Worth the Effort

You know me and my crafty side (or lack thereof).  It 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.  I know when I describe them to JDubbs, his mind starts cataloging the many ways that one of these crafts could go very wrong, but I just don't think that way.  I may be naive, but with naivete comes a general hopeful expectation that all will go well.  I'd rather be pleasantly surprised every now and then than to expect the worst all the time.  So, as I say, sometimes our crafts are worth the effort, and sometimes not so much, but I almost always learn a valuable lesson from them nonetheless.  Ah, have the paper towels ON the table.  Got it.  Don't open the door with a mountain of snow on the other side and expect it won't pour in.  I'll remember that for next time.  Let the paint popsicles defrost at room temperature for a while rather than submerging them in warm water, and thus, melting them.  I see.  Lessons learned.

Therefore, all crafts are worth the effort, really.  Kids have fun, we gain experience and with it, knowledge.  But I found a craft the other day here:


and just had to give it a try.  It looked completely manageable and her daughter's pleasure was enviable.  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.

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 should I 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 Em decided to use one as a teether.  Gluesticks mom Brandy has a toddler, not a baby, so she used acryllic 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, 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:

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.  (JDubbs was actually impressed with my hairstyles; they were all slightly different and Justin Beiberish).  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 disfunctional 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!

(Submitted these to Home Sweet Farm, Paisley Passions, http://www.stuff-and-nonsense.net/,  Truly Lovely, Tatertots and Jello, Fantastic Friday, Make It Yours, http://www.atthepicketfence.com/  and Be Different, Act Normal!)