New Year's crafts are always nice. Let's start decorating the Christmas tree decoration made of plywood. The main materials for work are a decoupage napkin with images of gnomes and New Year's gifts, a plywood blank in the shape of a ball, and a kitchen openwork napkin. All this can be purchased at special craft stores.
What options for creating Christmas tree decorations with your own hands on the eve of the holidays cannot be found on the Internet. These are products made from paper, from threads and glue, from felt, from corrugated paper and old newspapers. In general, there are a lot of materials for making such crafts and, if you have a specific diagram at hand, then in the end everything will be done quickly and easily. In this material we will give options on how to make New Year's toys from plywood; templates will help you make beautiful New Year's decorative elements with your own hands.
If you want to make stylish and beautiful New Year's toys from plywood, you should find high-quality templates and download them in advance. A large number of different templates that are suitable for these purposes can be found directly in this material and immediately downloaded to your computer from here, so that you can then print it on a printer for work or transfer it directly from the screen to a piece of paper. This wooden decor looks original, and the design is interesting and unusual.
Today, wooden toys for decorating a Christmas tree are rather a rarity. But once upon a time, these were the types of decorations that were most often used for Christmas decorations. Unfortunately, wood was replaced by plastics, but even now, despite all the variety of possible options for New Year's crafts, plywood toys still occupy their own special niche.
Advantages of plywood for making toys
Ready-made drawings of plywood toys can be downloaded from this material, but if you are still wondering why you should choose this particular material, then it’s time to cite important advantages. First of all, Christmas decorations made of plywood are extremely rare today, which means they are stylish and incredibly original. This Christmas tree decoration will definitely not be found anywhere else and will be one of a kind.
I would also like to note that wooden Christmas tree decorations allow you to decorate the Christmas tree to your liking. Even a child can practice such skill, and the process itself, not to mention the result, brings a huge amount of positive emotions and vivid impressions. This decor will be relevant for many years in a row. It is suitable not only for decorating a New Year's beauty, but also for doors and windows, as an independent exclusive gift to loved ones.
Another advantage of this decor, which cannot be ignored, is its durability. Do-it-yourself plywood toys do not break when hit or dropped. They retain their shape even in the most difficult stressful situations, where plastic or glass would have failed long ago.
What you need for needlework
This is not the most common type of handicraft, as already noted, so you need to carefully prepare for the work in advance. In particular, you need a sheet of plywood (you can buy it, you can take scraps of cut sheets that were used in construction).
Also, to work, you must have a jigsaw, manual or electric, on hand. You will also need a drill with a set of drills and sandpaper. Plus, to bring the toy to life, you need to buy acrylic paints and acrylic varnish in advance. As additional decor, you can safely use paper, scraps of tinsel, satin ribbons and even ready-made New Year and Christmas images.
Master class on creating a toy
First, we prepare the blank for decoration. Take white POLYCOLOR acrylic paint and a large foam sponge. Dip the sponge into the paint and smoothly swab it over the workpiece. The paint should be applied evenly to both sides of the plywood. If necessary, apply two or three coats of paint.
When the surface is dry, sand the plywood with a piece of fine-grit sandpaper. The workpiece must be absolutely flat - this is the main condition for decorating a Christmas tree decoration.
Remove the top layer from the napkin and tear out the fragments with gnomes. There should be a white paper field around each figure.
Now you can do decoupage on the prepared plywood surface. Place a piece of napkin with a gnome on one side of the ball. Using a small brush with soft bristles, dip into acrylic varnish (HOBBY LINE was used), and then gently brush over the top on a napkin. The varnish will quickly saturate the paper and it will stick to the workpiece. So, the varnish will perform two functions: both decoupage glue and protective varnish. After the varnish has dried, glue the fragment to the other side of the workpiece in the same way.
Next, we create lace details on the plywood Christmas tree decoration. We place a kitchen openwork napkin on top of the decoupage so that you can visually imagine where to make the drawing (you can move the napkin until you like the location). Using acrylic contours of various colors, place dots in the holes of the napkin.
