Simple DIY Nativity Using Cinnamon Sticks

I orginal­ly shared this project over on my Face­book page. It was such a hit I decid­ed to write it down step for step for easy ref­er­ence lat­er. Go ahead and save this one to your Christ­mas Pin­ter­est board…you will thank me later! 

It all start­ed with a piece of scrap­wood or you can get a pre-cut wood block HERE and my favorite shade of white, Alabaster by Sher­win Williams.

After paint­ing my wood block I cut a piece of hym­nal paper in a basic house, or in this case, sta­ble shape. This step can eas­i­ly be sub­si­tut­ed with an old book page or printable. 

Using mod-podge, I attached the hym­nal paper to the block. Apply the mod podge to the wood direct­ly and press the paper into the glue. Add a coat of mod podge on top of the paper as well for a nice clean finish.

Once the mod podge had a chance to dry, I added the cin­na­mon sticks to the edges of the hym­nal paper using a bit of hot glue. This is what makes the entire project so unique! Not to men­tion the cin­n­mon made it smell yum­my too. 

And of course a nativ­i­ty isn’t com­plete with­out a manger. A cou­ple cin­na­mon sticks, cut to size with a bit of raf­fia did the trick! The bead was for added depth and rep­re­sent­ed baby Jesus lay­ing in the manger.

The next step of my process includ­ed fash­ion­ing a “star” with hemp twine. This step is com­plete­ly option­al. I just real­ly loved the rough and sim­ple look of the hemp. 

With just a lit­tle hint of dis­tress­ing to the paint, this project is finished! 

I sim­ply adore the out­come of this cute lit­tle project! I have had tremen­dous amount of posi­ive feed­back, includ­ing some who are shar­ing the idea with their stu­dents in Sun­day school! It is a beau­ti­ful, and sim­ple way to remem­ber the true mean­ing of Christ­mas this time of year! 

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