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