Supplies:
Thin, flat, wooden shapes
Wood glue
Paint
Craft supplies, such as wooden pieces, rhinestones, ribbon, and/or wiggly eyes
If you’re nearly broke this Christmas, but you need gifts for others, you might be interested in the wooden shapes that are featured at a large craft store. Small, thin, and unfinished, the shapes don’t look like much now – but they’re super cheap. And, when you glue several of the shapes together, you create the high-end look of a solid wood home accent. Great for anyone from your young child, to your grandmother, a wood gift will impress.
Thin wooden shapes from a craft store can cost as little as a quarter. They’re unfinished so you can easily create the look that you want for the item. Some shapes that you’ll find at a craft store include lighthouses, wild animals, pets, letters, numbers, and sports images. There are literally dozens and dozens of shapes from which to choose, and when you glue some of them together, you end up with a fabulous gift; no one will think you’re cheap! In fact, they’ll think you picked the perfect gifts from a high-end catalog.
Wood glue works great to glue one shape to another. Apply the glue to one shape, position the second, identical shape on top of it, and continue in that manner. When the item is as thick as you want, it’s finished. However, you can much improve the look of the gift by painting it, and by adding particular attributes and accents.
To save time, effort, and money on the paint job, start out by painting one side of one of the shapes. Do that twice so that you have a painted front and a painted back to the wood gift. Paint just the perimeters of the other shapes and use them between the two painted pieces. So, take one painted piece, apply glue to the unpainted side, and stick it to one of the pieces that has just the painted perimeter. Continue to glue on perimeter-painted shapes until the animal, vehicle, or other piece, is as thick as you want it to be. Finally, glue on the piece that has a fully painted side.
Since the craft store shapes are already smooth, and shaped, you can simply take those thin, cheap pieces, and turn them into a heavy wooden gift. Accents to make the finished piece look even more beautiful include wiggly eyes, jewel eyes, a ribbon collar (with or without rhinestones), doll hair, fake fur, additional wooden pieces, decorative paper or cloth, beads, and felt. When you finish with the cheap, easy, but striking gift, the recipient won’t feel cheated at all!
