Here's all the steps to make a cute wooden Elk for children or a gift for someone else

Step 1: Step 1: Gather Your Materials

Tools

Safety goggles
Bandsaw- for cutting your template and wood
The Drill press- for the holes on your toys
Sander or sandpaper- to sand down your toy
Router table- to round your toy

Supplies

Wood glue
The axles and wheels (1.25" both wheels and axles)
Lumber- for your toy
paint
Your template- for tracing your toy on wood (either stock or cardboard)
An image of your animal

Step 2: Step 2: Find a Picture of Your Toy

You need to find an image on the internet. It could be any animal you would like to do.

-An easier way to search an image is find an animal that is easily identifiable side view.

-I picked an Elk but any animal or reptile would work if it’s recognizable on the side

Step 3: Step 3: Printing Your Image and Creating a Template

When you finally picked an animal, you now can import the image on a processing program

-You need to resize or adjust your image before printing it out

- Do not make your image too big or too small

-After adjusting it then print it and now you need a black pen or marker and outline your image to make it cute and adorable (Make sure to draw dots on the legs to mark where the wheels going to be)

NOTE: If your animal has horns, wings, beaks, ears, tails, etc. you need to make them round because you don’t want the child to poke their eyes out

-If the horns or wings need to be on a separate piece of wood that’s fine if it’s bigger than the piece of wood

After cutting out the image, you trace the image on to a stock or cardboard so it would be sturdier when tracing your template onto the wood

Step 4: Step 4: Cutting It Out and Drilling Holes

Grab your template and trace it on the wood. It's better to trace it close to the edge so you don’t have to cut much

-After tracing, cut your wood on the bandsaw

-After cutting, mark your axle on your toy and make sure it’s visible

*I had to cut a separate piece for my anthers

Drilling
After marking the holes, find the right drill bit size

-Find a scrap piece of wood underneath your toy, this will keep it from tipping and moving around while drilling

Step 5: Step 5: Router the Edges and Sanding

Use the router table the round the edges to smooth it out and make it look like an actually cute toy

-Make sure the router bit is in place, meaning if it’s level

-Router both sides of your toy

NOTE: If you can’t router the small areas, you need to sand it by hand

Use the sanders to sand out all the tool marks and imperfections
-You can use the sander tool between the legs and tails if you can’t sand it

Step 6: Step 6: Painting Your Toy and Gluing Axles/Attaching Wheels

Now you can paint your toy. You can be creative and detailed you can be. If you want your toy to be realistic, you can use a reference and copy from that

After painting your toy, check to make sure if the axles fit in the holes you drilled. If not drill them again

-Place a small amount of glue in the hole

-Place the wheel through the axle and place a small amount of glue on end

NOTE: Grab a piece of paper and fold it and place it between the axle and the toy to leave so room between them. This helps to make your wheels to spin

-Put the axle and wheel in the hole

TIP: If your wheels aren’t moving or stiff, I used sandpaper and sand between the wheels and my toy and it helps

Step 7: Step 7: Complete

In conclusion, I am very happy with the completion of my toy Elk. After going through with all my steps and completing them one by one, I finished my toy Elk. It turned out to be really cute and adorable and I really like it. If you work on your toy Elk step by step like I did with mine, it should look cute just like mine does. Making my toy Elk was a lot of fun and it was a fun learning experience for me to complete.