Protect the great thing about your Christmas tree or flip branches into art work with these wood ornaments manufactured from wooden slices. Utilizing pyrography (wooden burning), you possibly can create beautiful, cute, or enjoyable designs to brighten your tree this yr. Comply with alongside for creation ideas and methods!
In my household, the Christmas tree is at all times probably the most particular elements of the vacation. Yearly, the kiddo and I head out collectively to pick a Christmas tree and spend time collectively crafting ornaments and adorning the tree. No tree is ever the identical because the final!
It’s robust to say goodbye to my tree on the finish of the season, and I’m at all times in search of methods to recycle my Christmas tree into a few of my crafting. After making wooden slice coasters, I assumed I might do a unique tackle it by making wooden burned ornaments as an alternative!
Pyrography is such a enjoyable and distinctive passion to get into. Utilizing a particular handheld software, you possibly can straight enhance wooden and different supplies utilizing burn marks. The impact is a beautiful and natural-looking Christmas decoration.
If you wish to strive your hand at making your personal wooden slice ornaments, then maintain studying for all my ideas and directions.
This publish will cowl…
This mission comes from Backyard Made, my crafting guide filled with seasonal initiatives impressed by the backyard. It has loads of initiatives to maintain you busy year-round to assist beautify your private home and backyard and to present as significant items. If you’d like extra artful, down-to-earth initiatives, test it out!
Preserving the Christmas Tree
I’ll at all times be on staff actual Christmas tree. It’s certainly one of my favorite traditions to participate in, heading to the Christmas tree lot to pick a tree after which heading dwelling to brighten 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 narrow 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 timber,” they informed us. We settled on an excellent tree with the fullness, color, and needle retention that appealed most and hauled the factor up onto the automotive’s roof. The drive dwelling was a sight: in each route, timber had 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 latest reminiscences and supplied a contemporary 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 beneath.
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 had been dry, however the trunk was simply the suitable dimension for creating wooden burned ornaments.
Slightly 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 stick with it the timber of Christmas previous to the subsequent yr with these wooden burned Christmas ornaments. They’re particular sentimentally but additionally look wonderful on the tree. I at all times 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 reducing the trunk of an outdated Christmas tree.
In the event you don’t put up a contemporary tree in your house however nonetheless wish to make this mission, there are many methods to get the wooden. You might 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 in search of discarded timber prepared for recycling. Or discover out the place timber are composted in your space and accumulate them there.
If all else fails, you possibly can go to a neighborhood backyard middle or tree lot after Christmas and ask for one they didn’t promote.
Apart from sourcing native wooden slices, you can even discover pre-cut ones from most craft shops to make wood ornaments. I discovered some on-line on Amazon, Michaels, and Interest Foyer.
Dry Wooden Slices
After getting your tree or department for this mission, snip all of the branches off as near the trunk as doable. 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 simplest ways to hurry up the observe. Retailer them inside the home the place it’s heat to make them dry sooner. Some cuts could crack through 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 easy the floor with a finer grit. Depart the bark alone in case your tree nonetheless has it! I just like the addition of the pure edge.
Drill holes via the highest of every decoration so you possibly can loop string or ribbon via.
Design
Beautify your wooden slice ornaments with paint, material, wooden stain, or decoupage. I selected to rejoice the pure look on this mission by utilizing a wood-burning pen set.
To make use of the wood-burning software, comply with the producer’s directions and observe on some items you aren’t overtly connected to. Make sure to check out the totally different pen ideas!
After getting the cling of it, you possibly can draw your designs in pencil and hint with the burning pen, or simply let some free-form shapes circulation out of your fingers. Snowflakes and stars are easy and festive, however strive something significant to you. Devices, animals, initials, and phrases are all good decisions, however there may be nothing to say you possibly can’t draw monster vans or cupcakes if that’s what you’re into.
You can even paint your wood ornaments utilizing acrylic craft paint. I’d advocate utilizing a primer beforehand and sealing it with a transparent varnish to forestall the paint from chipping or yellowing. Extra on sealing beneath!
For decoupage, I might advocate utilizing Modge Podge and a foam sponge. You possibly can print household photographs, take journal clippings, enjoyable scrapbooking paper, and extra to make a ravishing collage.
The right way to Seal Picket Ornaments
You possibly can cowl the wooden ornaments with a sealer if you need a shiny end or wish to defend 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 fashionable decisions.
Spar urethane is often used open air since it might stand up to harsh parts. It expands and contracts with the motion of the wooden throughout temperature and humidity adjustments. In the event you’re hanging your ornaments outdoors, spar urethane is your only option. Notice that though it’s clear, it normally has a barely yellowish tint.
The opposite choice is to make use of polyurethane, which is most fashionable for indoor initiatives. It’s sometimes 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.
Continuously Requested Questions About Making Wooden Ornaments
Completely! I like to recommend utilizing a primer beforehand to forestall 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 sluggish course of, one that may take months. I like to recommend reducing 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 totally dry earlier than adorning.
Notice that some slices could crack over their drying time. Be sure 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, chances are you’ll expertise some cracking afterward.
Some wooden is simply extra prone to crack than others. Among the finest merchandise to assist with that is pentacryl wooden stabilizer. After reducing 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 forestall splitting afterward!
That covers all my ideas for making your personal wood ornaments. It’s an excellent mission to do as soon as the Christmas season ends, and also you’re trying to recycle your tree. You’ll love hanging them the next yr!
When you’ve got any questions on how to do that mission, depart them within the feedback beneath, 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 a classy 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 mission dry utterly to forestall splintering. To hurry up the method, reduce it into a number of smaller sections. This will take months, however in the event you convey them inside to dry the place it is hotter, it might 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 wonderful.
Drill a gap via every – that is the place the string will go.
Beautify 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.
