It’s time for another Craft Corner Tutorial! This week, join me in welcoming the fabulous Becky from Rub Some Dirt On It. Her blog is adorable! You will so want to check it out! And today she is going to be sharing with us how to make Wooden Peg Dolls! These are super cute and a great craft to keep your little one occupied on these hot afternoons. Be sure to stop by Becky’s blog and show her some love! Now, take it away Becky!
Since you don’t know me that well, I’ll fill you on a little secret: I am not naturally crafty.
My crafty side has great intentions but seems to sabotage itself every now and then.
I don’t put a lot of forethought into my crafts; I tend to be spontaneous. Therefore, all
my crafts have to be worth the effort. I found a craft the other day at Gluesticks and just had to give it a try. It looked
completely manageable and her daughter’s pleasure was enviable. Wooden peg dolls! I
wanted my kids to play happily with homemade wooden dolls, too!
So I went to JoAnn Fabrics and bought these little wooden peg dolls and cups in their unfinished wood
section. Cost me less than ten bucks.
Something else to consider:
Should you let your toddler help you paint them? The easy answer is Yes! Let them
experiment with all things artsy and beautiful! The other easy answer is Heck no!
Are you insane? I think my current answer to that question is yes, let them
paint one cup and then make sure you have a spouse, friend, or family member around to haul
them straight to the tub because they will be a freakin mess.
But not too big for dollies!
section. Cost me less than ten bucks.
Then, I just straight up copied what the mom from Gluesticks did, because although I have great intentions, I don’t have many artistic bones in my body. So since hers looked super cute, I figured I’d just follow in her artsy footprints.
Things to consider:
What type of paint to use? Well,
how old are your kids? I had a ton of fingerpaint at home, so that’s what I decided to go
with. I knew it was Crayola non-toxic so it would be no big deal during the painting process or if my one-year-old daughter Em decided to use one as a teether. Gluesticks mom Brandy has a toddler, not a baby, so she used acrylic paint and a spray paint layer to seal it all up. I asked about such spray paints at JoAnns, and they weren’t too keen on the idea of letting a baby suck on wooden dolls shellacked in spray paint (neither was I, obviously), so I just decided it would be worth it to make sure that the dolls were mouth-friendly in case they did make their way into Em’s mouth (which they inevitably would and already have). This caused her mouth to turn green and washed away a bit of the paint. Solution? None yet, but I’ll just try to keep them away from her; otherwise I’ll be repainting them after she sucks the fingerpaint off. For me, better than worrying that Jax may accidentally share one with her, especially since I’m always begging him to share with her anyway. Too much to think about and mixed signals. Keep it simple.
So I went with fingerpaint. Maybe not the best solution, but it is what it is. Fingerpaint
doesn’t go on as smoothly as other types of paint, so be prepared to do a few coats if you are going for craftaliciousness. I just go for get ‘er done and let’s paint the darn things.
Something else to consider:Should you let your toddler help you paint them? The easy answer is Yes! Let them
experiment with all things artsy and beautiful! The other easy answer is Heck no!
Are you insane? I think my current answer to that question is yes, let them
paint one cup and then make sure you have a spouse, friend, or family member around to haul
them straight to the tub because they will be a freakin mess.
Crafting with friends (and
cocktails) is always more fun, anyway. And you will want to keep painting since you went to
all the effort to get all the stuff together and ready, so best be able to hand the kids off to someone else
when they look like this:
cocktails) is always more fun, anyway. And you will want to keep painting since you went to
all the effort to get all the stuff together and ready, so best be able to hand the kids off to someone else
when they look like this:
Proud but filthy. That is why I did this in the lull between dinner and bedtime. He was
getting in the bath anyway, so no extra work for the parents.
Okay, so kids are now in bed. You can now focus and actually finish this darn thing, which has become more work than you realized you were signing up for.
This may seem obvious to you, but it wasn’t to me so I’ll just tell you which way I found to be the simplest to paint these. Stick a finger in, paint the bottom and sides, then top, then inside last from above. That way you won’t have to touch parts that have already been painted. Probably pretty obvious, but it took me three cups to figure that one out. I’ll just save you the trouble.
Then you can paint the dolls however you’d like. Save yourself the trouble of painting their faces and just let their faces be wood-colored. I used colored pencils to draw the face and a few blobs of brown paint for the hair.And viola!
Eight new friends with eight little homes.
I finished them that night and Jax was psyched to find them on the kitchen table the next
morning. He said, “Our dollies!” and then “They are so cool!” Wow, he’s getting
big.
But not too big for dollies!
So final consensus is that this was the messiest and most labor-intensive craft I’ve done yet (meaning it just took the longest, but mostly because I had cheap paint and paintbrushes and because I did multiple layers of paint and the dots). Probably could have been quicker if I didn’t let Jax help or if I was more truly crafty, but my slightly dysfunctional craftiness makes it fun and I’m glad Jax got to help. I’m doing this for them, not me, anyway.
I say give it a try, and please let me know how it goes if you do! I think this would be a lovely gift for a holiday or birthday–Jax loves playing with them at the table while I prepare his lunch or dinner. And he is definitely not a dollie kind of guy. He really just loves sorting them and putting them in and out of their homes. I think any kid would really like them and they are definitely worth the effort!
Hooray! I'm glad you like them
Thank for letting me guest post for you! I hope you get some good feedback from these and let me know if you give them a try!
Those are adorable!!
I'm stopping by from the Super Stalker Sunday Blog Hop!! I'm so glad you joined us this 4th of July weekend to do a little stalking around! I hope you and your family are having a wonderful holiday!!
Be sure to come join us again next weekend for more stalking fun!! Have a Happy 4th!!
Kortney @ Kortney's Krazy Life
What an awesome idea! My kiddos would love this!
Janice
Celebrating Family
Aww, your boys are so cute! Looks like they had a blast! I'm visiting from the Super Stalker Blog Hop and the Finding New Friends hop and am your follower.
I'd love it if you'd follow me too at my new blog Why We Love Green at http://whywelovegreen.blogspot.com
What a cute idea!!
I found your blog through the Not so Moody Monday blog hop. I'm at It's the Thought that Counts.
Those are so cute! New Follower from MM blog hop.
http://andthelittleonestoo.com