DIY Rustic Wood Block Christmas Gifts Decor

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Last Updated on June 22, 2019 by Chris Butler

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Are you dreaming of a rustic Christmas? These wood block Christmas Gifts are a must have for any Farmhouse Style decor.  The best part is they’re budget friendly and fairly easy to make!  Most of this stuff I already had, but even if I had to go buy it all it would be less than $10!

Supplies Needed Rustic Wood Block Christmas Decor

• 2″x6″ piece of wood  2 feet in length
• Dark colored paint or stain
• Creamy White or light colored paint
• Sandpaper
• Glue
• Ribbon
• Embellishments
• Hot glue gun
• Saw

Rustic Wood Block Christmas Decor Tutorial

First we need to cut our wood.  I did three different sizes 10″, 8″, and 6″ in length.  Next sand the edges and corners to round them out a bit.

Here’s a tip: if you do a lot of rustic, farmhouse style projects with wood, leave your wood outside.  The best way, to get the weathered look is to….. leave it out in the weather.  When I pick up wood from Lowes I unload it in the backyard and leave it there until I need it.

As you can see the wood I used for this project is already greyed and beat up.  Perfect.

No worries, we can recreate that look with new wood.  Start with painting all of your blocks with the dark colored paint.  After that dries, sand the edges and corners again until you start to see the wood show through.

Tip: To get paint to crackle use glue.  Regular Elmers Glue will work.

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Pour a dab of glue in the center of the blocks and use a brush to spread it evenly over the front and sides.   You want to wait until it dries a bit, but does not completely dry.  We want it dry enough to stay put, but still wet so it weathers our paint.  It should take about 5-10 minutes depending on the humidity level.  I wrote a complete tutorial on how to crackle paint with glue here.

After the glue is almost dry, brush on your white paint.  I actually used a little too much paint in this picture.  The top and edges should look like the right side, and more grey should be showing in the middle areas.  That’s ok though, it can all be fixed with sanding after it dries.

You will be able to see the effects of the glue when the white paint is dry.  You get a nice crackled paint that allows more of the grey to show through.

Now is the time to go over it again with a sander.  Fix those little mess ups like I made with too much white paint.

Next we get to add the ribbon!  I purchased mine from the Dollar Store, not too shabby for a dollar.  Measure and cut your ribbon for each block and hot glue in place.    I just glued the ends of the ribbon to the back of the block versus going all the way around.  Be sure to leave a bit of a gap so we have room to tie it and add embellishments.

Back to the front, tie a piece of Jute Twine at the center of each ribbon so it will bunch together.  Trim off the twine on the bottom ribbon.  I used about 12″ of jute twine to tie the top ribbon.  Then you can use the extra to tie on the pine and berries.

I trimmed the pine and berries off some garland I already had.  You could also make a bow or glue on a poinsettia for the center.  A bell would look great too!

Tuck some extra strands of berries behind the ribbon for added charm.  Then hot glue the ribbon and your embellishments all together for good measure.  Now you’re all set!

I love love love how they turned out! Don’t you?

Be sure to checkout the Rustic Christmas Trees I made to go with the gift boxes.

Chris Butler

Chris Butler has helped thousands of crafters learn how to use their Cricut machine without feeling overwhelmed.  She is a best selling author and an up and coming designer.    For fun Chris enjoys designing SVG Files, hanging out with her family (preferably at the lake), traveling,  and volunteering at her church.  She is a wife and mom of two crazy fun kids.