Easy Wood Slice Ornament DIY

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Christmas is one of my favourite times of year to craft for, I always end up full of ideas of things I want to create and not enough time to make them all. I can never stick to one style either, sometimes I’ll do something really bright and glittery and other times I’ll opt for a more simple design – just like I’ve done with these wood slice ornaments.
They are the perfect way to add a bit of Scandi, rustic farmhouse style to your Christmas tree (which is really on-trend this year so these are a great thing to make and sell on Etsy) and they are super quick and easy to make!

Wood Slice Ornament DIY

Here’s what you’ll need

• Wooden Slices – I’m using Fuyit Natural Wood Slices 20 Pcs 9-10cm from Amazon
• Hand Lettered Christmas Rounds SVG file
• Vinyl
• Acrylic Paint – I bought this set from Amazon as I was only after little pots, wasn’t sure how the quality would be for the price but it’s actually really good!
• Cricut Machine or other vinyl cutting machine

Finding a suitable SVG

The SVG file I am using for this Wood Slice Ornament DIY is ‘Hand Lettered Christmas Rounds‘ by Kitaleigh but I actually bought it as part of The Christmas Craft Bundle Volume 4. The bundle includes 50 different design files which would cost a whopping £232.95 if you bought them individually but because I bought it as the bundle I got it for £18.24! It has so many useful files and they all come with a commercial licence so you can use them to make products to sell with no issues.

Wood Slice Ornament How-To

Check you wood slices

When using a natural product such as these wood slices it’s a good idea to lay them all out and check to see if any are a particularly irregular shape. I had one or two that were slightly more oval than circular so I’ve put them to one side to use on another project and I’m using the ones that are the most uniform in size and shape.

Measure your wood slices

The wood slices I bought from Amazon are all around 9-10cm diameter but I’ll only be applying our vinyl to the inner 7.5cm or so of wood as I want it to have a nice ‘border’ around it. Take note of where the hole is positioned on your wood slices, some of them are a bit lower down than others so you might have to adjust your design placement slightly.

Create a size template in Design Space

We want this to be a nice quick project (time is money after all!) and the easiest way to do this is with sizing templates! Select the shape tool from the left-hand side menu and add a few circles to your canvas. You can manipulate the size easily by using the Size section of the top menu bar – just type 7.5cm (or whatever size you are working to) in the width box and Design Space will adjust the height of the shape accordingly.

Upload your SVG files to Design Space

In the left-hand toolbar you have the upload option – click that and then click Upload Image. Once it’s uploaded, select the image from your library and click ‘Insert Images’.
It will now appear on your mat and you can manipulate the size of it to fit in your design area box we laid out in the previous step.

Resize your files

The sizing circles we made make this part really easy, just drag the expand arrow on the corner of your SVG’s to make them fill your sizing circle.

Cut your vinyl

Once you have all your designs sized correctly, click on the ‘Make It’ button and follow the Cricut prompts. I’m using standard self-adhesive vinyl for this project as I find it sticks fine to the wood but some people recommend using HTV on wood.

Weed your design

I used the reverse weeding method for this project as I had multiple cuts lined up on one sheet of vinyl, I’d already spaced them as closely together as I could to prevent any waste and reverse weeding meant I didn’t lose any of the little intricate bits of the design.

 

Prepare your wood

The wood slices I’m using come pre-sanded so I’m just giving them a wipe over with a cloth to remove any fine sawdust. If you are using wood you have cut yourself you will want to give it a rub down with fine-grit sandpaper and possibly a coat of sealant.

Applying the vinyl

The main trick with getting vinyl to stick to wood is to make sure you apply enough pressure. I rub over the design with my squidge a few times and then keep applying pressure as I remove the transfer tape.

Video Tutorial – Making Wood Slice Ornaments

Wood Slice Ornament Design Ideas

K.I.S.S

Keep it super simple! These ornaments look lovely as they are with just the plain wood, the vinyl decal and some jute string to hang them with. Want a bit more colour? Try using bakers twine!

Baby got back(ground)

I think these ornaments look really effective with a contrasting background colour. I decided to add a painted black background to mine – to avoid a harsh outline I used a dry brushing technique to feather out the edge as much as possible. I also tried doing some mixed colour background, again using the dry brushing technique to feather out the edges. You need to load your brush up with a good amount of acrylic paint, add it to the centre of your wood slice and spread it out a little bit and then add a paintbrush full of a complimentary colour. Using a wide brush to pul the two colours together and spread it out on the ornaments with a spiral motion (it’s easier than it sounds trust me)

All the bells and whistles bows

I decided to make my ornaments a bit more farmhouse chic by adding some wooden beads and dark gingham (I’d be tempted to call it a buffalo plaid maybe?) bow. If that isn’t your style then how about gold or silver bells and some faux Christmas foliage.

Selling Wood Slice Ornaments

Christmas Decorations are always a great little money maker and these wood slice ornaments are ideal to make and sell on Etsy. They are easy to make and a simple enough design that can be jazzed up a number of ways.

If you want to change it up even more why not offer to do personalised name ornaments, all you have to do is find a nice font (pick one that is easy to read and weed) and maybe a few flourishes such as snowflakes or stars and you’ve got yourself a whole new product!

How to price

According to the data I’ve pulled from Marmalead, on average individual wood slice ornaments are selling for £5.50 with Free UK Delivery. If you are looking to sell them as a set then you would need to scale the price accordingly – I would suggest a set of 2 for £10, a set of 3 for £13 and a set of 4 for £16.50 all with FreeUK Delivery.

Keywords for Etsy

Christmas decor and decorations is a saturated category on Etsy so you want to try and niche down your keywords to fit the aesthetic of the decoration as that what people will be searching for in particular. Some good long-tail keywords to use would be – Scandi Christmas, Hygge Decoration, Wooden Tree Decor, Rustic Christmas. Remeber to try and use the keywords in your title, description and tags.

 

Fancy a set of these for your tree but don’t want to make them yourself?
Good news – I’ve opened an Etsy store!