How to Make a Wooden Children's Lamp

Choose a large image from a coloring book and remove the page carefully. For best results, choose a picture without a lot of small details, because you will have to paint them all later.

Use scissors to cut out the image. Don't worry about inner lines, just cut out the main image as a single piece. Lay the picture flat on the piece of plywood.

Dampen a sponge slightly. While holding the picture in place, use the sponge to moisten the paper. This will make it stick to the plywood slightly. Set the sponge aside. Draw an outline around the image with your pencil. Take your time and stick as close to the edges as you can.

Remove the piece of paper you used for a pattern. If there are mistakes that need to be corrected in the outline, make them now. The result should be an outline that exactly matches the picture you are going to turn into a lamp.

Cut around the edges of your outline with a jigsaw. Mark a flat line across the bottom of the board, and cut it off with the jigsaw. Sand all of the corners of both the cut out and the other board so that there are no sharp edges.

Paint the board in the desired colors. Paint the piece of 1-by-4-inch lumber to match the color used most on the cutout.

Put a thin line of wood glue along the flat bottom of your cut-out. Put another thin line along the center of the other board, which you can think of as the lamp base. Install four screws to hold the base to the cutout. Position the lamp so that it will not be moved. Allow it to set overnight.

Install the lamp kit. Mount the lamp rod so that it ends 3/4 inch above the base, to allow the cord to move about. Cut the bottom of the lamp rod so that the top protrudes 1 inch above the top of the cutout. The lamp fixture itself will screw down onto the top, hiding the lamp rod.