Make a wooden spoon doll!

A wooden spoon doll is so easy to make and offers a chance to spend time together with mum (or grandma or a special aunt) – and she might even want to make one with you, too! Why not ask her about the special dolls she had growing up while you are making a wooden spoon doll? And afterwards, she might even bring one of her special dolls out for you to have a look (I think most mums, grandmas and aunts still have at least one doll tucked away in a cupboard - or at least a photo of them playing with one!).

Ask mum for a wooden spoon you can use - it may be one that is no longer good for cooking with, or a cheap one from a discount store (you can pick up wooden spoons in these types of shops for less than $1 each!).

You will also need:

• Sandpaper - fine grade
• Acrylic paint
• Paintbrush
• Jar of water for rinsing brushes
• Plate etc to mix paint on
• Newspaper to protect the table
• Pencil
• Fine tip marker in black and red
• Eraser
• Doily, hankie, serviette, fabric scraps etc for a dress
• Ribbon, lace, buttons
• Glue
• Needle and thread

Let's get started!

• Using some fine grade sandpaper, give the spoon a little rub to smooth the surface (that will make her nicer to play with). 
• Set up to do some painting: get a jar of water ready, something to mix paint on (an old plastic lid is good for this) and cover the table with newspaper.
• Mix some acrylic paint to make a skin colour - sometimes you can buy a skin coloured paint. Paint the front of the spoon, let it dry, then turn it over and paint the back of the spoon (that way you make sure you don't accidentally ruin her face because the paint hasn't quite dried properly!).

 

• When the paint is dry, you are now ready to make her face. To make it easier, you can download a face template here. 
• If you use the template, print it off, trace it onto greaseproof paper using a lead pencil, then place the greaseproof paper template face down onto the wooden spoon and trace over again. This should transfer the template to your wooden spoon.
• Otherwise, just use a pencil to mark out her face on your wooden spoon.

• Use a fine-tipped marker to outline her hair and facial features (eyes, mouth, cheeks), rub out the pencil lines and then fill them in with paint or marker. The smaller sections will be easier to do with a marker.
• From your selection of doilies, hankies, fabric scraps and so on, decide on what her clothes will be made from. We made a dress out of an old doily and then a little 'apron' dress over the top out of the corner of a piece of embroidered linen.

• To make the dress, cut a circle out of the centre of the doily.
• Thread a needle with some thread and stitch a running stitch all around the edge of the circle.
• When you get back to where you started, place your wooden spoon doll inside the hole, draw up both ends (starting and finishing) of the thread, and tie a knot or bow to secure it.

• Repeat for the 'apron' dress or anything else you want to put over the top of her dress.
• Or, attach some ribbon or lace with a small stitch or some glue, wrap the lace/ribbon back around to the front and stitch or glue it in place. We stitched around the top of the 'apron' dress just so it could hold up to being transported to workshops and being played with!

• Finish off with pieces of lace or a button, either glued or stitched in place at the front.

Now, have fun playing with your brand new doll!

Extra tips:

• Create dolls that represent girls from different nationalities - start with a more local area
• Make a wooden spoon doll to ‘replace’ an old doll you have chosen to give to a charity
• Just for mums and 'big people': there is value in a young girl making a doll herself. The doll she makes might represent the feelings she has at the time, it might be a reflection of one of her role-models, and she is able to develop some drawing and fine motor skills at the same time!

Get crafting! . . . a beautiful Christmas snowflake t-shirt!

This is our inaugural post for our blog, so we have a special Christmas craft for you. It celebrates the uniqueness of snowflakes, as well as making a great gift for someone else! 

Christmas is such a wonderful time of the year, and here in Australia, it is the end of the school year as well, so long holidays just add to the festive season! It means we have time to do craft and think of how we can be a blessing to others, in a special, Christmas-sy way! This is a fun craft to do with mum. Try upcycling an old t-shirt (which is what we did!) for a special friend as a Christmas gift, or wear it to get into the Christmas feel!

We've seem a number of similar t-shirts on the internet, but here's how we did ours!

It's so much easier to do a craft when you have everything with you, so take the time to collect all the bits and pieces you will need first. You'll need:

• a plain t-shirt
• paper doilies
• scissors
• paint (and textile medium)
• paintbrush
• pieces of material, ribbon, lace, crocheted doilies, buttons

The first thing you will need to make is snowflakes out of paper doilies.

• Snowflakes look best when they have six points, so fold the doily in half, then in half again (just to mark the centre of the first fold). Then fold it into three, using the centre point to keep the folds even. Shape the points of the snowflake by cutting out a piece or two. 
• Paper doilies are a bit plain in the middle of them, so cut out some half circles, diamonds or squares along both folds, to make the middle more 'lacey'. 
• Use different sized and patterned paper doilies for variety.

Mix your paint on the one plate, so you can have a few shades to work with easily. We used regular acrylic paint, and mixed it with a textile medium (according to the manufacturer's directions) so that it will be permanent on the t-shirt. Mix the textile medium in before you start mixing colours.

Place some newspaper inside the t-shirt to protect the back of the t-shirt and the table. Lay out the doilies in the pattern you want. Overlap some of them to keep the pattern more dense. If there is a part of the t-shirt you don't want to accidentally print, cover it with paper (we didn't want to print on the neckband, so we covered that up).

You can make your prints using a roller, but we found it just as easy to use a thick, round brush to 'dab' over the holes of the paper snowflakes. 

• Vary the shades of paint you use, by picking slightly different shades for each snowflake, and adding highlights on each snowflake, using your lightest shade. 
• You might find you need to lift a snowflake to print one that is partly underneath - just be careful that you lift it carefully so it doesn't smudge paint. 
• You could even add a little bit of glitter paint in some spots for a bit of extra sparkle!

Allow the paint to dry for 24 hours then give it an iron or set according to instructions on your paint. 

To add some more dimension and texture to your design, make a selection from your bits and pieces you gathered. Think of balancing your design, incorporating the same colours and shades. Play around with what you would like it to look like. You could even take a photo of this, so you can refer back to it as you sew it on.

We used simple stitches - mostly running stitch - to sew each piece on. 

• The crocheted doily has running stitch around its edges, while the ribbons were both attached on the inside of the t-shirt, and one was stitched right down the centre of it with running stitch.

You could even make a fancy little addition, like this little frilled button.

• Take a piece of lace and, starting with a knot at the end of your thread, stitch a small running stitch along the edge. 
• Pull it tight to gather it up, overlap the edges and anchor it to the t-shirt as you stitch a button in the middle.

 Add some buttons and ribbons . . .

And look at what you've made! Take a moment to appreciate your work, and give yourself a pat on the back! If you're making it as a gift, have a little thought about how the person you are giving it to, may feel when they open up their present (it's exciting, isn't it!). Maybe even take a minute to say a little prayer for them - that's a special gift, too!