Protect the fantastic thing about your Christmas tree or flip branches into paintings with these wood ornaments fabricated from wooden slices. Utilizing pyrography (wooden burning), you possibly can create gorgeous, cute, or enjoyable designs to embellish your tree this yr. Comply with alongside for creation ideas and methods!
In my household, the Christmas tree is all the time one of the vital particular elements of the vacation. Yearly, the kiddo and I head out collectively to select a Christmas tree and spend time collectively crafting ornaments and adorning the tree. No tree is ever the identical because the final!
It’s powerful to say goodbye to my tree on the finish of the season, and I’m all the time searching for methods to recycle my Christmas tree into a few of my crafting. After making wooden slice coasters, I believed I’d do a special tackle it by making wooden burned ornaments as an alternative!
Pyrography is such a enjoyable and distinctive pastime to get into. Utilizing a particular handheld device, you possibly can straight embellish wooden and different supplies utilizing burn marks. The impact is a beautiful and natural-looking Christmas decoration.
If you wish to attempt your hand at making your personal wooden slice ornaments, then hold studying for all my ideas and directions.
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This challenge comes from Backyard Made, my crafting e book filled with seasonal tasks impressed by the backyard. It has loads of tasks to maintain you busy year-round to assist beautify your house and backyard and to provide as significant items. If you need extra artful, down-to-earth tasks, test it out!
Preserving the Christmas Tree
I’ll all the time be on group actual Christmas tree. It’s one among my favorite traditions to participate in, heading to the Christmas tree lot to select a tree after which heading house to embellish it.
As I grew older and fell in love with gardening, I simply needed to expertise the rom-com-esque Christmas tree pilgrimage the place you chop your personal tree. Off to a tree farm in gum boots we went, sipping cider out of a paper cup and listening to carols performed over a loudspeaker.
“Seize a noticed and head out to the bushes,” they instructed us. We settled on an outstanding tree with the fullness, color, and needle retention that appealed most and hauled the factor up onto the automobile’s roof. The drive house was a sight: in each route, bushes have been zipping down highways atop sedans filled with households. I imagined all of the individuals who would sip some eggnog later that day as they arrange Christmas.
Our tree that yr was full of recent recollections and supplied a recent evergreen scent that greeted me every time I handed by. The expertise of selecting the tree out within the chilly air with pink noses and woolly mittens warmed me every time I added one other current under.
When the time got here to field up the ornaments and say goodbye to our tree, I had bother letting go. The needles had fallen, and the branches have been dry, however the trunk was simply the appropriate measurement for creating wooden burned ornaments.
Moderately than toss my tree within the compost, I made a decision to show the trunk into some ornaments that will have loads of sentimental worth. Right here’s how I made these wooden ornaments with pyrography designs.
DIY Picket Ornaments
I like that I can keep on the bushes of Christmas previous to the following yr with these wooden burned Christmas ornaments. They’re particular sentimentally but in addition look wonderful on the tree. I all the time go for pure decorations, and I like how rustic and private these ones are!
Supplies
The place to Get Wooden Slices
For my wooden ornaments, I made my very own wooden slices by chopping the trunk of an outdated Christmas tree.
If you happen to don’t put up a recent tree in your house however nonetheless wish to make this challenge, there are many methods to get the wooden. You may go to a tree farm and ask for off-cuts of enormous branches or too-long tree trunks.
After the vacations, you possibly can stroll down residential streets searching for discarded bushes prepared for recycling. Or discover out the place bushes are composted in your space and accumulate them there.
If all else fails, you possibly can go to an area backyard heart or tree lot after Christmas and ask for one they didn’t promote.
In addition to sourcing native wooden slices, you can too discover pre-cut ones from most craft shops to make wood ornaments. I discovered some on-line on Amazon, Michaels, and Pastime Foyer.
Dry Wooden Slices
Upon getting your tree or department for this challenge, snip all of the branches off as near the trunk as potential. Let the trunk dry utterly in a heat, dry place to keep away from wooden splitting. Reduce the trunk into a number of sections for sooner drying.
Drying takes time. In some situations, months! Sawing them forward of time is one of the best ways to hurry up the apply. Retailer them inside the home the place it’s heat to make them dry sooner. Some cuts might crack throughout the course of, so account for this when figuring out what number of slices to chop.
Reduce and Sand
Utilizing a desk noticed or handsaw, reduce the wooden into quarter or half-inch thick disks.
