Learn how to make farmhouse-style Easter decorations featuring chalk-painted wood bunnies on a burlap mat. The bunnies are cut with a scroll saw.
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Table of contents
- DIY Bunny Project Overview
- How to Make Wood And Burlap Bunny Decor
- Here’s What I Used
- Project Steps
- 1 – Find Bunny Shapes
- 2 – Create Templates for Use on Scroll Saw
- 3 – Affix Template to Wood Board
- 4 – Cut the Wood Using a Scroll Saw
- 5 – Sand the Wood Bunnies
- 6 – Paint Bunnies with Calk Paint
- 7 – Add Ribbon to the Bunnies
- 8 – Cut Chipboard and Burlap
- 9 – Glue Glue Glue
- 10 – Assemble the Wood and Burlap Shadow Boxes
- Project Video
- Additional Easter Decor Ideas
DIY Bunny Project Overview
This series of four adorable wood bunnies in shadowboxes make perfect decorations for Easter. The texture from chalk paint and burlap enhance the simple design. The shadowboxes are reusable as well! After Easter, I easily can swap out the designs in each shadowbox to decorate for the next season or holiday. I’ve described the materials and steps in more detail below.
How to Make Wood And Burlap Bunny Decor
Here’s What I Used
Materials
- Bunny shapes (SVG if using electronic cutting machine, like a Cricut Maker)
- Cardstock
- 1/2” thick, 6” wide, 3’ long poplar board
- Spray adhesive
- Painter’s tape
- Sandpaper (variety of grits)
- Chalk paint (various colors)
- 3mm wide rIbbon (various colors)
- 12” x 12” paper-backed burlap
- 12” x 12” chipboard
- 9” x 9” shadowbox
- Glue sticks for hot glue gun
Tools
- Cricut Maker (or scissors)
- Cricut standard green cutting mat
- Cricut fine point blade
- Scroll saw
- Dust Mask
- Safety Glasses (mine contain readers so I don’t need to wear my reading glasses and safety glasses)
- Random orbit sander
- Paint brush
- Hot glue gun
- Silicone hot glue gun finger caps
- Paper cutter (or scissors)
Project Steps
1 – Find Bunny Shapes
You will first need to find the perfect bunny shapes for your series. By perfect, I mean bunny silhouettes that you like. Bunny shapes are everywhere. You could draw your own, trace bunnies from a coloring book, or find shapes online. These will be used as templates for cutting the bunnies on the scroll saw.
Since I wanted to create my templates using an electronic cutting machine, I needed the bunny images in a format I could use in Cricut Design Space. I found these adorable bunny shapes on LeapingFrogCreation’s Etsy shop.
2 – Create Templates for Use on Scroll Saw
Cut templates out of cardstock. Make sure you size the templates so that the bunnies fit your shadowboxes.
Since I was using 9″ X 9″ shadowboxes, my bunny templates were about 5″ wide and 8.5″ tall on average. However, the dimensions of each bunny were different because I lined up their feet and heads. As a result, the actual dimensions varied due to height and width of the ears.
I sent these to my Maker and cut the cardstock using a standard green cutting mat and the fine-point blade. Don’t forget to cut the tails too.
No Cricut? No problem! You don’t have to use a Cricut or other electronic cutting machine. You can easily cut the templates with scissors. I just like using my Cricut Maker.
3 – Affix Template to Wood Board
Apply masking tape the the face of the wood board. I used 1/2″ thick wood board. Affix your template to the making tape on the wood face using spray adhesive.
4 – Cut the Wood Using a Scroll Saw
Using a scroll saw, cut out the wood bunnies and tails. Wear a respirator mask and eye protection. Remove the cardstock and tape after cutting out the shapes.
5 – Sand the Wood Bunnies
Sand, smooth, and shape the wood cutouts by hand, with a sander, or both. Wear a respirator mask and eye protection. Round over sharp edges.
6 – Paint Bunnies with Calk Paint
Paint the bunnies using chalk paint. I put on 3 coats. Paint the tails white. Let the paint dry. You could distress the paint by lightly sanding select areas, but I chose not to do so.
7 – Add Ribbon to the Bunnies
Select ribbon and place it around the neck. Using hot glue gun (and finger protectors), glue the ribbon to the back of the wood only. Trim any excess ribbon.
8 – Cut Chipboard and Burlap
Cut out squares of chipboard and paper-backed burlap. The size of the square should match the shadowbox size. For example, my squares were 9″ x 9″. Use a paper-cutter or scissors to cut the squares.
9 – Glue Glue Glue
Protect your fingers from burns by wearing silicone finger protectors.
Hot glue the tail to the bunny.
Glue the burlap square to the the chipboard
Glue the bunny to the burlap square.
10 – Assemble the Wood and Burlap Shadow Boxes
Add the bunny and burlap/chipboard backers to the shadowboxes. Hang on a wall or set on a shelf and enjoy your festive decor.
Project Video
Additional Easter Decor Ideas
Add pouring paint eggs to your Easter decoration. Check out my DIY post to learn how I made them.
