Dollar Tree Wooden "Merry" Christmas Sign

There’s nothing like a Christmas craft thats pretty, affordable, and easy to make, and thats exactly what this Dollar Tree Wooden “Merry” Christmas sign is! Even better, it’s made with a gorgeous rice paper digital print that takes this project from wow, to WOW!

Dollar Tree Wooden Merry Sign made with a Christmas rice paper printable on wood shims with the crackle technique and mini white reindeer for DIY Christmas Decor.

I have been holding onto this Dollar Tree Wooden MERRY word for multiple years. I have been taking it out every Christmas, staring at it all season long thinking what I want to do with it, packing it back up after Christmas, and then doing it all again the next year!

I am SICK of looking at this Dollar Tree Wooden Merry, so we’re turning it into a sign. Now is the time for the Merry to shine! And I don’t know why I waited so long to craft with it because it turned out absolutely fantabulous. I can’t take all the credit though. A lot of the credit goes to the gorgeous rice paper print from Digital Deco Designs.

Ever since I discovered printables from Cathy at Digital Deco Designs I have been literally obsessed. I’m telling ya, go check them out for yourself and I dare you to not get addicted!

The print I ended up going with was “Christmas Cabin Quilt”, which I thought was just perfect for this project since I knew that I was going to be cutting it up. Rather than something I was going to use as a full image.

Christmas Cabin Quilt rice paper printable from Digital Deco Designs, a patchwork christmas pattern.

Plus, who doesn’t love a good patchwork!?

I have the digital download subscription, so I download and print them onto rice paper at home from my regular printer, but she offers print and ship as well for those that may not have a printer. Either way, once you start Mod Podging rice paper, you can’t stop!

This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience (which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission but it won’t cost you a cent more!)

Supplies Needed to Make a Dollar Tree Merry Sign

Dollar Tree wooden word Merry with a reindeer at the end.

Dollar Tree word – MERRY (or any word)
8″ Wood shims – I used 13
Digital Deco Designs print “Christmas Cabin Quilt”
Foam board or cardboard
Burlap ribbon with frayed edges
Mini Pom Pom Reindeer Ornaments
Gold glitter branches
White paint
Red paint
Elmers Glue
Mod Podge
Hot glue gun

How to Makeover a Dollar Tree Wooden Merry

I made this Dollar Tree Wooden Merry Sign on video, so you can WATCH it or click on the picture right below.

Amanda holding the completed project on a Facebook Live thumbnail.

Watch the video here

The base of this project is 8″ Wooden Shims. All you do is trace the shims onto the Christmas Cabin Quilt printable, cut them out, and then Mod Podge the paper to the shims. I ended up using 2 pieces of rice paper and a total of 13 shims.

Nelson Wooden Contractor Shims in a box.

Once all of your strips of rice paper are Mod Podged to the shims, sand all of the edged to give them a nice finished look. I love using my Gator sander for this part!

Close up of the rice paper printable mod podged to the wood shims and sanded edges.

Now glue all of your shims to a long rectangular piece of foam board or cardboard. Make sure to alternate the shims, thick end to thin end when gluing them down. Here’s what it looks like from the back. Don’t worry if your rectangle is perfect, mine isn’t and no one is looking at the back!

The back of the project showing the shims glued to the foam board.

Now to do our wooden MERRY. I decided to do mine with the crackle effect, with red paint underneath and white on top. I have a full in depth tutorial on how to do the crackle effect right here.

But all you do is paint your Merry all red first. Then apply a layer of Elmers glue on top of that. While the glue is still wet, carefully paint all white over the top of the glue being careful not to work the paint into the glue. I use a foam brush and lightly glide it over the top, using a generous amount of paint so that you don’t have to press too hard to spread it out. Dry it with your heat gun and watch the magic happen!

The wooden word merry painted with the crackle technique with red and white paint.

I jazzed up the deers antlers with some gold glitter branches, to match the mini reindeer that I am about to glue on next.

You can go ahead and hot glue the word Merry to the shims, leaving some room on the left hand side for the burlap and mini reindeer.

The wooden deer at the end of the word merry with gold glitter branches glued to the antlers.

Glue a strip of burlap from top to bottom on the left side of the Merry, wrapping the burlap around to the back and securing with hot glue.

Glue on 3 adorable mini pom pom reindeer! (My FAVE part!) I thought about using a bottle brush tree here and that would have looked super cute, so you could do that if you don’t have or can’t find the reindeer at your Walmart!

3 white pom pom mini reindeer glued to the strip of burlap on the left hand side of the Merry sign.

And here she is in all her Christmas Crafty Glory…..

I’m so in love with how this Dollar Tree Wooden Merry Christmas Sign turned out! I think it looks just fabulous with the Dollar Tree Cardinal Sleigh Makeover I did last week! (*Blog post coming soon*)

Are you going to make a Dollar Tree Merry Sign for Christmas Shoot…are you gonna make anything for Christmas?! If you do, I’d love to see it! Pop on over to our free Craftspiration Facebook group, and join in on the fun by posting a pic of your Tiered Trays, DIY’s and crafts. I just love to see all your creative and crafty creations.

If you’ve got a million projects on your crafting ‘to-do’ list like I do, than you need my FREE Craft Project Planner so you can plan to make *all the things*! When you sign up for the craft planner, I’ll also send you lot’s of fun, easy, and budget friendly ideas for you to fill it up with!