Choose the color of the contours to your taste, taking into account compatibility with the overall composition (HOBBY LINE, MARABU, and DECOLA were used). Such a dotted ornament can be placed over the entire surface of the Christmas tree decoration, or only along one edge.
When the dot painting is dry on both sides, open the decoupage with glossy acrylic varnish. Apply several layers of varnish and dry each thoroughly.
Place a ribbon or thick thread into the hole in the blank and hang the plywood toy on the Christmas tree. Dwarfs with gifts rush to the New Year with
If your new hobby is sawing out various decorative elements, burning or carving wood, then our advice would be to start with a material such as plywood.
There are several significant reasons for this:
Plywood is quite easy to work with.
If you have a good tool in your hands and you start with small figures, then making them will only take you a couple of hours.
The material is universal in use, so you can make literally anything you want from it: furniture, toys, small decorative elements.
All this can be a wonderful addition to the interior of your home.
Features of working with the material
What is a plywood sheet? It consists of several sheets of veneer, which are connected to each other using glue.
Important: plywood can be of different types: based on beech, birch, pine.
Not only the quality of the finished product, but even its structure and color depends on which sheet you choose.
If you are going to cut out various figures using a jigsaw, then you need to choose the highest quality types of plywood.
They are particularly durable, which ensures that the plywood will not crack, ruining the entire appearance of the product at the most unpredictable moment.
If you are going to start working immediately, immediately on the day of purchase, then choose only dry sheets of wood.
They won't break the jigsaw blade every 10 minutes.
To work with plywood, you will need to acquire a number of tools.
In principle, they are always the same for all types of products, so you only need a one-time investment:
- Jigsaw
- Jigsaw files
- Hand or electric drill
- Ruler
- Grinding machine
- Burner.
Framework
If you want to beautifully decorate your home or give an original gift to someone close to you, make a plywood frame with your own hands.
The preparation process will not take you much time, because you just need to get the necessary materials.
Note!
They are standard for all cases, and we have already mentioned them before.
We will offer you master classes on light plywood crafts. You can make either a regular straight frame or plan various patterns and figures on it.
First you need to make a template, and after that you can cut it out, trace the contours with a pencil on the plywood and begin the manufacturing process.
This stage is not only the most responsible, but also the most exciting. If you put a piece of your soul into your work, everything will definitely work out. The finished structure must be opened with varnish. Ready!
Doll furniture
This task will be a real test for parents.
Note!
The so-called test of acquired design skills.
The peculiarity of creating doll furniture is that children do not tolerate falsehood at all.
If they see that the furniture is not worked out in detail, and instead of a kitchen stove for your favorite doll you brought an ordinary rectangular block, then you simply cannot avoid serious grievances and childhood disappointments.
The second feature of making such a craft from plywood using a jigsaw is that all this furniture must be carefully worked out with sandpaper or a grinding machine.
Your child will constantly come into contact with these self-made toys, and if the edges are poorly processed, they may get hurt.
Note!
Well, the last feature of crafts made from plywood and the house is that the materials for such furniture must be absolutely non-toxic and normal for constant contact with the child, because he can drag it into his mouth or take it to bed with him.
This is not a simple applique or paper craft, so you need to take the matter seriously, following a whole list of actions that need to be completed.
Carrying out work from plywood
Just as simple furniture is made in detail and then assembled into one piece of furniture, do-it-yourself plywood crafts should be done separately.
To do this, first of all, prepare special drawings of plywood crafts, on which you will specify the dimensions of all parts and their fastenings.
Take a ready-made plywood sheet and attach a paper part template to it.
Trace the part with a pencil and plan out the outline with a jigsaw.
After this, each part must be cleaned with sandpaper or a grinding machine and only then the piece of furniture must be assembled.
When you are done with the entire set, open it with varnish.
Below are different options and photos of plywood crafts. Choose the one you like.
Photos of plywood crafts
Why you should get a plywood toy for your Christmas tree
Home collections are mostly filled with modern plastic decorations that are bought every year, or antique glass balls and figurines that our mothers and grandmothers used to decorate Christmas trees in childhood. Christmas decorations made of plywood are almost never found.
