Wood Slice Merry Christmas Garland

I am still crafting and creating my way through my overstuffed craft room this holiday season.  Not only for creative blog posts but also to fill up my vendor booth at a local boutique. This project for an easy wood slice garland is a great project to use up some supplies. 

This post contains affiliate links which help to support this blog if you were to purchase anything through these links at no additional cost to you.

 

 

 

This post is part of the Creative Craft Hop hosted by Sara at Birdz of a Feather.

 

It is time for another blog hop hosted by Sara from Birdz of a Feather.  If you are visiting from Cecilia’s blog then welcome!  I love Cecilia’s Vintage Hankie Ornament project this month.   At the very bottom of this post, I will be directing you back to the next stop on this blog hop venture. But don’t forget to check out all of the talented bloggers participating this month during the week as well.

 

 

Now back to the wood slice garland!

Living on a very wooded lot, I have access to not only lots of pine cones but also branches to cut up into thin wood slices for craft projects.

Two years ago my husband cut up probably 100 or more of them for my daughter’s wedding.  The plan was to use them as magnets for save the date announcements, but she changed her mind due to the high cost of postage for them.

We did however use them for the cake topper and a few other projects for the tables.

In the last two years I have been giving them away and using them for as many projects as I can.

This project is one I have wanted to make ever since I saw a similar one a few years ago in a Christmas store.  In the next few weeks you will see several more projects using these wood slices.

But for today’s post, I made a simple and easy DIY Wood Slice Merry Christmas Garland.

 

Since these wood slices were cut and baked nearly two years ago, it was very easy for me to pull this project and post together very quickly.  You can too if you order the wood slices already treated and the holes drilled in them on Amazon.

 

 

To start my project, I counted out enough wood slices from the post, all in similar sizes, to be able to spell out “Merry Christmas”.

 

 

Then with a little help from my husband on his day off, holes were drilled in each wood slice to thread the twine through.

The next step was to paint one side of each of the wood slices in a base color of white.  I really wanted the letters to stand out once attached so I chose white.  You can chose any color that works best for your own project for the base color, or none at all.

The easiest way to create the letters was of course by using my Cricut Joy™ machine.  I cut out each letter at about 1 1/2 inches high since the wood slices were around 2 inches in diameter each.

 

 

 

The white base coat of acrylic craft paint was a good surface to attach the vinyl letters to.  The roughness of the wood slices, even after being sanded down, can be a little tricky to get the vinyl letters to stick.

At this point I decided that the wood slices with the black letters looked a bit too plain for a Christmas garland.

Next time I will try either red or green vinyl.

To make them a bit more festive, I grabbed a couple of paint brushes and acrylic paint in red and green and created little holly leaves and berries on each wood slice beside the letters.

 

 

The last step is to string the wood slices on to the jute twine.  I chose red and green twine for my project.

Another thing I will do differently if I make a wood slice garland again in the future is to drill two holes in the slices to make this step a bit easier.

However, I did figure out how to string on the wood slices and keep them laying flat with the letters showing.  Slide the jute twine through the back side of the drilled hole to the front, tie a double knot at the top and proceed to the next wood slice.  Repeat the pattern.

 

 

My plan has been to hang the garland as a double strand over a doorway in my home, so I used red twine for the word Merry, and green twine for the word Christmas.  However, in the end I just hung them on the antique wood mantel in my front sitting room. 

I guess this really is the last step and that was to hang them up.

 

 

Making this garland is another DIY off my bucket list and I was able to use up more of the wood slices in my craft room.

 

 

Merry Christmas everyone and I hope you have a fabulous holiday.

 

Be sure to visit all of the other talented bloggers in the hop this month, starting with Gail at Purple Hues and Me and her Crushed Glass and Pearls Ornament.

 

Wood Slice Merry Christmas Garland

Crushed Glass and Pearls Ornament

Christmas Candle Holder Tutorial

Origami Shirt Advent Calendar

Vintage Hankie Ornaments – No Sewing or Cutting!

 

Happy Thanksgiving and hugs to you all,

 

Psalms 28:7 “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart celebrates, and I give thanks to him with my song.”