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The choice of decorations for the Christmas tree is based on the beauty and practicality of the products. On the eve of the holiday, there is often a desire to make them with your own hands. New Year’s plywood toys are practical, they are beautiful, and you can make them at home. If you use the prepared templates and drawings, the product will turn out worthy of any Christmas tree.
Plywood toys for the New Year: advantages and history of appearance
Christmas tree plywood toys have a number of advantages: practicality, aesthetics, environmental friendliness. Such products can be made with your own hands, in this case the toy will be unique and original.
The tradition of decorating a Christmas tree for the New Year was introduced by Peter I. In this regard, there was a need for Christmas tree decorations. In those days, sweets, gingerbread, candles, apples were hung on the symbol of the holiday. Later, rag toys appeared, made of papier-mâché, and then plywood and glass.
In the USSR, factory decorations were used to decorate Christmas trees
Christmas tree products of those times were made of glass. The fashion for handmade jewelry was revived only in the XNUMXst century. Needlework masters began to sew rag dolls, bake special New Year’s gingerbread cookies, and cut toys out of plywood.
The Christmas tree, decorated with handmade products, looks original, warm at home, brings back memories from childhood.
How to make Christmas toys from plywood with your own hands
Modern Christmas decorations are often made of plastic. This is not very good, since the composition of the material is not always safe for humans. Finding plywood toys for sale is not easy, but you can make them yourself at home.
Preparation of tools and materials
To make Christmas toys, you will need a special workbench. In the absence of such, a kitchen table is suitable. It should first be covered, preferably with a thick sheet of plastic or metal, so as not to damage the countertop in the process.
To cut plywood, you need to take a jigsaw (manual or electric), a drill with several drills of different diameters, sandpaper with the finest grain.
You will also need a dovetail tool.
The dovetail is attached to the edge of the desktop with a clamp
A jigsaw file easily enters the socket of such a “tail”, which allows you to work out small internal details and patterns. In industrial conditions, New Year’s toys are cut out of plywood with a laser.
It is recommended to glue small parts of Christmas tree decorations with carpentry or PVA glue. A special hot glue for crafts is also suitable. A glue gun is required to use it.
For the manufacture of Christmas tree decorations, you can take not a single sheet, but scraps of plywood. The size of the figurine will depend on the dimensions of the material.
Acrylic paints will be needed for painting a Christmas tree toy. The surface of the picture is covered with a glossy transparent varnish.
To decorate the product, you will need beads, tinsel, sparkles, colored ribbons. Decorations are selected according to your taste and imagination.
Templates and drawings for plywood Christmas toys
It will turn out to cut evenly and beautifully a Christmas tree toy if you use clear stencils. Simple drawings will help to correctly transfer the drawing to the sheet.
Simple stencils for plywood Christmas toys (for hanging toys)
These figurines are the easiest to make. They are flat, not three-dimensional. The difficulty lies only in cutting out small details.
A Christmas tree with an asterisk will become a real decoration of the New Year tree. It can be decorated with beads and sequins.
It is easy to work with a Christmas tree stencil, the cut is made only along the contour, and the internal details are simply drawn with paints.
The reindeer is a symbol of winter, cold, a fairy tale about the snow queen. A proud animal will perfectly decorate a Christmas tree in the New Year theme.
After cutting, the workpiece is polished and painted
Applying a stencil to a piece of plywood, cut out the workpiece. Such a product needs further processing.
The rocking horse is a popular toy for more than one generation of children. It can be made in a reduced form and hung on a Christmas tree.
The horse must be painted in bright colors and sprinkled with glitter.
Drawings for voluminous plywood Christmas toys
In addition to flat plywood Christmas decorations, you can design voluminous products. This decor will rotate on the Christmas tree, each of its sides looks good.
Separately, 2 identical parts of the Christmas tree are cut out, making slots for inserting them one into the other
The Christmas tree is assembled by gluing the joints of the figures.
If the toy is used in the form of a figurine, it must be glued to a round stand. In the product for decorating the Christmas tree, a small hole is made in the upper part. A thread is pulled into it, a loop is grabbed, a plywood decoration is attached to the Christmas tree.
A model of New Year’s toys made of plywood in the form of a ball pendant is an unusual, beautiful decor. But you need to work hard to create it.
The finished product is placed on a stand and used as an interior decoration.
If the stand is not made, you need to thread the top of the product and hang it on the Christmas tree.
Sawing New Year’s toys from plywood with a jigsaw
Templates and drawings are made of cardboard, they are outlined on plywood, cut out, coloring is carried out after careful processing with sandpaper.
You can print the template on a regular A4 sheet, and transfer the drawing to plywood using carbon paper.
The drawing on paper is cut along the contour, all internal details are selected, the resulting picture is glued to a sheet of plywood. This is the 3rd way to transfer the design to a hard surface. After processing with a jigsaw, the workpiece is cleaned with emery to remove the remnants of the glued pattern.
For work choose plywood 4 mm thick. As soon as a drawing is applied to its surface, work begins.
Algorithm of actions:
- Fix the plywood with a vise or hand.
- In the center of the picture, where hollow fragments should be obtained, several holes are made with a drill. This is necessary so that the jigsaw file penetrates the inside of the figure without a cut.
- A jigsaw file is inserted into the holes and they begin to work out the inside of the pattern, rotating a piece of plywood in a circle.
- As soon as the internal contours are cut out, they begin to process the external lines.
New Year’s toys made of plywood are also suitable for laser cutting. Then the blanks need to be processed with sandpaper, painted, coated with a colorless varnish.
Decoration of plywood Christmas toys
The blanks can be painted to your liking, but it is easier to make decoupage of New Year’s toys from plywood. This is pasting a wooden base with thin paper with a pattern.
For this decoration technique, you will need the following materials:
- plywood figurine;
- napkin in the New Year theme;
- glue;
- acrylic lacquer;
- brushes.
All materials are prepared in advance, laid out on the table. The plywood Christmas tree figurine is cleaned with sandpaper, the working surface must be completely smooth.
The workpiece is applied to a napkin, circled with a pencil along the contour. Cut out the resulting pattern. If there are internal patterns, they are worked out with scissors with sharp ends.
Two figures from plywood and from a napkin must be completely identical
A plywood blank for decorating a Christmas tree is coated with acrylic white paint in one layer.
Be sure to carefully prime the side parts of the workpiece so that there are no streaks and gaps
The napkin is stratified, separating only the colorful surface. It is applied to the plywood blank, fixed with hands.
A thin napkin holds better on any substrate
Gluing two surfaces is carried out with a fan brush dipped in water. Movement should be very careful from the center to the edges.
It is important to iron the surface well so that no air bubbles remain under it.
Similarly, a transparent acrylic varnish is applied with the last layer. It is important to work out the edges of the product well so that the coating does not peel off. Glitter or paint with a metallic sheen is applied to the still wet varnish with a sponge.
You can color the New Year’s plywood toy at your discretion. If a clear, artsy picture is not required, children are involved in the work. Making a simple plywood blank is quite within their power.
It is interesting to look at New Year’s decorations made of plywood, decorated in the same style and color scheme.
Plywood garlands for the New Year
Small New Year’s toys are strung on a rope – a beautiful garland is obtained to decorate the room.
Even unpatterned plywood toys look original.
To give brightness to the New Year’s decor, it is painted, sprinkled with sparkles and beads.
Colorful plywood garland will be a bright accent in the interior
Conclusion
It is not necessary to buy New Year’s plywood toys. You can make them yourself. Those who own a jigsaw will have no problems with sawing the workpiece. Decorate these items to your liking. They turn out interesting and original.