Why you should get a couple of toys made from plywood sheets:
- Original handmade jewelry will not be found anywhere else;
- Possibility to decorate the Christmas tree to your liking;
- A reason to practice crafts and make a toy with your own hands, an opportunity to keep your child busy and spend time together;
- A new product every day;
- A lot of positive emotions from the result.
Christmas tree decorations do not lose their relevance for several seasons: they are not only used to decorate a tree, but also hung on walls, doors, and given to each other. Crafts can also be made specifically for gifting or selling to those wishing to receive exclusive New Year's attributes.
Making crafts with your own hands
As already mentioned, making your own jewelry is much more valuable than acquiring ready-made standard toys. This is a completely simple process; all you need is to acquire the necessary materials, tools and use your imagination.
Why do we choose plywood sheets as a material for Christmas tree decorations:
- You can use old scraps of sheets used for construction;
- Crafts can be of any size;
- Christmas tree decorations made of plywood do not break or break, and can be safely given to children.
So let's get started.
Preparing the workplace and tools
In order to make a Christmas tree decoration with your own hands, we will use a small workbench or, in extreme cases, a kitchen table, previously covered with thick oilcloth. To avoid damaging the tabletop, we recommend placing a plywood sheet on it.
For cutting you will need:
- Manual or electric jigsaw (whichever is available);
- Drill with a set of drills;
- Fine sandpaper;
- To securely fix the fragments, it is ideal to use hot glue from an electric gun. As a last resort, prepare wood glue and PVA;
- Acrylic paints and clear varnish for fixing from the same material;
- Decorations: paper, beads, polyethylene crumbs, scraps of tinsel and satin ribbons, foil, ready-made images of New Year and Christmas themes - this item is limited only by your imagination.
Option 1: regular Christmas tree decoration
Ordinary Christmas tree decorations made of plywood are flat, in the form of various fairy-tale characters, traditional New Year's attributes and heroes. To accurately and accurately cut out the desired outline, prepare image templates in advance. They can be drawn on paper or downloaded from the Internet, printed and cut out.
- Transfer the image to a plywood sheet - trace the template.
- Armed with a jigsaw, cut out the toy along the drawn contour. There are no problems when working with an electric tool; the process goes smoothly even for an inexperienced student.
With a hand jigsaw it is more difficult: the file must be directed strictly along the contour so that the hand does not tremble and the blade does not jump off and cut off excess. For mechanical tools, prepare replacement files in advance.
- Use a drill to drill a hole in the top of the toy.
- Use sandpaper to sand the cut areas, focusing on the resulting chips.
- Now for the artwork. If Christmas tree decorations are supposed to be items of natural wood color, then skip this point. If you want to create a completely decorative look, cover the blank with white acrylic enamel - it will become the background for future decorations. When the layer is dry, paint the main design.
- If you don’t want to paint the craft yourself, glue a finished picture cut out of paper or cardboard to the blank. For fixation, use PVA glue diluted with water in a ratio of 1:1.
- Volumetric decoration stage. Beads, decorative snow, tinsel, foil come into play - everything that your imagination can handle. Fix these decorations with hot glue or transparent wood glue. Finally, cover the surface of the craft with acrylic varnish to fix the result.
- Thread a satin rope into the hole and tie a knot or a beautiful bow - the toy for decorating the spruce is ready.
Option 2: Volume decoration
By this concept we mean Christmas tree decorations made of several parts or those that can be placed.
Making composite Christmas tree crafts with your own hands is no more difficult than flat ones; on the contrary, the process becomes more exciting.
- We take the same base material and transfer the template to it.
- For complex products, we mark the holes according to the diagram.
- We cut out the outline and clean up the edges.
- We connect the fragments. If the toy is flat and composite, we use ribbons or nylon threads for connection, which we tie into strong double or triple knots. If the toy is on a support, we work with the blanks according to the instructions, for example, we insert the parts into each other.
- The decoration of individual fragments can be done immediately after preparing individual elements or after assembly. In any case, the workpiece is subject to the same processing as a flat toy: enamel, picture, drawing, three-dimensional decor, varnish fixation.
