do you always paint your wooden accessories when giving them in a swap?

i like the look of plain unfinished wood mini-things...mainly because i suck at decorative painting :lol: but i wonder if you guys think they look too plain. i have wooden barrels for the pirate swap and egg cups for the egg swap and wooden plates for the birthday tiny things (that i am sending individually)...but i dont plan of painting them.

what do you think? do you mind unfinished? can i do something simple to finish them???

I like the look of both painted and unpainted.

Here is a neat thing I did recently - my kids had gotten some of those suncatchers and paint and I used that on a wooden piece - it was more like a dye than paint and it had a really neat effect, almost like procion dyes.

I like the look of bath painted and not painted:)

I like both :) and sometimes I dye them, too :) I say, go with whatever you want to :) Someone will be happy!

oooh, and if you have egg cups, I can do egg covers for the easter/ostara swap!! WHOO HOOO! How many egg cups are you sending in?
http://motherhues.com/109903c0.jpg

I like both natural and painted and dyed. Lately I've been painting things because Duncan has a whole supply of unpainted things, so if I'm giving him something for a special occassion, I'll go ahead and paint it.

For the celestial tiny things swap, I used a watered down paint so that it had more than a dyed effect. I liked the way that it looked but it really got my fingers all messy...well, that and the fact that the books were SO tiny. :happy:

oh selena - your egg cozies are beautiful!!!!!!!!!! i was gonna make plain ones. hmmmmmmm - maybe i'll actually paint my egg cups and send those with something else and have selena send in cozies. i am sending in one per person - so that is 9? (i'm not at the op so i can't be sure) let me think about this a second.............

OK - selena - you do the egg cozies. i thought of something to go with my egg cups for the easter swap. sound good???

Lorena,

I like things any way I get them, actually. I painted the ice cream bowls for the Birthday Tiny things because it just seemed to fit the occasion (bright and fun). I am not a great decorative painter either. I also painted the flower pots for the Easter stuffer swap but for the same reason-bright, warm and fun. I think if I had dyed them or watered down the paint, they would have been pretty too but I was really thinking bright

so my .02 is to just go with the swap theme and decided from there. Like for the egg cups, if you don't want to dec. paint them, maybe just a shiny finish or dye them, etc. I just can't wait for this swap. It is gonna be a goodie!!

I like both as well, and think that it totally depend son the item and the situation. Like for the pirate swap, I sent wooden row boats, and I didn't paitn them because I liked the way they looked plain. But the barn birdhouses for the farm swap are going to be painted because I don't think they look as good plain, kwim?

selena, I've got one of your egg cozies with a god and goddess on my altar! :)

I like both painted and unpainted.. depends on the item..