Who knew you could make dolls out of wooden pegs?

Well I must not have, because when I did see these adorable crafts on Pinterest they were an immediate “must try” item for me. I guess peg dolls weren’t something I had really thought about before. I love their simplicity and variety, but most of all they’re whimsical!I was glad it was almost Thursday, because the girls I watch once a week during the summer would be coming over soon. A couple of quick trips to the craft store and I was ready. I always try out my projects for the girls the night before so I’ll know if they are even going to turn out.

I tried making a tiger. Everything was going great until I tried to do his stripes and his legs. Don’t laugh, but he later became a penguin. (You’ll see!)I tried to make some little stands to attach the dolls to so we wouldn’t get paint all over our hands. The idea was, you should be able to just affix the doll to the cardboard base with a screw. That didn’t work, because those peg dolls are made of really hard wood, and I couldn’t find my drill bits…I tried using (vintage) wooden spools as a base, which worked okay. I only managed to drill holes in a few of the pegs, but we discovered that we could stick them to the spools with sticky tabs used for hanging pictures. Did I mention that this is a DIM (Did It Myself) and not a DIY blog? Okay, just so we have that straight.

When the girls arrived, they were excited to get started, and immediately looked up photos of the dolls they wanted to create.

Meanwhile, I focused on painting over my “tiger” experiment.

Not bad, if I do say so myself! As an FYI, penguins are a lot easier to draw than tigers. Later I sprayed him with clear gloss and now he looks a lot shinier.The girls thought of using the fan in the living room to make our paint dry faster.

Simba from “Lion King” gets his ears.

Finishing touches for Piglet and Pooh.

Satisfied with my penguin, I then tried making Foster and Panda. They’re still  not finished, and it’s pretty safe to say they both might get turned into penguins before it’s all over.

The four “Lion King” figures were tied together with lace from the sewing room and made into a gift set.

We decided to try using colored pencils, as we had seen that on Pinterest as well. The pencils proved much easier to control than the paint brushes, and we were satisfied with the way our princesses turned out.

In all, we had a blast making our peg dolls. They were easy, fun, and whimsical, plus we made a huge mess. What more could we ask for?