Wood Grain Nativity & a HUGE Silhouette Giveaway #SilhouetteChallenge

Good morning! It’s a busy day here on the blog! Make sure you enter to win my Christmas Wish Basket full of craft supplies & pop over to see some cute brown paper packages gift wrapping ideas. I’m also excited to participating in another Silhouette Challenge! This month’s theme is the holidays! So I am excited to show you how to make this Wood Grain Nativity. Annnd you’ll want to scroll down to find TONS of holiday inspired ideas from the Silhouette Challenge facebook group. I also have a HUGE Silhouette giveaway with TWO winners. Eek! So keep reading! You don’t want to miss a thing! :)

Painted Nativity {tutorial}

This post is brought to you by DecoArt.

Before we get started I just wanted to say Happy Veteran's Day to all the veterans out there ~ especially my dad & grandpas! I really appreciate the example & sacrifices they & all veterans have made for our country.

Ok….now are you ready for this? ha! It’s my very first Christmas tutorial of the year ~ a super cute painted nativity! Yay! I love, love Christmas. One of my favorite decorations to bring out are my nativity sets. Yes, I have a few. ;) I love having ones that my kiddos can play with! Last Christmas one of my best friends, Robyn from Create it. Go! sent me an unfinished nativity set. I didn’t have time to get it done last year so I was super excited to get to work on it this year in plenty of time for Christmas with the help of some fabulous Americana Acrylic Paints. ;) I love acrylic paints. They dry super fast, and they are perfect for a project like this one. I’m also going to share two of my favorite crafty tips ~ how to make a easy hand sander & how to easily add that distressed look to wood without using wood stain. So keep reading to see all the details. :)

omtwi finale {block nativity set}

Seriously. I am in shock!  I can’t believe I won One Month to Win It!  Crazy! :)

First off, congratulations to the other two ladies in the finales, Molly & Kate!
I think we all agreed the competition was TONS of fun,

and best of all we got to meet some new crafty friends! :)
Thank you to everyone from OMTWI! :)  It was a blast!
Oh by the way….auditions for Season 7 start Monday!

Annnd for this project I have to thank my hubby!
I told you before how indecisive I was about which project to submit.
I had a couple already done.  Of course, I asked my hubby what he thought…
he wasn’t too impressed with what I had come up with (at least he’s honest) ;)

and he said why don’t you make a nativity….so once I had the idea
the rest just fell into place.  I really do love how it turned out! 

There’s another reason I love it, too.  I tell YOU in a minute! :)
 

 

This project was super easy & best of all, didn't cost me a thing! 
Wahoo!  I just used scraps of wood from our shed,

and a few craft supplies that I already had on hand! :)

Here's the {easy} tutorial on how I painted my blocks.

To make each piece:

I just got my block of wood. 

Painted the face of it a creamy white.  Let it dry. 

I used vinyl nativity pieces as stencils.  I cut these using my Silhouette & software. 

I applied my vinyl to my block of wood & then painted over it. 

It took about 2-3 coats of paint depending on the color I was using. 

Then I let it dry completely & then carefully removed the vinyl. 

Touched up any areas the paint might of bled through with a fine tipped paint brush. 

Sanded the edges with sand paper to give my blocks a worn appearance.

Then I went over the entire block with some light wood stain. 

I removed any excess stain with a rag.  That was it!  Super easy!

In my OMTWI post I didn’t have space to show you my cute star. 
I had bought this star in Nauvoo when we went this past summer,
& it made the perfect star for the nativity. 
I just got a block of wood, painted it, drilled a small hole
& stuck a stiff piece of wire in the hole & then hot glued my star on.  Perfect!

Here’s some more pictures!  I took a ton! :)

 

Here are the sizes of my blocks:

{All in inches}

Baby Jesus 4 x 2

Mary 5.5 x 2.5
Joseph 5.5 x 3

camel 5 x 7

star block 4.5 x 2.5

 

stable 18 x 10
wise man #1 5 x 2.5

wise man #2 5.5 x 5

wise man #3 4 x 3.5

shepherd #1 5.5 x 3

shepherd #2 4 x 2.5

shepherd #3 6 x 3

both sheep 2.5 x 3

donkey 5.5 x 4

cow 6 x 4

OK now here’s my favorite part about this nativity set-
it can be played with!!!  Nothing can be broken!
So it’s perfect for the kiddos to take out, stack up,
line up & act out the Christmas story with.
Annnd hopefully in the process learn
more about the true meaning of Christmas! :)

 

Yep, I spent $5.00 (or under) on this project. 
So I’m adding the $5.00 (or under) button to this post. Yay!

Reminder:  If you have any $5.00 (or under)
Christmas projects, click the button & link up. :)

Thanks again to everyone from OMTWI
and to all of YOU for voting each week!!!