halloween peg dolls

This was my first attempt at peg dolls after seeing a few around on the interwebs. Originally I wanted to use them to make Ella a kid friendly nativity for Christmas (which is only 2 months away, eek!). After doing some research on peg dolls, I decided I should try my hand at something less detailed then the three wise men and baby Jesus. It would be a shame to mess up baby Jesus on my first try, don't ya think?

I stumbled upon this great blogger and her awesome walkthrough on the basics of painting peg dolls while doing my research.  I knew nothing of how to get started with these little pegs, so a big thanks goes out to her lovely tutorial on how to get started with halloween peg dolls.

I ordered my wooden peg dolls from Hobby Lobby online. I used the 2 5/16 inch" Birch Man peg for these. They also sell a smaller 1 11/16" Birch Boy which I ordered to use for baby Jesus. 

As you can see Ella loves them. They're just the perfect size for her tiny hands.

This little guy is my favorite. His pointy little teeth and cape, so cute. Very Twilight-esque if you ask me. Hm, Twilight themed pegs....I could be onto something. 

The great thing about pegs are that you can decide how much detail you want to add to them. I added some stitches to Frankenstein and a drip of blood to Mr. Vampire. Feel free to go all out or keep them simple and plain. This being my first time, I kept them fairly simple.

I used regular old cheap Folk Art craft paints. After everything was good and dry (I let them dry overnight after they were all finished) I sealed them with 3 coats of Modge Podge Hardcoat. I wanted then to stand up to the heavy wear and tear of 2.5 year olds.

These have opened a door wide open! I've already had about 30 ideas for other peg dolls, and have started working on Ella's nativity. I will warn you, they can be a little time consuming depending on your level of perfectionism, but the end product is SO worth it!

{mustaches & babies}

So, I've finally finished sewing something I can't wait to share! I've found thus far that dressing a little girl is pretty easy. Pink, ruffles, bows, frills, ya know...all that girly stuff. The selection of items that are wonderfully made for girls is huge. But what about little boys? I'm always on the lookout for something unique and fun for little Mr.'s...that's why I designed and made a boat load of these.

Yep, it combines two very boy friendly aesthetics, wood grain and mustaches. It's faux bois wood print {thank you Joel Dewberry} on one side while the other is soft brown corduroy. On the front is a corduroy appliquéd mustache. Pretty manly if you ask me. You can find them here for sale in the shop.

Oh, and while were on a mustache kick around here...

{Ruby}

A good friend of mine and his adorable wife are about to have their first baby! They decided on Ruby as the name, and as a gift I made them a custom set of baby blocks. 

After they were done, I packaged them with pink paper flowers, striped string, and cloud tissue paper over laid with wax paper. They turned out adorable and I can't wait for little Ruby to see them!