you want to make something to remind you of Springfield. This instructable shows you how you can make a really cool doughnut, just like the one on the big screen in the Simpson's MOVIE logo, using just two lightweight plastic carrier bags, some masking tape and (it goes without saying) your trusty glue gun. Frame it in a box frame or follow these instructions to turn it into a Trophy using a coffee stirrer and a disposable food tray.

This funky instructable describes a sort of modern no waiting papier mache.
For more great making and doing projects, with full instructions please see my site. at
dadcando

Step 1: Roll Up a Plastic Carrier Bag

One great way to recycle is to reuse. What better way to reuse than to use your junk in craft projects. To make this doughnut you need two lightweight plastic carrier bags. I used two bags of different colours so that I could see the layers later when I cut the bite out of the doughnut. (you'll see later on) but you don't have to use different colours, but the plastic has to be very thin, almost like tissue.

Take the carrier bag and roll it up loosely so it's long and thin (you don't need to stretch it).

Step 2: Make a Basic Doughnut Shape

make a doughnut shape with the bag and wrap the doughnut shape with a little masking tape to hold it in place.

Step 3: Cover the Basic Shape With Tape

Cover the whole doughnut shape with masking tape. Only go one layer thick. When you have covered the doughtnut completely with tape, you will have a very thin looking doughnut. Don't worry, you are going to bulk it up with the next carrier bag in the next step.

Step 4: Bulk Out the Doughnut Shape

Get the second carrier bag and tear it in half longways. now tread it through the doughnut and wrap it round and round making it smooth and even and bulking it out till you have a thick doughnut shape that looks right.

Step 5: Cover the Doughnut in Another Layer of Masking Tape

This is the final layer of tape so make sure it is nice and even and looks as smooth as it can. masking tape is good for this because it has a nice matte texture (like bread) and is slightly stretchy which means that it can be stretched over complex curves to some extent. I finished mine off with a strip round the circumference, just to make the edge view look neat.

Actually you can see that i ran out of masking tape three quarters of the way through. This is not because i used loads of tape it's because my roll was nearly finished when I started. Still it didn't really affect the end result, because I cut most of this part out as the chomp!

Step 6: Ice the Doughnut With Hot Melt Glue

Taking care not to burn yourself, flow a generous layer of hot melt, glue gun glue over the top of the doughnut. This bit is reasonably tricky to get just right. But not that hard. this doughnut pictured here was my first go.

I did the doughnut top one side at a time. I put some glue on quite fast and then held the doughnut and turned it round and upside down to control where the glue went before it set a bit.

Then being very careful not to burn myself or touch the partially set glue I tackled the other side while the first area was still reasonably hot so that the two sides would blend somewhat as they set. In fact they blended perfectly.

The only trouble was, that i decided to touch the surface to see if it was set and becuse it wasn't completely set i picked up a bit on my finger. I wanted a perfect finish, so a blemish like this would have been annoying. two factors saved me. One i cut the chomp out over the blemish, two when the icing is spray painted and had sugar strands all over it, most blemishes are covered up.

Step 7: Spray the Icing With Bright Pink Paint

spray away, nice and thick and nice and glossy. Don't worry if you over-spray the bun part of the doughnut, because you are going to be painting that in a minute and you will cover any over-spray.

Step 8: WHILE IT IS STILL WET Sprinke With Sugar Strands

VERY IMPORTANT, while the paint is still nice and thick and wet, sprinkle the top of the doughnut with normal confectioners (home baking) sugar strands. The sugar strands will stick to the wet paint. to give a very realistic topping look.

Your doughnut should now look like this...

If you don't want to take a chomp out of it, then jst skip on to the painting part of this instructable.

Step 9: Cut Out the Chomp

No Homer Doughnut would be complete (ironically) without a bit missing from it... Home just can't resist. So now you have to cut a chomp out. trying not to dislodge too many of the sugar strands cut through the glue gun glue using a strong craft knife.

Don't worry if some strands fall off. You should hav eloads left at the end still attached, but if you want more you can always act like a real model maker and stick individual ones back on!

Once you are through the icing, you can chop out the rest of the carrier bags and masking tape using strong kitchen scissors a a long thin sharp knife. I used one of the smaller craft knives with the retractable snap off blades. I extended it out as far as it would go and used it like a miniature carving knife and sawed round the shape. In any case, once you have broken through the hardened hot melt glue, you can easily chip away at it to get the exact shape you want (i.e. teeth marks).

Step 10: Seal the Cut Face

Put a thin layer of hot melt over the cut face to seal it and to give yourself a nice surface to paint, whic h you will be doing in a minute.