Volumetric Christmas tree decorations made of plywood can be used not only for hanging on New Year's trees, but also as an independent toy for a child as a gift.
A homemade item, especially one made of wood, can keep a child occupied for a longer time than modern expensive toys, and interest in it remains for a longer time. This is another argument in favor of the fact that it is useful to make products from plywood.
Garland
Christmas tree beads are an element as important as the toys themselves. This also includes elegant garlands for a tree or room. They can also be made from plywood using the same principle as described above.
Some tips:
- The garland for the Christmas tree should be made in a simple form so that the decoration fits organically into the overall composition. Choose flags, circles and other simple shapes. This will help save time - there will be a lot of elements for cutting and decorating.
- Use satin ribbons and decorative ropes to connect the elements so that the appearance of the product remains solemn.
- To fix the fragments on the rope, tie knots at the location of the element. This way it will maintain its position no matter how inclined the thread is.
- Make loops at the ends of the rope to make it easy to hang the garland.
What are the results
A couple of hours of work, satisfaction from the perfect process and pleasure from the result - all the emotions in a plywood toy. Add the attention of household members and guests to a hand-made product and success is guaranteed. Handmade products never go out of fashion; they are passed down from generation to generation, carrying with them a piece of memory. Have you ever seen such a set of values and emotions contained in a mass-produced plastic toy?
And so, to begin with, we chose several blanks made of 3 mm thick plywood with a New Year theme. We chose a pendant in the shape of a Christmas tree with the symbols of 2018 - a dog and a Christmas tree toy in the shape of a ball with a New Year's house.
Before we start painting with acrylic paints, we sand the surface of each workpiece with fine-grain sandpaper in one direction. At the same time, we are thinking about the design of our blanks and painting the flowers.
For work we will need the following materials and tools:
-
acrylic paints Luch or TURY Design (for children's creativity you can use gouache or tempera, then the finished blanks are varnished)
acrylic varnish (when using acrylic paints in painting blanks, then they do not need to be varnished)
wooden blank from plywood 3mm
sponge or sponge
small roller (with replaceable attachments)
synthetic brushes of different sizes
sanding sponge (zero sandpaper)
The process of painting blanks
Having prepared all the necessary tools and materials and thoroughly sanded the surfaces of our blanks, we proceed directly to painting. We did not pre-prime the surfaces, since this was not required to implement our idea. However, if you work with thick paint or use a texture paste, it is better to prime the product, because in the future this will prevent cracking and peeling of the paint or texture layer.
In the painting we used the following colors: metallics - gold, silver, mother-of-pearl; primary colors – white, burgundy (rich cold red), scarlet (bright red warm, rich orange warm), brown (light, warm), emerald (rich blue-green cold), ultramarine (rich blue cold).
We start with a plywood blank in the shape of a Christmas tree with the symbol of 2018 - a dog. Using a roller, apply metallic or pearl color to one side.
After drying, apply one of the primary colors listed earlier to the other side, sometimes diluting it with white (emerald and ultramarine).
Using light strokes of a dry brush, we apply a “blizzard” effect using white and metallic colors on both sides of our product. In the end it should look like this:
This product can become an independent gift - a toy, a set of toys for the New Year tree or a souvenir, as well as a decoration element in the design of your gifts.
We move on to decorating a Christmas tree toy (souvenir) in the shape of a ball with a New Year's house. The painting process occurs alternately on each side. Be sure to dry each stage of paint application. We start painting with white - snowflakes and smoke from a chimney.
Next, apply emerald color to the Christmas tree. After drying, we paint the stylized spruce branches in a lighter tone (add a little white to the emerald), then apply an even lighter tone, imitating frost or snow on the branches. At the same time, we paint the house with light brown color.
We give the products time to dry. We proceed to further painting and draw the details of the house in a light tone. We begin to paint the bow with scarlet color. We paint the edges of the “ball” with metallic gold. We complement the finished painting with shimmering highlights (pearl paint and silver metallic).
So, our preparations are ready. And now that they have been so transformed, they will become a wonderful gift for your loved ones, family and friends.