Every Friday for the twenty-four weeks leading up to December 1st, we will be making a handmade Christmas ornament. Follow along and make them all or pick and chose your favorites.

This week was a doing some cross stitching into wood, so get out those power tools.

Actually, if you are comfortable with a drill this is quite the easy project. The main thing is being careful with your planning so all your holes are pretty evenly spaced. (Mine could have been a touch better, but I still like it.

You can find birch slices in all different sizes in most craft stores these days. You want some that are on the larger size, 2″ – 3″ for this project. I’ve even seen them with jute hanging loops already on them, though that added a lot to the cost, when I can drill a hole and put jute through it myself.

Cross Stitched Wood Slice Ornament

Supplies

• wood slice
• paper
• ruler
• pencil
• tapestry needle
• drill
• small drill bit (I used 1/16″)
• sandpaper (optional)
• polyurethane
• embroidery floss (I used metallic red)
• pliers
• 10″ jute twine or thin ribbon for hanging
• glue (optional)

1. Figure out the design for your initial, I suggest you keep it pretty simple. You can find lots of cross stitch alphabets online.

Using a ruler draw out a graph the size you want your stitches to be. Keep in mind you can’t have them do small that you can’t drill out the holes because they are too close together. Mine were 3/8″ x 3/8″. I probably could have gone down to 1/4″. Draw in your X’s.

2. Use the needle to poke holes in the paper where you will need each of your holes to be drilled, the ends of each stitch.

Place upside down (so it will be the right direction on the front) on the back of the wood slice and use a pencil to mark each of those holes. (I actually did this on the front on my slide and when I drilled I ended up getting marks I didn’t want from the drill. So, do what I say, not what I did.)

3. Carefully drill a hole through at each mark. Use the smallest drill bit you can that still allows your needle to go through.

Drill a hole at the top of the wood slice for the hanging ribbon. You may want to use a bigger drill bit here, but I didn’t bother.

When finished, sand if necessary.

(If you want to seal the wood do so now, but be very careful not to fill the holes you just drilled.)

4. Cut a piece of embroidery floss and knot one end. I used all six strands in the floss to do my ornament. Using the tapestry needle cross stitch your design onto the wood slice. Make sure the thread lays evenly and tightly on the wood with each stitch. I had to go back and fix a few strands after this picture.

Knot off at the end.

(Ignore the mess on the back of mine, it was a pinterest fail, but I didn’t want to waste the birch slice.)

I found it was tight to pull the needle through in the holes I had to go through more than once. Pliers made it much easier to grip the needle and pull it in those spots.

5. I like to make sure my embroidery floss knots stay knotted, especially with the metallic floss, so I put a little glue on them.

6. Thread a single strand of jute twine or thin ribbon through the hole you made for hanging. Knot it against the wood slice. Then tie the ends together to form a hanging loop.

Knotting it first against the wood will give you a loop that is the right directions for hanging. (I hate when loops make an ornament hand sideways!)