Step 11: Make the Filling

To make the filling you are going to form it out of hot melt. This is fun and can be tricky. It's not hard if you take it a bit at a time, where it can go a bit pear shaped is if you decide to rush it and put loads of hot melt on at once.

Put the biggest gloop of hot melt on to the face that you dare and then...

Step 12: Rotate the Doughnut Till the Hot Emlt Sets

To get the shape you want, rotate the doughnut so that the flowing glue doesn't have a chance to slump down into the surface nor drip off it. It's a real challenge seeing how much hot melt you can pile up and keep where you want it.

The best bet is to do this building up in about three goes. When it has set it will be as tough as anything, but before it sets it wants to go everywhere except where you want it to. But if you get it right (and it's not really that hard) then the effect is great and the filling looks like it's been properly molded.

Step 13: Now It's Time to Paint It

Paint the bread and filling parts of the doughnut using acrylic paints. Check out the web for accurate reference. But hey, I'm guessing a blueberry filling slightly whiter inside bread dough and a darker outer crust, which is lighter on the bottom of the doughnut.

Mix brown using all three primary colours (red, blue and yellow) or any one primary and the complimentary secondary (i.e. red with green for example) and then use white to make them paler, probably with a touch more light yellow. Use Yellow Ochre as a base if you have it.

Acrylic covers the pink over-spray and gives a nice dense professional look. It also dries permanent (so don't get it on your clothes).

Be creative, it's not every day you get to make a 2D cartoon into 3D, so it is a good excuse to use bright vibrant colours.

Step 14: Start to Make the Trophy Base / Stand

You don't have to make the base. You could put the doughnut in a glass case, or make a box frame for it and display it as a bit of kitsch art. You could make three with different coloured icing and hang them on the wall above the fireplace like three flying ducks. However if you want to make a trophy out of it, continue with the instructable, but remember this is only a guide, becuase it is made out of junk, you might well have to improvise.

First get yourself a disposable single portion food tray (from a take out or ready meal)

Step 15: Discard Lid and Trim Off Any Rim

trim off any large rim, so that the edge of the tray goes vertically down to the table when the tray is turned over

Step 16: Make a Bottom for the Stand / Base

place the tray open face down on to a piece of corrugated card or foam board. It is quite important that you use either of these types of board, because in a minute we are going to poke a stick through to the base and if you use very hard board you won't be able to do this so easily.

Draw round gently and carefully taking care not to distort the shape of the tray as you draw round it. When you have done this you are going to cut out the card and insert it in the tray , so if you have bent the tray out of shape when drawing round, it will distort the tray when stuck in it or it might not fit at all.

Step 17: Insert the Bottom

Cut out the card (to the inside of the line that you traced). put a bead of hot melt round inside the food tray and drop / push the bottom into position. This will make a nice neat finish and make the trophy base nice and sturdy.

Step 18: Make the Plaque

cut a piece of hard cardboard (I used a bit from the back of an old drawing pad) in to an oblong plaque shape. For a really nice effect cut the edges at an angle.

Put two small blobs of glue gun glue on the plaque, one at either end to look like screw or rivet heads and paint or spray the plaque gold or silver.

At this point you could write the name of the person to whom you are intending to present this trophy on the plaque if you want.

Step 19: Stick Plaque on Trophy Base

all it needs is a couple of spots of glue gun glue. You might want to hold it straight while it sets though. You don't want a wonky plaque after all this effort

Step 20: Insert Lolly Stick or Coffee Stirrer

make a small rectangular hole in the top of the base towards the front on the mid-line. Make sure that the hole is a fairly tight fit for the stick you have handy.

You could just glue gun glue the doughnut straight to the top of the base. In which case your job is done. OR

Use either a lolly stick or a disposable wooden coffee stirrer. Poke the stick through the top hole that you have cut and making sure it is at a slight angle facing back, push it into the bottom cardboard. The cardboard will dent in slightly and a mark will appear on the bottom surface. temporarily remove the stick and make a small cut in the bottom of the base so that the stick can poke through. Put a blob of glue gun glue in the hole and push the stick through again so that it is coated in the glue gun glue and then push it back so that doesn't actually poke out of the bottom of the base stand.

Step 21: Place Doughnut on Stand

Congrats... you've done it, all you have to do now is make a small hole in the side of the doughnut and push it onto the stick. If you want to be able to take the doughnut off the stand then just push it on, it's light enough to stay put. it you want a more permanent fixing, push the nozzle of the glue gun up tot he hole in the doughnut and gloop a bit og glue inside the doughnut before pushing the doughnut onto the stick.

Support the doughnut in position while the glue gun glue sets to make sure that it is straight.

Now you can post a picture on instructables of the excellent Simpson's doughnut YOU made.

If you like this project then have a look at dadcando, where you'll find loads of free making and doing projects.

Happy making...