This is the eleventh in a series of twelve paper ornaments I’m making this year, one a month so that when December rolls around, I won’t be surprised to discover I’ve done nothing about my wish to have a fully paper crafted Christmas Tree.
I’ve talked about the concept of frequency illusion before, which is where when you are thinking about something it appears to be everywhere you look. And with social marketing programmers working behind the scenes, it is even more difficult to determine if something is a trend, or if it’s just being fed to you because you were already searching.
Either way, my Pinterest and Instagram is full of these wood slice, chalkboard painted, hand lettered ornaments, and I’m not complaining.
The title of this post is a little misleading – since this series is paper crafted ornaments, there is no chalkboard and no wood slice. But there is the look of both, in an easy to make project.
I cut circles of black paper using my Silhouette Cameo, but you could use a large punch, or freehand it with the trace-the-jar-lid technique. I then cut slightly larger circles out of brown flecked paper, and since I was using my Silhouette, I set up two little holes at the top of each ornament for stringing. Pro tip: use two holes when hanging something and the item won’t spin; it will lay flat.
Because I’ve been working on hand lettering for almost a year now, I decided to be brave and go ahead and letter my own faux chalkboards. I used a white pen, and I practiced a bit before I committed to my cut circles, but in the interest of full disclosure, each completed ornament has a reject lettering on the back. Practice makes progress, right?
I used a technique called faux calligraphy, where you write the letters in monoline leaving enough space to come back and thicken up the downstrokes to give the illusion of brush lettering. I took this free course (not an affiliate link) and it’s a great launching point if you think you might be interested in lettering since you don’t need any fancy pens or paper to start.
If you don’t want to letter the ornaments by hand, stickers or die cut or Silhouette/Cricut cut sentiments would be perfect as well.
I darkened the edges of the faux wood circles with a Sharpie, but I’m not sure it really shows. I did one green, one red and one dark brown.
A couple of loops of red and white twine for hangers and it’s all set. In addition to hanging these on a tree, I think they’d make great gift tags or place cards.
Pin this so if you’d like to make your own paper chalkboard and wood slice Christmas ornament you’ll have it saved.
Also, check out the other ornaments in this series:
No. 2 Glitter Snowflake Ornament
No. 3 Paper Christmas Tree Ornament
No. 4 3-D Paper Snowflake Ornament
No. 5 Paper Strip Ball Ornament
No. 7 Glitter Paper Star Ornament
No. 8 Hipster Paper Reindeer Ornament
No. 9 Peppermint Candy Ornament
No. 10 Brown Paper Packages Ornament
No. 12 Santa Hat Tree Top and Full Tree Reveal
This post will be linked up at some of these great link up parties.
Your tree is gonna look amazing! I’ve enjoyed seeing all your decorations all year.
I’d never thought of it as frequency illusion but I do think woodslices and chalkboards are everywhere! This idea is such an easy way to get that look.
I love the simplicity and elegance of this ornament. Thanks for the share!