Everyone loves Emojis! So here is a quick project that's fun for all the family. Great to get the kids involved with the painting too.

I have a video showing the entire process here:

Materials Used:

Light Coloured Wood (I used pine and plywood)
Acrylic Paint
Yellow Wood Dye
Self Adhesive Paper
Sand Paper

Tools Used:

Router
Profile Bit
Round Over Bit
Bandsaw
Belt Sander
Paint Brush

Step 1: Carve the Designs

I printed the Emoji designs I wanted to create onto to some self adhesive paper. The paper can be stuck directly to the wood and used as a guide to follow.

I set the profile bit to roughly 5mm deep and started carving.

Following the lines can be tricky but take it slow and steady and you will soon get the hang of it. I find a smooth motion is better than trying to stick to the lines. Stopping to try to get back on track stands out. Finishing your path in a smooth motion makes it unnoticeable when done. Especially with something as stylised as an emoji.

The idea is to route all the facial features below the surface of the wood. I like to leave some texture behind but you could remove all the material to create a flat bottom to the cut if you wanted to.

Step 2: Shape the Emojis

With the designs carved its time to cut them out and shape them round.

I used my band saw to cut them out. You could of course use a jigsaw, scroll saw or even a coping saw by hand if you wanted to. If you wanted to use a jig to get perfect circles that would be great too.

I could a flat portion to the base of the Emoji to make them easier to stand up.

Using the belt sander I sanded them to the line. This goes a lot quicker than you would think. Especially using a belt sander.

To finish off the shape I added a round over bit to my router and used it to round over the edges on all the Emojis.

Hand sanding gets them ready for painting.

Step 3: Add Some Colour

To paint the features I used cheap acrylic paint. Acrylics don't bleed into the wood grain like a lot of other paints do. This makes it easier to sand later and get a nice crisp edge.

When all the features are painted and dry its nice and easy to sand away any excess by hand. You will see the design begin to appear. If you catch areas that needed to remain painted dont worry. Its easy to touch up any areas with a little extra paint.

Most Emojis are yellow so I used some yellow wood dye to give that iconic Emoji look. it applies really easily and goes a long way. Its a good idea to where gloves though. My fingers stained pretty bad.

Once the dye was dry I could give it a couple coats of gloss spray lacquer.

and its that simple. It took me about 20 mins hands on time to make these. The majority of the time was taken up by painting too. I hope you liked the project and feel like giving it a go :)