Wood Slice Ornaments & Gifts

(This post is part of my Frosty Festivities 2015 Blog Event – see a list of all the posts HERE)

These wood slice ornaments and gifts are so fun. I want to buy a bunch more slices so I can keep these all for myself, and make more for gifts! My favourite is the penguin keyring, which I’ve added to my bunch of keys already – no-one else is getting that!

Those are Little Miss’ hands in the photo above. The slices are about 5 – 6cm tall.

I don’t have a tutorial as such for these… because they were so easy there’s not much instruction needed!

The slices I used were Amy Tangerine’s Finder’s Keepers Wood Slices. When these arrived I was a bit disappointed with them. They were a bit thicker than I thought they’d be (about 5mm deep – not that deep but a bit thicker than I’d like for scrapbook pages). They also just looked messy – mainly because a lot of bark had fallen off. But they were greatly improved when I decided to scrape off the remaining bark with a craft knife, so the edges looked clean.

In the below photo you can see 4 slices on the left which I had already removed the bark from before realising I should take a photo. The slice on the top right still has the bark attached but it hasn’t been well sliced – the surface is very uneven. On the bottom right you can see a piece of bark which came off in one neat ring, that’s how loose it was:

I decided that 2 of the slices would have magnets stuck on the back, and 2 would have holes through the top so they could be hung for display. So I set about trying to make a hole. Unfortunately hubby had taken his drill to work and I was too impatient to wait for him to get home. So I tried to make the hole with a nail and hammer:

As you can see this didn’t go too well, as I split the wood. At first it was just a tiny crack but when I tried to make the hole bigger (thinking I could cover up the crack later) it completely broke apart. But that did mean I had a piece to experiment with, and after trying to use a screw and a screwdriver (did not work at all) I discovered that I could make a good hole with an old paper piercer! It’s important that I say OLD paper piercer, you wouldn’t want to do this with your only one as it will blunt it. I have 2 paper piercers as I blunted one years ago, so I keep that for tougher materials like this. If you have a drill that will work best!

Once I’d figured out how to make the holes I just needed to decorate the slices. This was super easy.

For the first one that would be a magnet I used the Hero Arts Lia Griffith ‘Deck The Halls’ stamp set to stamp a deer in black in the middle (with chalk ink), and two leaf garlands in gold around the deer. I did heat emboss all these, but I don’t think it made any difference so I wouldn’t bother next time! I also dotted some Mod Podge on so I could add some fine red glitter dots too:

For the next magnet slice I stamped a circular sentiment in the center (from Avery Elle ‘Joy To The World’, using Avery Elle’s ‘Cherry’ Pigment Ink), then added a thick layer of Mod Podge to the outer edge, tipping glitter on to it as I went:

For my two slices with holes I painted the centers – one white and one black, both with Martha Stewart Satin Craft Paint. Then I stuck a gold sticker (from My Mind’s Eye Christmas On Market Street) on the white slice, and painted a penguin face with white, orange, and more black paint on the black slice.

I chose to paint the majority of these slices because they had more imperfections in the wood, which is fine as I know wood is a natural element so it can’t be perfect, but I still didn’t want those showing on my finished items:

Here’s what they looked like all decorated. I did spray them with a layer of matt spray varnish as well – I’d certainly recommend varnishing one if it’s going to be a keyring:

Once the varnish was dry I tied twine through the one which would be a hanging decoration (I had to use a darning needle to get the twine through the hole), then I had a flash of inspiration and added a keyring to the penguin, and I glued magnets onto the back of the slices with no holes using superglue:

Then they were all done, ready to gift to someone for Christmas, or in my case, keep them all to myself!

Be Inspired:

Paint a penguin face on something round, or use a penguin embellishment or picture

Add stamping, glitter, or paint to something wooden (eg a wood box, frame, slice, or wood veneer shape)

Use the phrase ‘Santa Claus Is Coming To Town’ on your next project

I hope that’s given you a few ideas! Which wood slice do you like the most?

Remember that commenting on this post, and any post that goes live during November 2015, will count as another entry into the Grand Giveaway {NOW CLOSED}, but only if you’ve registered your interest in winning that prize right HERE!

I’ll be back again at 8am GMT tomorrow with the first sponsored giveaway!

Jennifer x