Hi Friends! Have you started decorating for fall yet? I don’t have a ton of fall decor, so I thought I’d start trying to use some of my scrap wood up and make some wooden decorations. Scrap wood is a perfect and a cheap way to make your own decor!

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What is even better than building free decor? Making it reversible!! That’s right, I can use these wooden decorations for the next 3 months since I can just flip it around after Thanksgiving.

I just left the front side as a painted pumpkin, but you could easily add a saying to it. Go grab my “Happy Fall Y’all” free fall cut file and apply it in vinyl! I already have that file on the wreath on my front door, so I just left the pumpkin plain.

Ok, let’s get started! If you prefer printable directions, you can find them at the bottom!

Materials Needed for Reversible Wooden Decorations

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scrap wood – I just went through my stash and took out 1x3s and 1x4s
wood glue
clamp
miter saw or saw
chalk paint – I used whatever I had on hand. Some FolkArt and some Heirloom Traditions
wooden rod
drill
orbital sander
Cricut cutting machine
FREE cut file – down towards end of post!
Oracal 651 vinyl – I used some oracal 651 and some Cricut glitter vinyl

Instructions for Wooden Decorations

First thing, I did was take out a bunch of scrap wood and lined it up. I put a large bowl side down and traced around it.

If you have a jigsaw, you could cut a pretty good circle. I wanted to see what I could do with just my miter saw. I cut the wood to length on the longest part where the pencil was. Then I cut the middle two boards at a 22.5 degree angles and the bottom boards at 45.

Not nearly a perfect circle, but good enough! I knew I would be putting it in a pot so I wanted the bottom flat. You definitely could make a few more cuts on top and bottom to get it looking more rounded.

I found a wooden rod in my stash from an old laundry rack. I measured its’ thickness and drilled a hole with the same size drill bit in the bottom piece of wood. This will hold the wooden decoration in the dirt.

Then apply wood glue between each piece of wood and use a bar clamp to hold them together for 24 hours. Make sure to wipe off the extra glue right after you clamp them.

Once it was fully dry, I used my orbital sander and rounded the edges some and sanded both sides. I also drilled the hole a little bit deeper, as far as the drill bit would go in so the rod could be more sturdy.

For the pumpkin side, I painted it with orange chalk paint then added a few lines with a darker color. I’m not a great painter so the lines are not that great!

Once it dried, I sanded it lightly to get a more distressed finish. For the top piece, I cut a 1×2 and again drilled a hole in the top of the pumpkin and bottom of stem the same size as the rod. You only need a short rod to hold them together. Add a little glue for a permanent hold.

For the wooden ornament side, I painted it all with a white chalk paint.

I cut out the SVG file using my Cricut with adhesive vinyl and applied it to the wood with transfer tape. If you’d like to know all that the Cricut can do, check out my Ultimate Guide of Cricut Ideas!

As with all my files, these are for personal use only. If you would like to purchase a commercial use license, click here.

CLICK HERE to DOWNLOAD FREE JOY TO THE WORLD SVG

If you need additional help with this step, click on link to watch my video tutorial on how to upload SVG files to Cricut Design Space.

Then I painted the top part with a silver paint topped with silver glitter paint. Y’all know I love my glitter!

That’s it! Stick the rod in the bottom and stick it wherever you want it. Mine is on my front porch under our roof so it won’t get wet. If you plan on putting yours outside where it will get wet, you definitely need to seal it with a polyurethane or something to protect it from the elements.

I add a few embellishments I got from the Dollar Tree to the top of each side when it is facing forward.

I ended up putting it in my taller planted pot next to my DIY No Soliciting Sign (click on link for full tutorial and free file!)

I love making DIY Christmas decor with my Cricut! Check out all my best Cricut Christmas ideas here!

The painted wooden pumpkin goes perfectly with my wreath now!