A wood burned image of your child’s school picture is an easy and fun craft project for everyone whether you think you can draw or not! Using a simple piece of wood, your child’s school picture, and a wood burning tool, you can easily make your own wood burned children’s portrait for about $11.
This is also a great wood working craft project if you like to make crafts with your kids. You shouldn’t leave kids alone to work the wood-burning tool alone though!
To Make a Wood Burned Children’s Portrait You Will Need:
Sheet of plywood (you choose the size)
Wood burning tool
Wood burning tool tips
Wood Stain or Sealer
Pencil
Sheet of transfer or graphite paper
The first thing I like to do is choose a school photo of your child. Now, go ahead and have it photocopied to the size you want at Kinko’s.
Now, decide on a design. This means, do you want to add a boarder around the portrait, add your child’s name, or even engrave some fun patterns around the border.
Once you have the design try drawing it out on some paper.
Now, lay your sheet of graphite paper on the center of your board. Lay the photo copy of your child’s school photo on top.
You can transfer it to your wooden board with a sheet of graphite paper.
Tape it in place with painter’s tape. This holds your school photo in place while you work. No, trace the photo onto your board with a pen or sharp pencil. Try to capture the main details, like the shape of your child’s head, eyes, nose, mouth, and hair line. You will be surprised how these will all come together.
Remove the paper and you are ready to start wood burning your child’s portrait on the wood.
Plug your wood-burning tool in and let it heat up.
Now, use your pre drawn guidelines to start engraving your board. Simply trace out the design with the wood burning tool tip.
Now, start adding some more details free hand if you want!
Play around using different tips to create different looks. Just treat this like drawing on paper with a pencil.
Once you have completed applying the wood burning details you can move onto the next step of this wood burned portrait of your child.
Use a natural bristled paintbrush to apply a coat of wood stain to your child’s portrait. This will really make it have a finished look. It will also protect wood burn artwork for years to come.
Let the wood stain dry completely for twenty-four hours.
Now, you can install some picture hanging hook on the back of your artwork to hang it up!
Tips:
If you want to add paint color to the wood burn portrait of your child do it right after you have finished wood bringing. Then, let it dry. Once the paint is dry use the clear polyurethane.
You can buy great wood boards at almost any art supply store. They come with finished edges that have been mitered and look great. I see these all the time at Michael Arts and Crafts. You can buy them for as little as $10.99 all the way up to $19.99. They come in every shape from rectangle to octagon.
Now, if you want to save some money you can buy some birch plywood at the local home improvement store and have it cut to size. Use sand paper to smooth the edges of the checker board.
