Remember how I said I raided the unfinished wood aisle? Here I go again. There was just something about the material that spoke to me, maybe the rustic quality of it, maybe the fact that I was thinking about a Carpenter, who knows. I just found endless inspiration there. When I saw these pre-cut wooden blocks, I thought it would be great to do something reminiscent of a child’s alphabet blocks, but emphasizing the grandeur of that particular child’s role.
Start by drilling a hole through the block to make this into a square bead. A scrap piece of wood underneath the block is helpful so you don’t drill through your table. I may have tried to take that shortcut, and my table is paying the price.
To get a really beaten up, rustic effect, I sprayed the blocks with a coat of primer, and then a coat of dark brown spray paint.
Then I finished with another coat in a creamy white.
I sanded the edges to get rid of any rough parts my drill made, but also to expose some more of the brown layer, and to make everything look a little less glossy and pretty.
Stamp your letters on each block with Staz-On ink. My ink pad is just about out of juice, but I think it worked for me.
String the blocks onto a piece of wire, with another bead between them. Left to their own devices the beads will twist and turn on the wire, so I stuck them all together with a little hot glue.
Trim the ends of the wire, and close with a loop to keep the beads in place.
Each word should be on a separate wire, so for my first word, instead of closing the wire with a loop, I brought it to the top to make a hanger, then just wrapped the ends around each other. Glue each word stacked on top of each other.
By changing the words and paint colors, this ornament could be used anywhere. Simple Christmas greetings would make a great hostess or neighbor gift, or personalizing with the year and teacher’s name could be a great Christmas gift to send to school.
