RED CHRISTMAS: wood crafts week

Welcome to Wood Crafts Week!

Okay, I decided that I couldn't wait until next month to do something besides sewing. So this week I welcome you to a whole week of wood crafts . . . wowzers! (Check out the excessive use of the letter "w" in that sentence.)

Since January I've been blogging about crafts I've been working on that I will be giving my kids for Christmas 2010. However, I've also been working on some other crafts on the side. I'm in the process of making two fabric doll houses that I will be giving them for Easter. Check out some of the details on the houses I'm working on.

These two doll houses have been a crazy amount of work. Right about now you're saying to yourself, "What does this have to do with wood crafts?" I'm getting there.

As I was in the process of making the doll houses, I was inspired to make some dolls to live in these cute little bungalows. I wandered aimlessly around Hobby Lobby - on one of my super rare trips there - hoping to be inspired by something. Lo and behold . . . I found little wooden people. I also found wood bobbins and little wood balls. I figured I could paint the wooden people and/or glue the bobbins and balls together to make people. However, after working so hard on the little houses, I decided to go the incredibly easy peasy route that did not involve using glue and waiting for it to dry.

First, let me say that I realize I'm not the first person in the history of crafting to do this. I don't claim to be original. Obviously, if someone makes these little wooden people, they expect people to paint them. So take this little tutorial as a starting point to create your own unique masterpieces, but there are probably a plethora of other great ideas and tutorials in blogs across the web.

What you need to get your hands on before you begin:

acrylic paint in a variety of colors
paint brushes in different sizes and stiffness
paint markers in medium and fine point
wood people in various sizes
toothpicks (not pictured)
modge podge (not pictured)- if you don't have modge podge on hand, another nontoxic paint sealer would work

1) Choose skin color and paint two or three coats on head and neck. (I recommend doing a variety of skin colors - dark, light, in between. That way your little dolls reflect the beauty of all sorts of people.) The number of coats will depend on the skin color you choose. Let each coat dry before painting the next.

2) Paint main body. Again, count on doing at least two coats - possibly three depending on the color you choose. Let each coat dry thoroughly before adding the next otherwise you will be dealing with yucky clumping of paint. I learned this the hard way. I'm impatient, so it's REALLY hard for me to wait for anything - especially paint drying. But in this case, waiting is totally worth it.

3) Add hair. I kept the hair pretty simple as you can see from these pictures, but you could experiment with painting ponytails or curls using different colored swirls of paint. I'm sounding like a broken record here, but you will need at least two coats for the hair as well. And yes, let the first coat dry before adding the second.

4) Add body details. There are endless options here. Probably the three most useful tools for this stage in the wood-person-painting process are the following:

toothpicks - Use these to add the fine dots you see in the floral pattern on my people or the details on the pants. Toothpicks would also be great for adding facial features - which I didn't do. I was planning too, but when I looked at my little people, I liked the idea of leaving the facial features open to the imagination of my girls. If it freaks them out too much to have faceless people, I'll paint on some facial features later.
fine-tipped/medium-tipped paint markers and permanent markers - Also, great for adding details, but gives the option of wider lines and larger details. If you wanted to paint on arms, paint markers would be a great tool for that. The medium-tipped paint markers draw on a pretty thick line, so don't plan on using these for little dots, fine lines or other intricate details. Permanent markers, like Sharpies, are wonderful for drawing designs on clothes.
q-tips - These weren't included on my list of supplies; however, I brought them in mid-project to wipe away little, or more accurately in my case - huge mistakes. Do it quickly though; acrylic paint dries fast. And obviously the permanent marker route leaves no room for mistakes. I ended up having to paint about three more coats of body paint over a major permanent marker mistake, so use with caution.

5) Seal the entire doll with modge podge or another nontoxic paint sealer. I actually did two coats of this as well.