Wonderful

Today’s Xmas Magic prompt was “Wonderful.” Normally a prompt like this would leave me scratching my head or forcing some bad poetry, however in this particular case, I got an idea. As soon as I saw the word “Wonderful” the phrase “It’s the most wonderful time of the year” came to mind and I knew I wanted to do something with it.

This seemed like the ideal project for wood burning. I’ve been burning for many years now. I’ve made gifts and props. I’ve sold a few pieces. It’s one of those things I picked up easily and enjoy doing but have to have a reason. For this reason, I haven’t done it an a few years. This also meant I needed to buy a new tool because my old burning tool got left in Virginia.

I started the process for this project by laying out a design in Canva. By setting the canvas to the same dimensions as the piece of wood I was going to use I could ensure that what I designed fit right the first time. After playing around with fonts and decorations to get just the look I wanted, I printed it out and cut it to size.

The next step was to attach graphite paper and the design to the wood. Graphite paper allows for easy transfer of the design to the wood so that I can follow it while burning. To transfer the design, I simply trace over it with a pencil. The key is to apply good pressure to ensure the graphite layer on the paper transfers to the wood. Any tool that applies pressure could be used, I’ve just found that I prefer a pencil as it helps me see what I haven’t covered.

With the design transferred, it was time to start burning. This would be done in two stages. First I would do the snowflakes, stars and most of the text with the flow tip. Then after the tool was cool and I could swap tips, I would use the mini flow tip to do “wonderful” and the leaves at the bottom. Burning is a time to remember the tracing is a guideline. Sometimes, the fonts need to be adjusted from what transferred. I love this process. Plus the smell of the wood burning seemed perfect for this time of year.

Once the burning is done, it was time to embellish it. This doesn’t have to be done, but I designed this piece specifically to allow for it. I made sure there were hollow elements for me to color so that the piece would pop that much more. To make it, shall we say, wonderful. To color the wood, I use oil pencils. I have a set of Walnut Hollow pencils that were specifically marketed for this purpose but in reality any oil pencils would work. I prefer the way the oil pencils cover for this type of project. I chose 3 shades of blue for the word and added white highlights at points. I colored the stars silver. I layered 3 shades of green to create the leaves. I also went over the snowflakes with the white pencil then rubbed it in to create a highlight to the burned wood.

Eventually I will seal this, but for today and for the purpose of the prompt, its done.

What do you think?

-Flower