DIY Wood Slice Wreath

This DIY Wood Slice Wreath is a gorgeous holiday project that’s easy to make and will add a little rustic charm to your home.

I had a bunch of logs in my yard that I knew would make the perfect wood slices, so I cut them up and dried them out.

Which was cool. But then I had to find something to do with them!

Christmas was soon approaching, and while I could have made another ornament ( I have many, many diy ornaments,) I decided I’d be better off trying something new.

So I went with a wood slice wreath! Which is probably not all that exciting to you, random person who probably found me on Pinterest. But I don’t do wreaths. In fact, this will be the first wreath adult-me has ever owned.

I think I’m off to a promising start.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. If you click and make a purchase, I may receive compensation (at no additional cost to you.)

Wood Slice Planning

Wood slices are obviously required to make a wood slice wreath. I grabbed some logs from my yard, cut them up, then dried them with denatured alcohol. You can find that whole saga here.

If chopping up wood from the yard isn’t your idea of fun, you can also buy wood slices from Amazon or your local craft store. They will probably be more uniform in color than my slices, and also a bit bigger.

Regardless of how you get your slices, you’ll want to make your wreath match your wood slice size. To give you an idea, my slices were probably between 2 1/2″ and 3 1/2″ in diameter, depending on the slice.

All measurements I talk about in this post are based on my slices, obviously. You might want to scale up or down depending on what you’re working with.

Wreath Materials

• Wood Slices– I used around 20 slices, although you’ll probably need more for a bigger wreath.
• Cardboard Box or Foam Board – I cut down a cardboard box leftover from my move, but if you don’t have any of those around, you could also use foamboard (typically $2-$3 at a craft store)
• Two Contrasting Ribbons – I used regular burlap, not burlap ribbon, since I had it in the house. This worked fine, and meant I didn’t have to purchase anything new.
• Wood Glue
• Vinyl Letters – My awesome friend Natalie (who talks about Cricut Crafts over at Neli-Design) sent me these letters to use! You could also trace letters onto the slices with a paint pen, if you don’t have a Cricut.

How to Make a Wood Slice Wreath

Step 1: Arrange Slices

Arrange your slices in a two-layer thick circle. This will give you an idea of how big your wreath should be.

When I arranged my slices like this, my wreath measured 12″ across.

Step 2: Cut Wreath Support Piece

The wreath needs a bit of firm support on the back, so I cut out some cardboard in a generally circular shape.

Since I wanted to make sure the cardboard wasn’t visible behind the slices, I made the circle pretty thin. It had an outer diameter of 11″, and an inner diameter of 9.”

I just used a couple of big kitchen pot lids to trace the circles. Start with the outer circle first, so you can make sure the smaller circle/lid is placed right in the center of it.

At first I tried cutting this out with scissors, which really didn’t go well. I recommend a box cutter.

Finally, I dry-tested the circle on top of the wood slices; it looked to be just the right size.

Step 3: Glue Wreath

Lay the cardboard circle on the table, and glue the first layer of slices onto the cardboard with wood glue. I tended to put the bigger slices on this first layer, and the smaller slices on top.

Once the first layer is in place, glue the second layer of slices to the first layer of slices. I put some paint cans on top of the slices to hold everything in place while the glue dried.

Wood glue worked well for holding my slices in place, although if your slices are homemade (like mine!) and different widths, you might want to try construction adhesive.

Construction adhesive works better than wood glue in circumstances where there is a gap that needs to be filled.

Step 4: Make Bow

I am NOT a bow person, and I watched a fair number of Youtube videos about making bows before I did this.

Honestly, they were all ridiculously complicated, and I was not into it. So I made it up based on a bad Pinterest image I came across.

Basically, I wrapped the two ribbons around my planner. It seemed the right size.

Then I slid the ribbon off the planner, and tied some twine around the center.

It took a little futzing to get the ribbon tails to go where I wanted them to go, but once they were in the right spot, I separated the loops, and wrapped another piece of red ribbon around the center.

Then I used that red ribbon tied around the center to tie the bow to the wreath.

Step 5: Add Letters

My friend Natalie over at Neli Design sent me some awesome vinyl letters to add to the wreath. She goes into all the details about how to make and apply them here.

It’s really easy, I promise! And if you’re interested in the SVG files for our letters and fonts (as well as some extra words to choose from,) you can grab those for free here!

FAQs

How did you cut your wood slices?

I go into all the details over here, but I used a miter saw (which is not the safest option.)

I’d love to see you actually make that bow. Do you have a video?

Yes! Check it out on Youtube here.

Do you have any other holiday crafts?

This is my first wreath, but I’ve done a bunch of ornaments. This snowman ornament is probably my favorite, but these embroidery hoop ornaments are super quick and easy if you’re short on time.

Cost Considerations

Everything I used for this project was something I already had, so this wreath was totally free for me! But if you need to buy all the supplies, here’s an approximate breakdown:

Item	Cost
Wood Slices	$13
Burlap Ribbon	$5
Red Ribbon	$3
Foam Board/Cardboard	$3
Total	$24

Personally, I wouldn’t pay $24 for this wreath, so hopefully you already have some of the supplies like I did to cut down the cost!

Final Thoughts

Given my terrible bow-making skills, I had some serious apprehensions about how this wreath would turn out. But it actually looks great, and I love it so much!

And I was so excited to collaborate with Natalie! Plus, she lives in Canada, and it was strangely cool to get some international mail when she sent me the letters.

If you like this project, or think you might make a similar wreath, be sure to save this post to Pinterest so you can find it again later!