Simple hand painted peg dolls

After transforming this house shelf into a simple play dollhouse for my toddler daughter, I figured I should probably also make her some dolls to go with it. She has a lot of plastic figurines (a la Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, which I'm sure will make their way into the house too), but not any people.

I bought these small wooden peg dolls at Hobby Lobby on sale, so I got two 5-packs for $1.50. I should note the package states these aren't toys. (But neither are milk caps or clothespins, and she plays with things like that everyday.) Use your judgement, people.

These are the tiny 1.5 inch "boy" size. I went with the small ones so they wouldn't be banging their heads on the ceilings. But as I was painting them, I started to think I should have upgraded to the slightly larger "man" size. (Peg dolls with more feminine tapered bodies are also available online.)

I painted them with a bunch of different craft paints and latex paint samples. I kept them simple and monochromatic, leaving the faces as natural wood.

I was going to leave the dolls with eyes only, but they started to look sorta alien.

So I added subtle pink smiles. They look a little goofy (and Elise is probably going to nail me about the missing noses), but they don't look so buggy-eyed anymore. After a coat of glossy sealer, they were looking pretty cute.