farmhouse style nativity craft

The TRUE STORY of Christmas! Beyond all the decorating, presents, music, & other commercialized Christmas activities….. this nativity craft is a beautiful reminder of the true reason for the season.

What sparked this beautiful craft, was that my hubby built these cute little wooden house shapes for a different project. I had a few left and started trying to brainstorm some other projects they’d work for……a light bulb went off! They would be PERFECT for a small nativity!!

My favorite part is all the places you could use this……it can stand alone, hang as a sign, or be used as a wreath attachment!! Or….it’s a little unconventional, but I was thinking maybe even a TREE TOPPER!! Maybe I’ll give that a whirl & see how it goes lol!

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Here are the SUPPLIES I used for this Nativity Craft:

if you can’t get all of this exactly, there is so much out at Christmas time that you could substitute

• Wooden House Shape (mine was handmade out of 1×8 & 1×2 strips PINE)
• Baby Jesus cutout (Build a Cross)
• Star cutuout (Build a Cross)
• American moss (Hobby Lobby)
• White chalk paint (Dixie Belle “Fluff”)
• Water-based stain (Dixie Belle VooDoo “Tobacco Road”)
• Pearl white metallic paint (Folk Art brand)
• Foam brush
• Small paint brush
• Lint-free rag
• Sanding block
• Hot glue gun
• E6000 Glue
• O Holy Night hand-lettered Download (Imperfect Dust)
• O Holy Night Vinyl decal (made on my Silhouette machine)
• Pick, Burnishing Tool & Transfer paper for stencil

For the first step, I stained my wooden barn/house! I used the Dixie Belle water based stain in the color “Tobacco Road”. I LOVE this stuff! It’s so easy to work with, not messy or smelly like regular stains! I prefer using a foam brush to apply, then wipe back with a lint-free rag.

Once it was dry, I used a sanding block to distress all the edges.

Next, you’ll want to use white chalk paint to paint 1-2 thin coats onto baby Jesus & star cutouts. Depending on your style, you may want to paint the baby Jesus in more detail….but to me there’s something so peaceful about a solid color silhouette.

I wanted a little extra shimmer on the star, because well it’s a star lol. So I brushed on a little pearl white metallic by Folk Art.

After all that is dry, I used hot glue to attach some American Moss to bottom of wood. I actually thought about using several things for the hay, like raffia or nativity straw, but ended up LOVING the American Moss! It wasn’t too messy & glued down nicely! I picked mine up at Hobby Lobby!

I was so excited to see what dimension the moss gave the project. You would want to do this first to be sure you could nestle the baby Jesus on top of the moss.

After that, I glued Baby Jesus cutout down with a combination of E6000 industrial glue & hot glue. The hot glue will set quickly, but that E6000 will set permanently! I ALWAYS use industrial glue in combo with hot glue when I can!

Now to the most special part of the project! Clearly this nativity needed a reminder in words of our Savior being born! Cue a Digital Dust cut file from my friend Danielle over at Imperfect Dust!!!

I am really loving her hand-lettered files to use in my Silhouette to create stencils and decals. I used white permanent vinyl for this one & it was so simple to upload the DXF and size it for the project on my silhouette. I used a really amazing God-fidence Design for THIS PROJECT!

She offers the digital downloads in her Digital Dust subscription, so go check out all the details for using her designs in your crafts HERE! I’m telling you, the possibilities are ENDLESS with these files!

Printables, tracing, vinyl decal, vinyl stencil! Plus, Danielle is a personal friend of mine & I love to spread the news about her talents!!

And you probably saw I cut out a couple black decals too!! I did this same project in a black & white version during a Facebook Live! If you want to see how it came together, you can WATCH HERE!

For this one, my last step was to use a little hot glue & E6000 to attach the star to the top!!

I mean, could this Nativity Craft be any more beautiful?! A sweet reminder of our Christmas blessings!

Be Sure to PIN this for later!

And here is the black & white version I did during that Facebook LIVE. You can watch it HERE! It’s really hard to pick a favorite though! Hope you are inspired to make your very own!