WhiMSy love: DIY: Woodland Animal Pin Dolls

Let me just start off by saying that I am new to the world of pin dolls. I bought some unpainted doll pins a couple of years ago, & they been sitting ever since, unopened in the original package, drowning in my pile of "Projects to Make/Finish/Repair". I had every good intention of wanting to paint some cute little dolls for my girls. But it never happened. Why? Well, I was intimidated at all the cutesy little crafty pin dolls I saw. Painting tiny things is not my cup of crafty tea. But then I thought, "What if I made ANIMAL dolls, instead of PEOPLE dolls?!" Ok, so it turns out that that's not an original idea.

But so what. I need stocking stuffer ideas & my daughter is completely smitten with woodland themed everything. (As is her mother.) These would be perfect.

Get yourself together, Nikki! You can do this!

And though this tutorial is not really an exact step-by-step, I want it to be encouraging to you to try something new. Pull out that project from your pile (you know the one I'm talking about) & get to crafting! I am SO happy with how the woodland animal pin dolls turned out. They're not perfect. But I did it.

Here are a few tips I learned along the way:

•Sketch out your design on paper first. Search the internet for inspiration on animal faces. (Or just copy mine! I tried to get some good angles so you could see every side.)

•Find some good tiny brushes. Seriously, tiny.

•Squirt out only a teeny bit of paint at a time. The more fresh the paint is, the better it will glide on. Even a tiny bit dried out, the paint gets gloppy. And it's frustrating to work with clumpy paint.

•If you make a mistake on the details, just remember you can paint over your mistakes with the base color. I did this. A lot.

•My eyes do not have the superpowers they used to have. Grab a lamp & shine that bad boy on your work surface.

•Don't drink coffee before starting this project. Jitters + details = a mess.