Tuesday, October 3, 2023
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Moon Phases Peg Dolls {Tutorial} Guest Post

acraftyarab

We are so honored to host a guest post for our Ramadan crafts 30-day challenge from Julia at Nurture with Art and Nature.

Sister Julia is sharing how she made these eight moon phases peg dolls, which include stunning moon hats and an out-of-this-world solar base.

To celebrate our 11th annual Ramadan crafts 30-day challenge, we are hosting guest posts for most of the month, if you have a craft, resource, or recipe you’d like to share, please let us know.

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Assallamualeykum my fellow crafty brothers and sisters. My name is Julia and I am a homeschooling Mum of 4. I just started a new channel where I post lessons, activities, tutorials, hauls among other things.

As you may know, the moon is an essential part of marking the beginning and end of our beloved Ramadan month. This craft/activity makes a perfect addition to any Muslim homes.

This is a lovely and fairly easy activity that you and your children can do this Ramadan (in sha Allah) that I’m certain you will enjoy. Visit our tutorial on YouTube or read the instructions below.

Let’s get started!!!

MATERIALS LIST:

*Made with a bit of pure premium beeswax plus an equal amount of coconut or olive oil. Mix and melt in a double boiler method. This involves a bowl on top of a small pot of boiling water.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Step 1:

Add a small dollop size of the Persian blue, violet, lemon yellow, white and black watercolour paints to the palette. We want to try to create a gradual darkening sky on our peg dolls. Using the fine tip brush , dip in water and mix a bit of Persian blue with some white and a tiny bit of the yellow and start painting the bottom 3rd part of your peg dolls body.  Then dip you brush in the water again and now mix some Persian blue with violet and some white. Paint the middle section of the body.

Then mix that mixture with a bit of black and paint the last third part of the body being careful not to go beyond the neckline. You can use masking tape if you are worried you might go over as in the next step we will be taping the face anyway.  Let them dry for at least 20mins

Step 2:

Now grab your masking tape and tape around the bottom of the doll’s faces as to not flick paint on them.

Step 3:

Grab your hard-bristled flat brush and dip it in water and add silver or white paint to the brush. Hold your peg doll and use your thumb to flick the bristles causing the silver paint to fly onto the painted sky. You can then use your fine tip brush and individually add stars. Let dry minimum 20mins.

Step 4:

Melt the beeswax and coconut oil in a double broiler. (About a tablespoon amount of the beeswax and the oil into a medium bowl on top of a small pot fill with boiled water until it melts).  Use a clean cloth (or paint brush allocated to sealing your crafts as it will become waxy) and dip it into the sealant mixture and rub onto the painted body being careful not to rub to hard to not rub off the paint.  Let it dry.

Step 5:

Cut out the hat and the moon patterns.

Using your pencil trace 8 front hat pieces and 4 full moons on to the silver felt and 8 back hat pieces and 4 full moons on to the charcoal felt, then cut with fabric scissors.

Step 6:

Cut a long strand of the metallic thread then divide the tread into two parts by slowly pulling/twisting them apart. Now you should have two parts that have at least 4 strands in each half. Then tie a knot on one end and thread the other. Grab a front and back hat piece and start to blanket stitch them together making sure to begin in the inside of your hat so that the knot doesn’t show. And when you made it to the other side, tie a knot and try to tuck the knot into the inner hat. If you don’t know how to blanket stitch you can just use a straight stitch, or any stitch you know.

Step 7:

Plug in your glue gun and once it’s hot glue your hats onto the heads of your dolls making sure to know beforehand where you want your dolls face to be.

Step 8:

Now take 1 silver moon and 1 charcoal moon and glue on to 2 dolls mid sections. These 2 moons represent the full moon and the new moon.  Next grab 1 silver and 1 charcoal moon and cut directly in halves. Now take one half of both colours and put them together making sure to have opposite colour patterns. So Moon One: silver/ charcoal, and moon two: charcoal/silver.  

Then glue on to the next two dolls. These two represent the first quarter moon and the third quarter moon.  Next, use your pencil and draw a crescent moon onto one of the felt moons and cut it out. Use this crescent as a template and trace this shape onto the last 3 remaining moons then cut them out.  Now mix and match the crescents to the opposite colour so as to have 2 moons with silver crescents and 2 moons with charcoal crescents.  Make sure that you glue the 2 crescents of each group in opposite directions. Then glue on to the remaining dolls.

Step 9:

Use a sharpie or paint marker to write the moon phase on the underside of each peg doll.

Step 10: (optional)

Take your raw wood slice and paint a night sky using the same method and colour mixtures and as you did on the peg dolls (light greenish sky on the outer edge, then violet:blue medium tones, then gradually adding black towards the Center.)  Then, to create a more galaxy look you can mix a little crimson red with some blue and white and randomly add a few strokes to the sky.  Make sure to paint following the rings of the wood grain. Then put some of the silver metallic paint on your brush and use the flick technique to create stars as well as using your fine tipped brush to dot on individual stars. Seal with the wax mixture if desired.

I hope you enjoyed this craft! Stop by Nurture with Art and Nature to see more.

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acraftyarab

I am a Libyan American who creates art to promote a positive image of Arab and Islamic culture.