“Bunny Happy Returns” Toy Box
When I learned one of my colleagues at work was going to have her first child, and that the baby’s room would have a rabbit theme… well, I hopped right to this concept.
 
Her home is decorated in a country/rustic style, so a woodburning project seemed appropriate. The chest here was a plain pine toy chest I bought at Michael’s. First I went online and found an illustration from Peter Rabbit I liked, and printed it out. Then, in pencil, I found the center of the lid and lightly sketched the illustration. To form the oval, I traced around a vintage meat platter that was roughly the right size. Next, I used a woodburning pen to imprint the image into the wood.
 
I wanted to add color to the box but also keep the rustic look going. So I selected a grass-green wood stain (also available at Michael’s), which would allow the woodgrain to still show through.
 
The tricky thing with stain is it will spread through the woodgrain if it gets half a chance. To stain, unchartered wood is like “Manifest Destiny.” So when you want to stain specific areas of a piece of wood, you have to prep it first. This involves taking a pen knife or other utility knife and cutting the grain of the wood at the edge of the place that you don’t want the stain to venture beyond. This forms a sort of crevasse, and stops the stain from flowing further. Just make sure the cut is deep enough that the grain is completely cut, or you may get feathery trails of stain in places, which can ruin the effect.
 
In the case of the bunny box, I cut around the wooden rivets on the sides of the box, and the skirting around the base. Then I taped around each of those areas to prevent extra dripping. Then stained.
 
Once dry, I removed the tape and got to the really fun part--painting the illustration. For that I used Folk Art craft paints in a number of shades of green, blue and brown, and a small brush. I made sure to paint just up to the edge of the browned, burnt part of the illustration, so the woodburning technique was still visible.
 
All I did then when it was dry was add a protective topcoat with a clear spray.
You can see here the nifty little things I put in the bunny box. I found some lighted bunny garland at Pat Catan’s craft store, as well as a carrot basket I filled with Q-tips, and a bunny-shaped cotton ball dispenser.
 
And if you like the idea of this project but don’t feel comfortable with your freehand drawing skills, I’d suggest finding an illustration you like and tracing it on with a tracing/transfer paper. Or you can also use an overhead projector to project the image where you want it and sketch it in that way.