Sesame Street Nesting Dolls

We have a set of nesting dolls that my Brother-in-law brought back from Russia a couple years ago and big brother has recently discovered them. He has always liked puzzles so it made sense that he was really intrigued by how the nesting dolls fit together.

One day when I shopping on Amazon.com I came across Unpainted Blank Russian Nesting Doll 5pc./6". I quickly added them to my cart and was excited at the painting possibilities. I settled on Sesame Street themed dolls because they are such classic, timeless characters and little brother has taken a new liking to Elmo this past month.

Let me just start by saying, I didn't exactly paint these freehand. 

I first printed out images of the characters faces and taped them on the dolls. I purposely chose a sequence of red/orange/yellow/green/blue as a way to help teach my preschooler about colors and rainbows.

Then I took a ball point pen and traced the faces, making sure to press firmly. 

When I removed the paper I had a nice indented outline.

Using acrylic paints, I painted the background colors first and then made my way from the bottom to the top of the faces. At some points my indented lines got lost and I did have to freehand here and there.

After they completely dried, I used a gloss coating over each piece. 

After drying for 24 hours, they are ready for play!

(Note: Due to small pieces and the fact that little brother puts everything in his mouth, 

he will not be playing with these until he is older. I recommend supervision during any play time with this toy.)