Wood Burn Centerpiece Tutorial {MOPS}

As the Creative Activities Leader for our local MOPS chapter, one of my responsibilities is to create the centerpieces for our tables. Read on to see how I achieved the below look using a few simple techniques!

The theme for this year provided by MOPS International is, "Be You Bravely". The logo they created and supporting art features a feather, arrow and hand drawn typography. The look evokes a feel of a "free spirit". This made me think to use natural elements such as wood, sticks and feathers. I came up with the idea of burning the theme logo into a wood round slice as the base of our centerpieces. To finish off the look we painted sticks, added feathers to some of the tops and placed them in a clear glass vase to sit upon the wood round. A cut-out paper feather hung from one of the sticks to show the table name. Below are some of the completed centerpieces, we had seven tables total!

To recreate this look, or a similar one, follow below tutorial:

WOOD CENTERPIECE MATERIALS:

• (1) Medium wood round slice -available at Joann or Michaels
• Masking tape
• Pen or pencil
• Exacto knife
• Gold paint
• Paint brush
• Image printout
• Saral transfer paper -available online in multiple colors at Amazon.com
• Wood burning pen - available at Joann, Michaels or online at Amazon.com

INSTRUCTIONS:

1.  Cover the outside edge of your wood round with masking tape. Use a light color tape such as white so you can see the outer edge of the wood. This will be your guide.
2.  Start about 1/4" from the dark edge of the wood and draw two lines around the circumference of the wood about 1/4"-1/2" apart.
3.  With your exacto knife, cut along the two lines and remove center tape.

4. Paint gold on exposed wood between tape. Remove outside tape immediately. Let paint dry.

5.  Transfer your image onto the wood by placing the transfer paper underneath your printout.

6.  Trace around the outlines of your image with a pen.

7.  Check underneath as you trace to make sure it's working!

8.  You're almost done! Fill inside the lines of your transfered image with your wood burning tool. I pressed lightly against the wood and moved quickly at first to test the strength of the wood burner. I then went over the image again to make a darker, thicker design. If the transfer outline is still showing, remove with a wet paper towel.

I just loved how these turned out and think it complements this year's MOPS theme perfectly!

Below are some pictures of the painted sticks our steering team helped me create and our name tags. Everything was a great success and was super fun to make!

The pile of sticks our steering team helped paint for our centerpieces. It was a fun night!

Over 70 painted feathers for our name tags. I used my cricut and acrylic paint paper.

Close up of our name tags.

Hand dyed muslin overlays for our tables set out to dry in my backyard.