Sand every slice of wooden by hand with coarse-grit sandpaper first, then clean the floor with a finer grit. Go away the bark alone in case your tree nonetheless has it! I just like the addition of the pure edge.
Drill holes by means of the highest of every decoration so you possibly can loop string or ribbon by means of.
Design
Enhance your wooden slice ornaments with paint, material, wooden stain, or decoupage. I selected to rejoice the pure look on this challenge through the use of a wood-burning pen set.
To make use of the wood-burning device, comply with the producer’s directions and apply on some items you aren’t overtly connected to. You should definitely check out the completely different pen ideas!
Upon getting the grasp of it, you possibly can draw your designs in pencil and hint with the burning pen, or simply let some free-form shapes move out of your fingers. Snowflakes and stars are easy and festive, however attempt something significant to you. Devices, animals, initials, and phrases are all good decisions, however there’s nothing to say you possibly can’t draw monster vehicles or cupcakes if that’s what you’re into.
You may also paint your wood ornaments utilizing acrylic craft paint. I’d advocate utilizing a primer beforehand and sealing it with a transparent varnish to stop the paint from chipping or yellowing. Extra on sealing under!
For decoupage, I’d advocate utilizing Modge Podge and a foam sponge. You’ll be able to print household images, take journal clippings, enjoyable scrapbooking paper, and extra to make an exquisite collage.
Learn how to Seal Picket Ornaments
You’ll be able to cowl the wooden ornaments with a sealer if you’d like a shiny end or wish to shield the design. This will additionally assist stop cracking.
You wish to seal ornaments after you’ve completed your design, not earlier than. For wooden sealants, each spar urethane and polyurethane are standard decisions.
Spar urethane is often used open air since it might probably face up to harsh parts. It expands and contracts with the motion of the wooden throughout temperature and humidity adjustments. If you happen to’re hanging your ornaments exterior, spar urethane is your best choice. Notice that though it’s clear, it normally has a barely yellowish tint.
The opposite possibility is to make use of polyurethane, which is hottest for indoor tasks. It’s usually warmth and moisture-resistant. It dries clear however can darken or yellow over time.
Apply the sealant with a pure bristle brush over wax paper. Most of those sealants are oil-based, to allow them to take some time to dry. Comply with all directions on the sealant’s label.
Ceaselessly Requested Questions About Making Wooden Ornaments
Completely! I like to recommend utilizing a primer beforehand to stop the wooden from absorbing any paint and design. Regular acrylic craft paint works finest. When you’re carried out, you’ll wish to seal it with a transparent varnish.
Drying is normally what individuals mess up probably the most whereas making wooden slice ornaments. Drying is a really gradual course of, one that may take months. I like to recommend chopping the tree into your slices immediately for these ornaments. This can assist the slices dry a lot faster.
Then, retailer the slices inside. You need someplace heat and with restricted moisture. Wait till the slices are absolutely dry earlier than adorning.
Notice that some slices might crack over their drying time. Ensure to chop a number of additional slices to account for the possibly cracked slices.
You should dry the wooden earlier than you make the ornaments. In any other case, you could expertise some cracking afterward.
Some wooden is simply extra prone to crack than others. Among the best merchandise to assist with that is pentacryl wooden stabilizer. After chopping your slices, you soak the wooden with pentacryl. This can assist to displace the moisture within the wooden and speed up drying time. It’s virtually assured to stop splitting afterward!
That covers all my ideas for making your personal wood ornaments. It’s an amazing challenge to do as soon as the Christmas season ends, and also you’re seeking to recycle your tree. You’ll love hanging them the next yr!
You probably have any questions on how to do that challenge, go away them within the feedback under, and I’ll get again to you as quickly as I’m ready.
Extra Christmas Crafts to Strive
DIY Wooden Slice Ornaments
Make these wooden burned wooden slice ornaments as an elegant option to recycle your Christmas tree.
Desk noticed or handsaw
Drill
Wooden burning pen set
Let the tree trunk or department you will use for this challenge dry utterly to stop splintering. To hurry up the method, reduce it into a number of smaller sections. This will likely take months, however if you happen to carry them inside to dry the place it is hotter, it might probably dry sooner.
When the wooden is dry, use the desk noticed or handsaw to chop the wooden into disks which are 1/4 – 1/2 inch thick.
Sand every disk with the coarse sandpaper first, then the effective.
Drill a gap by means of every – that is the place the string will go.
Enhance your wooden slice. I selected to make use of a wooden burning pen on mine to create a design, however you need to use paint or no matter else you want.
Add a coat of sealer to guard your decoration for years to come back.
