How to Make Wood Slice Thumbtacks

It’s no secret I’m a fan of wood slices for projects. I love incorporating nature into my home and if I can use some branches or logs that would otherwise be disregarded, I’m all for it! So today I am sharing how to make wood slice thumbtacks.

How to Make Wood Slice Thumbtacks

It’s funny how fast time goes by because this project has been on my to-do list ever since I made our wood slice save the date magnets, so um yeah it’s been a while.

Last month when my sister-in-law sent me some wood slice thumbtacks I was reminded about the idea and decided it was time I actually did it. The thumbtacks she sent me were ordered from an Etsy shop and were super cute, but they actually had nails through the center and when putting them up on my cork board the nails came through the wrong end and stabbed my thumb, on multiple occasions. Not fun.

So not only are these wood slice thumbtacks easy to make, but you don’t have to worry about poking yourself when sticking them on your cork board.

Materials Needed:

• Wood Slices
• Sandpaper
• Paint + Small Paintbrush {You could even use sharpies or paint markers!}
• Thumbtacks
• Glue Gun/Glue Sticks
• Clear Sealer {optional}

I had everything I needed on hand so this project cost me $0, woo-hoo!

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Eric sliced up a whole bunch of wood slices for me a few months ago {leftover from my birch branch jewelry box} when I was planning on making some wood slice and driftwood art. It wasn’t going exactly the way I wanted so I put it on the back burner, and just put everything in this glass apothecary jar on our mantle, and it’s been sitting there ever since. Mixed in with the newer wood slices were some leftover from our wedding magnets and also from my DIY Christmas Ornaments.

For this project I took all of the smaller wood slices out of the jar and then painted the edges with some fun and vibrant colors. I had planned on painting some geometric designs on the front of the wood slices for the art, but liked keeping the fronts natural and just painting the edges for this project, because the fabric on my cork board is pretty busy. I was actually inspired to paint the edges after coming across this photo of wood slice magnets from Inside Out Magazine {at $4 a pop}. By the way, I LOVE this magazine!

Most of my wood slices had previously been sanded down, but I went ahead and went over them very quickly with some fine grit sandpaper.

Side note: If you don’t have a saw and are unable to create your own wood slices, you could always buy a pack of them at a craft store like Michael’s or JoAnn’s.

For the edges, I just painted on some random oops paint, custom mixed paint and acrylic paint. However, you to make this even easier you could use paint markers or sharpies! I think I will have to use my gold leaf pen on a few more of these.

I had tested out using polyacrylic sealer on one of the slices but preferred the natural, light color so I actually wound up not sealing them. The paint on the side may chip, but I’m not too concerned about it.

After the paint was dry I used my glue gun to attach the thumbtacks to the back. So easy! I only used one glue stick too, which is practically unheard of for me, haha.

And here they are on my DIY fabric covered cork board! Oh I just realized I never shared that with you, huh? Woops that post will be coming soon!

That’s it! It’s amazing when you think of all the possibilities for custom thumbtacks. Have you made your own thumbtacks before?