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