Every year our church has a huge dinner the first weekend in November that is the major fundraiser for the school and church. The entire community comes together to host the dinner and provide a craft fair of sorts in the gym at the school. Each family is asked to donate to these booths and this year I decided to make some fun wood ornaments to donate. I was at a garage sale over a year ago and they had these wood slices that I thought would be perfect for a craft project in the future (at the time I had no idea what I would use them for!) Well the nice people who were running the garage sale ended up giving these to me for free that day! Yay! With all the wonderful ideas on Instagram and Pinterest I became inspired to make wood ornaments that were adorned with colorful buttons. I have always wanted to do a craft project with buttons but had just never found the right one. These ornaments are a perfect craft for kids and adults and are inexpensive and fun to create!
This post contains affiliate links for your convenience, see my full disclosure and privacy policy for more information.
SUPPLIES NEEDED TO CREATE DIY WOOD ORNAMENTS
- Wood slices (any size would work)
- Chalk paint or any type of paint (I used Little Black Dress and Blessed from A Maker’s Studio)
- Assorted colored buttons
- Clear Gorilla Glue
- Drill
- Ribbon or jute twine
So instead of purchasing wood slices, you could make your own from a tree limb in your yard. I could have done this but I knew it would take time to cut and sand each piece and wanted to get a jump start on these so as not to stress myself out as the time was coming up quickly.
I wanted to add color to the wood for the buttons to stand out more but you could totally skip this step and just glue the buttons directly to the wood slices. I used A Maker’s Studio Rescue, Restore paint in Blessed and Little Black Dress applying 2 coats of each to the wood slices.
Now it’s just up to your imagination on what you want to create with your buttons! I used a variety of green and brown to make the trees. I like using the clear Gorilla Glue as it holds up very well and will dry clear so you won’t see it through the button holes.
Red and white buttons work well for candy canes and I also made some fun wreaths. I think this is a great activity for kids to glue the buttons on or create different designs with the buttons. There are so many assorted button options available at craft stores or online at stores like Amazon.
Once you have your design glued on and it has had time to dry you will want to drill a hole in the top for ribbon or twine to be able to hang it.
I liked using ribbon for some of the ornaments and jute twine for others to give them a more rustic look.