Come on Barbie, let’s go party (in our case, let’s get painting!)

Vinyl technique at Clay Café

• Vinyl is used the same way a sticker is, it needs to be applied to the raw item and not on a painted surface. 
• Apply the vinyl, press down firmly
• Paint 3 watery layers over the design 
• Remove the vinyl to reveal the design
• Ta-daaaa, pretty in pink!

Pretty in Pink- vinyl Barbie sticker, available in store

Some Barbie History

In March 1959, a doll named “Barbie” launched onto the American toy market, sporting a black-and-white striped bathing suit, pouty red lips and a sassy blonde ponytail. The leggy, 11-inch plastic figure—full name: Barbara Millicent Roberts—was the first mass-produced toy doll in the U.S. with adult features. She would go on to become one of the most iconic children playthings in history.

Barbie was the brainchild of Ruth Handler, co-founder (with her husband Elliot) of the toy company Mattel, Inc. Inspired by watching their daughter play with make-believe paper dolls of adult women, Handler realised there was an unfilled niche in the market for a toy that allowed little girls to imagine the future.

Over the span of her existence, Barbie has had more than 250 careers. She broke the plastic ceiling when she went to the moon in 1965, four years before Neil Armstrong. Since then, she has been everything from a doctor to a palaeontologist to a rock star to a computer engineer.

Barbie’s on-again, off-again longtime boyfriend, Ken Carson, was introduced two years after Barbie in 1961. Ken was named after Ruth Handler’s son. Since its launch in 1959, over 1 billion Barbie dolls have been sold worldwide. Take a look at the iconic doll transformation through the ages.