Make Your Own Rustic and Adorable Country Inspired Wood Slice Ornament

Make use of those broken branches other than in the bonfire! :)
Crafting your own holiday decorations allows you to personalize your decor and gives you the opportunity to create inexpensive gifts and keepsakes to be treasured for years to come. The holiday season can become quite stressful and research shows that being creative and finding a craft to enjoy is not only a natural way to relax, but it's great for brain health. 

So take some time for yourself this busy season, roll up your sleeves, create and relax.

This is just the beginning of the ideas for making your own wood-slice ornaments and other projects.
Stick around for more!

Below, you will find a Materials List, detailed Project Instructions, and a Sneak Peak of some of the future projects coming up. Please read through the instructions prior to starting your project.

NOTE: If you do not have all the materials and tools used in this project you may be able to substitute things you already have on hand. For example, if you do not have clear stamps and ink you can always use a black permanent marker to draw the plaid lines on the elk and use craft paint or markers to color in the squares. If you don't have any wood to use, you can find pre-sliced wood online, but it can be expensive. Check with your friends, family and neighbors. 

Materials and Tools List:

- Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black for plaid on elk

- StazOn Ink in Timber Brown for sentiment

- Rubber Stampede Ink in Green for elk's plaid coat

- Rubber Stampede ink in Scarlett for elk's plaid coat

- Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo for elk fur

- Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Peeled Paint for trees

- 4" wood-round

- Creatology Christmas Wood Stickers in trees and elks 24 piece sets

- Glossy Accents

- White acrylic Craft Paint

- A thin tool or paperclip opened up

- A strong glue made for crafting

- Pine Trees Hampton Art Stamp and Die Set (SCO718)

- Snowman Hampton Art Stamp and Die Set (SCO703)

- Recollections blender pen to fill in plaid on elk with ink

- Clear stamp block
- Twine

Preparation  - Make sure to sand your wood-round smooth - Drill a hole into the top of your wood slice, but be careful not to get too close to the edge where you can break through.

Project Instructions

Step 1 - Stamp your wooden trees with the patterned tree stamp set. The stamps will not cover perfectly and this is fine, just line them up the best you can. When you're done stamping, take the same green ink and a sponge to darken the edges of the tree. This will blend in where the stamp and wooden tree didn't match up. After doing the edges lightly color the rest of the tree green. Use brown ink for the trunk of the trees.

Step 2 - Stamp your wooden elk with the plaid tree stamp. Use a piece of paper to cover the legs. Place the tree sideways with the top of the tree facing your left hand. The elk should be facing left as well. Use the black archival ink or an ink like StazOn in black on your tree stamp so you don't have any smearing when you add the color to your elk later. Color the blocks on your elk and then finish up with making the head and legs brown and the antlers gold. 

Step 3 - Once your trees and elk have been colored, top coat them with Glossy Accents to seal the ink. Not only does this make the ornament easier to clean later, but it also keeps the ink from bleeding into the white that you'll be adding later as well as protects any surfaces the ornament may come in contact with. Let it dry for at least a few hours. I usually just let my pieces sit overnight.
Step 4 - Sit your trees and elk onto you wood base where they will be glued. DO NOT glue them on now. This is just to make sure you line up your sentiment (Let It Snow) correctly in the open space between the trees. Place ink on your sentiment stamp, move the trees and the elk with your other hand and then place your sentiment.

Step 5 - Place glue on the back of each tree and glue into place. Since the tree behind the elks face is sitting partly on the tree behind it I glued a couple of small pieces of wood to the back of the front tree to make it lay flat. Then I glued some stabilizing wood on the elks buttocks too. This keeps everything flat and much easier to glue. Craft foam or thick glue dots could also work.

Step 6 - Use the tip of a small tool, paintbrush handle or paperclip to paint the snow on your ornament. Dip just the tip into your white acrylic paint and carefully drag along the edges of the trees and antlers of the elk. Then use the same tool to make snow dots all over your ornament and snow drifts along the bottom of your trees and elk. Let dry

Step 7 - I used strings from burlap to hang my ornament, but you can use anything such as ribbon, string, yarn or wire.

Congratulations! You just made an adorable ornament to either give as a gift or keep for your own decorating. 

Here's a glimpse of some of my other Christmas projects.

#CraftForBrainHealth  #aNaturalWayToRelax  #TheNewYoga

Happy crafting and thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Card: Happy Winter

Hello Everyone!   Today as I was making my Christmas card it dawned on me that I've been blogging for a year now. It's my Blogging Anniversary! It was a year ago when I discovered paper crafting too and I was so new to it I didn't even share any of my Christmas cards on here.  So this year I get to change that. It's been a wonderful journey of trying new things, growth and meeting so many talented and fabulous people. I've truly and thoroughly enjoyed it. Today's post is short and sweet as I've run out of time, but wanted to share my card. Hope everyone is having a great day.

There are 5 layers of cardstock. The base card is from the DCWV Neutrals Cardstock Stack and the blue printed paper and front snowman tag are from the DCWV Winter Solstice Stack. I usually don't use the pre-made tags from my stacks, but these ones are too cute to pass up. Other materials are white feathers, Sizzix Flourishes #10 (556538), Sizzix Snowflakes #3, white adhesive pearls, Martha Stewart Corner Punch, flat backed adhesive gems, white glitter and Glossy accents.

Happy Crafting!

Christmas Craft: using mismatched earrings

     Don't throw those earrings away when you lose one and if they're special to you, what better way to have them then on display instead of in the back of a jewelry box. I used a lot of sparkly earrings and the light that comes off this little tree is gorgeous. Unfortunately my camera found the sparkle a little overwhelming and faded everything out, but you get the idea. I decided to use burlap in contrast to all the shine, but this might be something you could try doing on a mirror or foiled background if you want to make the most of the sparkle and reflection.

   Give it a shot. I would love to see what you create.