Handmade Paint-Stick Ornaments

Materials Needed:

• 5 five-gallon paint sticks (about 1 1/2 inches wide)
• acrylic paint with brush or spray paint
• black wire (available at craft supply stores)
• scrapbook paper (light colors work best)

• accents such as stars, snowflakes, etc. (available at craft supply stores, optional)
• Mod Podge
• printer
• templates (available free at Today’s Fabulous Finds)

Cut Interfacing to Fabric Size

Paint sticks are perfect to make these ornaments because they are the perfect thickness and the wood is already fairly smooth. They need to be the large 5 gallon sticks, which are nearly 1 1/2" wide. Ask for them at your home improvement store. Some stores will give them to you for free and others charge a nominal price.

Enlarge Photo+Shrink Photo-

Set Up the Templates

You can create the saying that will appear on the ornaments using a word processing program on your computer or by searching online for downloadable templates.

Important: If you have a laser printer, print the templates directly onto scrapbook paper. If you have an inkjet printer, first print the templates with the printer then photocopy onto scrapbook paper (otherwise the ink will run when you apply Mod Podge.) Also note that light- to medium-toned scrapbook paper works best.

Cut the Paint Sticks

Clamp the paint sticks together in bundles and mark every 4 inches. Cut them with a band saw. If you don't have a band saw, you can use a jigsaw, or a miter box and hand saw. Lightly sand the sticks to smooth any rough parts (mostly the ends).