I love fall! I love everything about it: the leaves, the wind, and most importantly – the turkey! I LOVE Thanksgiving. I love this holiday because it reminds us to slow down and be thankful. And did I mention…it’s Turkey time!

With that, let me introduce you to our newest Thanksgiving tradition: the DIY wood-sliced Turkey ornaments! As you can see in the picture above, they come in two varieties – using feathers or painted leaves for the “wings”.

Supplies:

• Qty 2 wood slices – about 1/4-inch thick and 2-inches in diameter. Mine are from our old Christmas tree…yes I kept it just for craft events such as this one. But if you’re not crazy like me and don’t keep your tree trunk from each Christmas they do sell wood slices at most hobby stores.
• Puff paint (brown or black, red and orange)
• Leaves or feathers (we had blue feathers laying around the craft closet so Owen grabbed those)
• Googly eyes (we improvised with clay eyes I made but tiny googly ones would be better)
• Qty 2 small sticks / twigs about 2″ long for the turkey’s “legs”
• Hot glue
• Paint – optional if you want to paint your leaves

Step by step:

First, drill some holes in your wood slice. Using a 3/16″ drill bit drill two holes for the feet about a 1/2-inch apart near the bottom of the wood slice. Then, using a 1/8-inch drill bit (or smaller) drill into the perimeter of the wood slice (drilling into the bark, towards the center of the slice). These holes are for the wings – whether you decide to use leaves or feathers. I drilled 5 holes, but if you want more spots to insert the feathers or leaves then you can drill more.

Now draw, with the puffy paint, the turkey’s face (as shown below), and place the two eye balls in the wet paint. Set this aside and let it completely dry.

While you wait for the paint to dry, if you’re using leaves, you can gather your leaves and paint them. Then let them completely dry.

Finally, warm up that hot glue gun! Dip the tip of the feather or leaf in the hot glue and insert in to the pre-drilled perimeter holes.

Lastly, insert the legs / twigs into the two holes you drilled earlier, and hot glue them together behind the wood slice. This will help the turkey sit up straight.

And that’s it! DIY Thanksgiving decor that you and the kiddos can do together!

Please let us know about your own Thanksgiving decor, or send us pictures of how your  wood-slice turkeys turned out!