DIY – Hanging Wood Slice Decorations

Making something from nothing is something I love to do (in a craft sense). So when on a dog walk one day I saw a lovely tree stump and thought to myself, wouldn't it be nice to paint something on that! Then came the thought of perhaps finding a small tree branch that had fallen down and making it into little mini wood slices to paint... So that is what I did!

On yet another dog walk I found a nice tree branch stood up against a bin. I kid you not, it was like fate. That or its the idea that you don't really notice things until you happen to be thinking about them. No matter which, I prefer the fate idea! It was too big to disguise as a stick my dog had wanted to bring home, meaning I had proudly drag it behind me as if towing an 8ft tree branch under my right arm was a normal thing to be doing. Oh the price of being creative and on a pinch.

There are many creative uses for wood slices, the possibilities are endless. But here is a few ideas for some inspiration:

• Hanging decorations
• Coasters
• Gifts
• Gift tags

The first thing to do was to obviously - slice it up! For this I took it to my Dad who had the right equipment and knowledge on how to do so. It's important to use the equipment safely and to be aware that the wood can fling off in all directions sometimes after being cut.

We set the chop saw up in the garden and I held the branch as Dad fed it through and sliced them to about 1 - 2 cms thickness. It is totally up to personal preference on how thick you would like them to be. My idea was to make them into Christmas presents so I didn't want to make them too thick as they'd end up being quite heavy on the tree.

This was my Dad posing as I had forgotten to take a picture, hence where he has no safety equipment on

Once they were all sliced, I laid them individually out on an outside table to let them 'weather'. This just lets them breathe and colour after being cut. I found that mine changed colour around three times before finally settling.

The cut wood slices outside weathering

With the chunkier knots of the wood that couldn't be sliced; I made those into pencil pots by drilling holes into the surface. Enough for a pencil to sit into. I then sold these at my craft market.

Before painting on my wood slices I made sure to sand them down well as there was some rough bits from where the blade had gone through. It just makes it easier to paint on them smoothly, especially if you're using paint pens. 

Here is a couple of the wood slices that I had painted. I sourced a lot of my ideas from Pinterest and the rest from my brain! 

What do we think? Do you have any creative ideas for what to make out of the wood slices? If so, please share below in the comments!

Thanks for reading,

Laura-Jane x

DIY - Recycled jars into handmade candles

I don't know about you, but whenever I'm throwing away a pretty jar I tend to ooh and aah about the many things I can do with them.

It wasn't till recently that I finally put my foot down and put ideas into practice. That and it being a tight Christmas this year! My idea was to create my own candles in them, something which I'd never done before. To help with this, I did a little research online into what resources I'll need and how to go about it. After researching I realised that's it's actually pretty simple!

Things you will need

• Wax flakes (I chose soy flakes as they are better for the environment)
• Candle wax thermometer
• Fragrance oils
• Wicks
• Something to glue the wick down with (I used a hot glue gun)
• Old jar
• Saucepan and bowl (to make a bain-marie)
• A wicking pin (I used an old piece of cardboard and put a hole in it)

Step one: 

First thing to do is to wash out your jars, making sure to clean them thoroughly to get rid of any smells. It can be tricky to remove the label on some jars but a good trick is to let them soak for a long amount of time in hot water, or rub a tiny amount of cooking oil over the label.

Step two: 

Step two is to get everything you need out and arranged. There is nothing worse than being half way through and not having everything you want within reach!

Step three:

Measure out your wax flakes. I found that 5oz (150g) was enough to fill one of my smaller jars. You can only really know what is best for you through trial and error. You will then want to set up your Bain-Marie. To do this you will need to fill the saucepan almost halfway with water and leave to heat. Once it's ready place your bowl on top and add your measured out flakes. (Make sure you use a bowl you're not afraid of ruining).

Step four:

You'll need to keep an eye on the temperature your wax is at, the perfect melted temperature is between the 60 and 80 mark. In the meantime, whilst your wax is melting you can prepare your jars by adding the wick. You can purchase little stickers specifically for attaching the wick to the bottom of the glass or like me you can use a hot glue gun. Just remember that you will be able to see the wick through the bottom of the glass.

I found that I needed to turn my hob up to full power as I was finding it difficult to reach the 60/80 mark

Be careful when using the hot glue gun, it can get very hot

Step five:

Once your wax is fully melted it's best to let it cool a little before putting in your fragrance and pouring into the jars. I let mine cool to around the 50/55 mark before dropping in my fragrance. It's really difficult to say how much you'll need, because I think it depends on personal preference and brand that you use. I bought my oils from Amazon, it was a basic beginners pack and included fragrances such as: coconut, chocolate, vanilla, sandalwood and rose garden. One thing I did find is that once my candles did set, is that the fragrance did die down a little. Use a jug to help you pour the wax accurately into the jars.

I used bits of cardboard to hold my wicks in place, simply by cutting to size and piercing a hole through the middle

Step six:

Once the candles are set you can then cut the wicks down to an acceptable size. In my case I found that the top of some of my candles had sunk down in the middle! I was a bit worried and didn't know what to do.

However, after googling I found a good tip to help resolve it. It said to use a hairdryer to re-heat the surface and then leave the wax to set again. I found this worked perfectly and solved everything!

Step seven: 

Now is the fun part! This part is optional but I decided to decorate the outside of my jars as I was planning to give them as gifts. On some on my candles I put glitter on the top as the wax was almost setting.

Things you can use for decorating:

• Ribbon
• Tinsel
• Glitter
• String
• Beads
• Paint

Here is a few examples of how I had decorated mine:

I decided to create labels for mine as I planned to sell a few on my craft market stall.

I haven't yet experimented with using any colouring in my candles. Have any of you used colouring before? And if so, do have any tips?

Hope this has helped, and thank you for reading!

Laura-Jane x