Have you heard about the Hamilton County Libraries Maker Rally? It’s an event happening February – April 2026 where you can go to three different libraries in Hamilton County, do an activity, and collect a stamp! After you have completed each activity from each library you will have made your own little wooden toy!
You can pick up a Maker Rally Zine that explains how to complete each step at any of the three participating libraries: Carmel Clay Library’s Digital Media Lab, Westfield Washington Library’s Makerspace, and Hamilton East Library’s Ignite Studio. Participants will design their toy at Carmel’s DML, cut it out at Westfield’s Makerspace, and finally come to Ignite Studio to paint and put on the finishing touches.
At Ignite Studio, let staff know that you want to paint your Marker Rally toy! They will guide you over to our Kit Library where you can pick some paint to color your toy. The most conventional option would be to use our acrylic painting kits. Acrylic paint covers the wood well and dries quickly. You can also use the acrylic paint pen kit to add smaller details to your toy.
Here are some tips and tricks for bringing your toy to life:
Preparing your toy
Before you paint, it is important to prepare your toy so that the paint covers it well. There are two ways to do that. First, you could sand down the wooden toy. This increases the surface area making it easier for paint to stick to it. It also removes some of the burnt edges that occur when cutting wood with a laser. This method can be a bit more time-consuming but means you can use less paint while painting your toy. Sandpaper can be found outside the Fab Lab at Ignite Studio on the gray pegboard.
Method two is a bit simpler – painting a ‘primer’ coat of white paint. This gives it a base coat that colored paint can stick to. Simply take white paint and cover all sides of the toy with it. If the paint seems too thick, you can make it thinner with just a little bit of water mixed in. Once all sides are completely dry, you are ready to start adding color!
Painting with color
With your toy primed for paint, now you can start painting based on how you’d like it to look. In our acrylic painting kits, we only have a handful of colors available from the tube. However, with those colors you can easily mix almost any color you might need! If you haven’t mixed colors before, you can check out our blog all about color mixing! Choose a color to start with and paint your designated areas that color. Allow those areas to dry before painting another area to avoid mixing colors you don’t want. Repeat until all areas are painted. For finer details, check out our Acrylic Paint Pen Kit to add features of your choosing. When finished, take a photo of your creature to share with us on social media!