Anyone else’s kids obsessed with those YouTube videos where people open eggs or nesting dolls with toys inside? Mine are. I really don’t get it, but have to admit that I do enjoy them being distracted for a while so I can get something done (like folding laundry and putting it away without it being tipped over or carried away). I take solace in the fact that it isn’t just my kids, otherwise there wouldn’t be so freakin many of the videos.
My youngest daughter has always been obsessed with eggs. She loves the toy ones, and given any opportunity will even take real ones. It’s not so much fun (for us) when she finds out what’s inside those. I have this box of plastic Easter eggs that she goes nuts for. My older daughter likes them too (just not to the same extreme) so I got the “brilliant” idea to paint some nesting dolls for them. Yea, I’m sooooo smart lol.
I do sort of enjoy painting. I’ve done a few murals (with lots of help from google images and printouts lol). I’ve even done a few small canvases with cartoonish images. When I saw some blank nesting dolls online I ordered some and promptly put them aside when trying to paint with littles around proved a little stressful (seeing as how our kitchen table serves as a crafting area in our house). But the girls love for those videos prompted me to decide to give it a go.
That was a part of a mural I did for my son back in 2009. It was kind of a land, sea, and sky thing. I asked him to pick an animal for each part. The last one was an eagle. Lots of picture printing and tracing and checking for line placement went on there. Lots.
With the nesting dolls I didn’t want to trace anything, the shape is wonky and some of them are so small, and therefore didn’t want to do anything overly complicated. I am by no means an artist. Can’t really draw, but I can look off of one picture and paint the proper-ish colours and trace stuff lol.
My first nesting doll painting was a set of penguins. Again I went to trusty Ol’ Google for some image searches for something basic that I could do. Aside from having almost zero talent I also didn’t have much in the way of acrylics. I think these are my favourite ones so far (even if one is pink lol).
For my second go, I went with owls. You might have to read that they’re owls to tell, I dunno, but I was pretty proud of myself regardless. Thank goodness for paint markers for the small stuff.
The third (and last) set that I painted is the set that my girls have to play with. I used Yo Gabba Gabba characters as inspiration as that’s one of the shows they like and I could model the characters without having to use too much detail. My girls call them eggs. They really love them and play with them pretty much everyday … And lose one or two of them everyday. But thems the breaks with small toys mixed with a two year old and four year old. I roll my eyes at them and question why I thought it was a good idea to make these for them sometimes, but when I see how excited my two year old especially gets, o can’t help but smile and feel good at the fact that I had a hand in that.
I have two more blank sets with no plans for yet. I’ll take them out someday when the urge to paint strikes me, or when I come across something I’d like to try to put on them.
Comfy/Cozy/Warm 