Wood Crafts 2025

Since there probably will not be any more painting done until 2026, I thought I would share some of my wood craft projects from the year.

I found this bamboo box at Hobby Lobby. I thought each striped needed its own color. I used the Sharpie Creative Color Marker to paint the outside, and Americana Craft Paint to paint the sides and inside. I am still deciding what to do with it.

2025 Puzzle – This originally was just a blank puzzle. I use black gesso to paint both pieces, the puzzle and the base. The I used paint markers to design the piece.

A couple of round wood blanks:

Another item painted with Sharpie Creative Markers

This was my first attempt at creating my own diamond art piece. Just an experiment to learn how to create one.

Around Snow

I believe this drawing will be placed onto the list as one of my favorite drawings. I created this design using CorelDraw. It all started with a square with curved sides. The squares were duplicated and some lines added, and I had the object to start my design.

After duplicating, rotating, and arranging the objects, I had a very confusing outline to start adding color. That is not a circle in the middle of the drawing. I looked at the file and it just an illusion.

After filling in the some of the spaces with color, duplicating the new object again. I decided to set a transparency and added some shading. Then I added a black background. This is the final result.

Around Snow:

After staring at the original outline of the artwork, I decided to make the outline into two coloring pages named Art of Confusion. One coloring page is a full page of the outline I used. The other coloring page shows the full design.

Checker Flower – Coloring Page

The Checker Flower coloring page has a lot of potential to be beautiful. You are welcome to download it from the link or my Coloring Page. Color it! Or, use it as a template for a tangle.

I created this coloring page using CorelDraw and here are some examples of how I colored it.

Checker Flower:

Checker Flower: With Awesome Background. The shading really brings out the flower.

Checker Flower: Shades of Gray

Checker Flower: Example of the Template being tangled. With Zentangle and other tangles. Remember the shading really bring out the art.

Playing Around with CorelDraw

These are the designs I created with CorelDraw. I started by creating a shaped and transforming the single shape into a design.

First was Around Flowers: Drew some lines, added some coloring and shading, now very busy design.

Second was Around Pink: A single flower design in the front with others peeking out from the background.

Third was Around Hearts: Just a bunch of heart shapes repeated and shaded.

Last, for now, was Around Burst: Same design was repeated but it was overlayed with the transparency effect.

Sharpies Creative Markers Review

Recently, Sharpie, you know the company that is famous for making permanent markers, released acrylic markers they claimed would “Boldly Mark on Most Surfaces.” I thought it was very interesting and decided to give the Sharpie Creative Color Markers a workout. I purchased both sets, the brush set and bullet set.

My first attempts were on black and white paper. The colors were brilliant and look good on both colors of paper and did not bleed through. The markers would probably look good on any color of paper, because the provide good coverage.

I did not try it on glass. Being water based acrylic markers, they would wash off of glass.

My second, third, and fourth attempts were on wood.

Puzzle One: This design used the both the bullet and brush markers. I was able to obtain blending effects by either painting areas white on the background or blending two colors before they completely dried.

Notice how well the black markers went over the other colors. I did not have to go over the black multiple times to get the effect. The white stars were placed by gentle touching the surface after it dried.

Wind Spinner: Another project using only the Sharpies Creative Color Markers. On this project, after the paint had dried, I noticed that purple color for the brush marker was slightly lighter than the bullet marker. I was able to go over the bullet marker purple with the brush marker purple to get a uniform color.

Every yellow paint I have ever encountered has done a very poor job of covering other colors. The Creative Color Marker yellow also did a poor job of covering other colors. I have an easy solution; I just cover it with white first then go over it in yellow.

Tree Puzzle: For the base of the tree puzzle, with the exception of the tree, I did not use the Creative Color Markers. I used acrylic paint. The surface was large, and I did not like the idea of having the paint the entire surface with the markers. The tree and flowers were made with the markers.

The background and the tree on the puzzle were all done with the Creative Color Markers. The blending of multiple colors provided the tree with a brown look.

Heart Puzzle: Can you see where I messed up? Probably not because the markers were able to hide my mistakes well. The first design I placed on the heart puzzle I did not like. So, I covered the entire puzzle with Gesso and started a new design. The white marker and the Gesso were almost the same shade. I used the white marker to cover up small mistakes on the white background.

The red and pink marker when placed next to each made it difficult to tell where one color ended, and the other color started. Once touches of purple and black was placed around them, they pop off the canvas.

The edge of the base and the back of the base was covered using red acrylic paint.

All the projects were varnished using the Polyacrylic. Some were sprayed and other were brushed. My only desires concerning these markers are: I would like more colors; and I would like to some fine point markers.

I do not see using the markers every day, but they will definitely fit in with some of my projects.