Here are my own shortcuts too! 
1.I use apple trays for flower formers.
2.A sawn piece of curtain rail for a ribbed rolling pin.
3.Thick chopsticks for dowelling.
4.Plastic placemats for texturing and embossing.
5.A plastic ball cut in half as a mould for anything round that needs to dry hard.
6.Plastic scourer for texturing fondant grass.
7.Plastic doll cut vertically in half for moulding people.
8.Play dough tools.
9.Buttons, buckles etc for texturing
etc etc.
Teey please how do you use the dolls for the moulds i beg.
DH works in metal shop so he makes tools i dream up out of scrap stainless steel.
plastic palette knifes instead of metal (1/10 price)
rubber non slip mat as impression mat.
plastic packaging for molds
gotta go look for more! Thanks o.p.!!!
This is such a great thread! Lots of great tips!
Just as I said, you can experiment with different cheap plastic dolls based on if you want it to be male,female or a child. I basically use only the torso and face and do up the rest by hand i.e the arms and legs,though I can actually mold a torso by hand I always use a mold for the face so that it is more realistic.So I take a doll,remove the head and with a sharp blade cut it in two vertically i.e from the middle of the head down the ears to the neck,put in a ball of modelling paste,press the two back together and then remove it.When its dry I use various petal dusts to paint on the features.HTH.
I keep my egg cartons for flower formers and paint pots
hubby got me a 3"dia piece of PVC pipe to roll my fondant twice the pin, half the work
paper towel roll tubes to dry bows
cheap knee high for PS puff
pasta cutter to make this fondant ribbons
Great tips! Tee-Y, I love the plastic doll idea.
I use a single piece of granite tile (cost $4.00 at Lowes) to cut and roll small amounts of fondant and gumpaste for decorations. I use a playdough barber shop toy to make hair.
Wow! What a lot of great ideas. The only one that I can think of that is not already listed is my daughters round bar from her easel (you know what holds the paper?!?!) I take it out and put my loops for my fondant bows on it to dry.
It is so funny to go shopping and be in a a non-related cake aisle and say, "Hey.. that will work for...." AND now, I get excited to go to the hardware store with my husband. He thinks I am nuts!! 
I took a gum paste flower class and the instructor used a CELERY STALK to vein the individual Tiger Lilly petals. Cut the petals, pressed them against the outside "ribby" side of a big piece of celery. She said she uses all kinds of things like that. She used corn meal for the centers of Cala lillies, and nutmeg for the pollen on the Tiger Lilly stamens.
After that class I look at the texture of everything!
I love this thread; what a lot of great ideas! I use plastic dolls for my figures as well, but I've used the dolls to make my own molds (good if you don't want to cut up the doll). Just take a piece of gumpaste and push it down over the doll's face or limbs, about 1/2 or 3/4 of the way around it (a little bit of shortning on the doll will make it come off easily). Pull the gumpaste off carefully and let dry well and you now have a doll mold you can use over and over! I used this process to make the mold for this figure's face http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1354662&sub=1354663
I have a drawer filled with all kinds of little dolls and barbies...don't look like cake decorating tools but they are!
Now I'm going to go cut up some dolls and try that too!
I also use semolina(coloured with petal dust) for pollen on my calla lilies, found out I could use the ribbed cover on my marker pens as a veiner when I misplaced my friller/veining tool and I use dry tea from a teabag as pollen on my sunflowers(on the GTBank cake in my pics).
I am so going to home depot for some pvc pipe today!!!! Went to Michaels yesterday and the big roller was over $20. I just can't justify that. Thanks all you cheapy cakers!
I was modeling puppy dogs at work and forgot to include a round tip to make the puppy mouth...I ended up using my wedding ring...it was the perfect size. I also use a long piece of pvc piping for rolling fondant for a large cake. I love the ideas on this thread!
My biggest cost savers are:
- Buying cake "bases" at Home Depot. Most times they'll even cut them to size and shape for me. All I have to do is look helpless.
Always using coupons at Micheal's, ACMoore, Joann's. They all have printable coupons online and you can print off as many as you want. Just do a search for them.
Making my own fondant and gumpaste.
Glasses and cups with tin foil for flower formers.
Clay tools, as many people mentioned; the set they sell at ACMoore is awesome by the way. It has a really nice metal balling tool.
Clay extruder instead of the expensive fondant extruder.
A small sheet of Plexiglas to for rolling out flowers.
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Love this thread, thanks for sharing everyone.
I'm still very new and still learning lots. I have used
* the sponge hair rollers (pinks ones) to help form my bows - I just remove the clips and can get them in various sizes
* use a large spackle knife to help smooth my icing on the cakes
* scrapbooking stamps for impressions
* dollar store craft mat for my gumpaste work
* Lego wheel for zipper
so far that's all but nothing looks the same way anymore 
The coolest thing I have seen (not yet tried) was on the unltimate cake challenge.
It was a homemade extruder!
They used a calking gun fitted with a PVC pipe, and just drilled a hole in the end piece.
Hubby is gonna make me one to give it a try.
I want one but they are about $70.00 for a small one and to make this whole thing would cost me less than $15.00.
You all are absolutely amazing.
My only thing is what I didn't even come up with on my own (I swiped it from Earlene's site) is a cookie press for ropes. I'm so terrible at getting it even but with the cookie press its SOOOO much easier! I had a cookie press I had never used but now I love it and its actually earning its keep...lol
I use pegboard for cooling racks, and have scraps of granite and corian for rolling flowers and gumpaste, and for coloring icing- I hate washing greasy bowls- its also a nice surface to take when delivering a wedding cake that still needs work.
A lot of people I know use big tiles for coloring icing, same principle.
I use pegboard for cooling racks, and have scraps of granite and corian for rolling flowers and gumpaste, and for coloring icing- I hate washing greasy bowls- its also a nice surface to take when delivering a wedding cake that still needs work.
A lot of people I know use big tiles for coloring icing, same principle.
If you don't mine me asking pegboard for cooling racks is that without the pegs?
yep, I just bought a sheet of it from menard's (home improvement warehouse) for like $10, and cut it up, then I nailed some scrap wood legs onto the four corners, and viola- nor more damage to my cakes from wires! I also don't care if I ruin them, because, hey, I got about 12-16 different sized boards from one sheet!
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