Personalized Gift for Him or Her with a Woodburned Box

My simple explanation of woodburning is that you are basically drawing on wood with a hot pen.  You will need to purchase a woodburning tool for this craft project.  My woodburning tool is made by Walnut Hollow, and I am quite satisfied with it.  It came with different writing “points” (or tips, as I call them), as well as three ”points” that can be used to simply stamp the wood with the design of that particular tip.   It is important to note that the woodburning tool get VERY hot – 950 Farenheit/510 Celsius.  So if you were planning on doing this craft with kids, they are going to need to be old enough to handle the tool.  I also suggest you keep a glass of ice water next to your work surface (whether you are a kid or not), in case you accidentally burn yourself.

The only other two items you need for this craft project are (1) the wood item you’d like to woodburn (like a wooden box, see picture) and (2) a template of the design you want to burn into the wood.  That is what I love about woodburning; I can personalize the design to match the person receiving the gift.  The possibilities are endless. 

You can use stencils or other templates to trace the design onto the surface of the wood.  Once that is done, you simply trace over design with the woodburning tool.  It’s that simple.  If you are good at drawing, you can try woodburning a freehand design.  For most of us though, tracing over a template is the way to ensure the design turns out how we want it to look.

If you want to learn more techniques and tips, there are a number of good woodburning/pyrography books out there.  My number one tip is this: get a scrap piece of wood and practice using your woodburning tool to get the feel for it.  By doing this, you will really get a feel for how the tool moves across the wood, which is really helpful when you are doing your project.

Happy Crafting, 

AJ

Get “Atmosphere Lite Plus” for free today and create your own relaxation CDs for you for a unique ”handmade gift.”

Even though this isn’t a traditional computer crafting software that you are likely to read about on my blog, I thought you might enjoy being able to make your own relaxation CDs as “handmade gifts” for friends and family. There are many different sounds from which to choose, so you can customize the CD based on what you think the person would like (woodland sounds, ocean waves, etc.).

This might be a fun handmade Father’s Day gift to create for Dad, whether it would be relaxing for him to listen to during his commute to work or while working on the computer or while cooking…you get the idea. 

In these busy times we live in, giving the gift of relaxation to reduce stress and anxiety is a gift most people can use.  These CDs would make a great personalized gift for any occasion. 

Here is what the company says about its product: “Atmosphere Lite Plus is designed to help mask noise, promote relaxation or even to replace an entire collection of natural sound CDs. You can listen to the soundscapes in realtime or use the inbuilt recorder to create your own relaxation / ambient sound CDs or MP3s using the sounds you find most pleasing. There are several soundscapes included which can be loaded with one click from the main interface. However the real beauty of Atmosphere Lite Plus is the ability to customize these inbuilt soundscapes exactly to your liking, or create entirely new ones by adding individual sounds to a blank soundscape.”

It sounds like a lot of fun to me!

You can get your free software today only by clicking here.

Happy Crafting,

AJ