Arizona woman creates Statue of Liberty carved out of foam, Doritos

This is one way to enjoy a snack without gaining weight.

An Arizona woman built a 7-foot replica of the Statue of Liberty out of 1,500 Dorito chips as she entered a competition worth $250,000.

Gabby Whiting, 35, of Mesa, said she needed two weeks to build the chip-based replica of Lady Liberty -- she calls it Lady Chiperty -- in her garage, People reported.

The mother of four entered the Doritos Build It Bold Challenge, a contest celebrating America’s 250th anniversary. Contestants were tasked with building a U.S. monument using the flavored tortilla chips.

“I had to take lots of breaks to cool down or breastfeed or just be a mom in general,” Whiting told People. “There’s no way I could have done this without my husband. He believed in me and wanted to support this endeavor.”

The contest ended on July 31, but Doritos is still in the process of naming winners, according to the magazine.

Whiting, a content creator, used the opportunity to show her followers her first-ever sculpting adventure. She stacked 7-feet of foam and then covered it with Doritos, painting it with custom Dorito-colored paint she matched at a local Home Depot, People reported.

Whiting, who runs an at-home teeth-whitening business called Sunkist Smiles, had given birth to her fourth son four months earlier when she decided to enter the do-it-yourself contest.

“I have always loved DIYs, and this one seemed right up my alley,” Whiting told People. “I especially love competitions, so this felt like the perfect combination. And obviously, $250,000 would be life-changing for my family.”

Whiting said she originally considered the Lincoln Memorial as her project, but then discovered that it did not qualify under Dorito’s rules, according to the magazine.

Then she decided on the Statue of Liberty.

“To me, I was like, I gotta do something epic,” Whiting says. “It can’t be easy. It has to stand out. It has to make people say, ‘Wow!’”

Whiting had commitments to finish in her business, but she tackled the project with approximately two weeks before the competition closed.

She chronicled her construction of Lady Chiperty on her social media accounts. Whiting started carving the Statue of Liberty out of foam on July 17, giving her little time to get the project done.

“I wanted to show the good, the bad, the awkward and the moments where I had absolutely no idea what I was doing,” Whiting told People. “I think people connected with that because I wasn’t pretending I had everything figured out.”

Whiting needed only nine bags of Doritos to pull off her sculpture, the magazine reported. There were five bags of Nacho Cheese Doritos on the base, four bags of Cool Ranch on Lady Liberty’s body and a handful of Sriracha chips for the flame.

She believed that the entire project -- including the chips, foam, glue sticks and other accessories -- cost her approximately $528.

That amount did not include “all the Circle K Diet Coke runs that kept me alive through the process,” she joked.

In a video she posted after completing the project, Whiting said she had no sleep over the final 48 hours before the deadline. She also did a random Q&A, answering questions from people who follow her on social media.

“Am I still married? Yes I am,” she said. “He still love me, you know. ...”

The Doritos “taste exactly how my house smells,” she added.

“If I don’t win ... I don’t want to even think about it,” she said. “I love a good competition. You know, if I don’t win, I’m gonna be so happy for the other people that win. I’ll be so happy for them.

“You guys want to Dorito to take home?” she asks at the end of the video.

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