If you’ve ever wondered how to make a beautiful Christmas sign, check out this step by step nativity DIY light-up Christmas decor tutorial and small foiled nativity decoration!
It’s probably not hard to guess… but, I love Christmas decorations. I love Christmas crafts. I love the holiday season. And I especially love the true meaning of Christmas.
I’ve written a lot of posts about DIY Christmas decor and I still have quite a few more. I saw a few nativity DIY signs on Pinterest and I knew I had to make one.
I made a large nativity sign to go above my mantle so it is in the center of our house to remind us all what we are celebrating. And with the release of the new Cricut foil transfer system, I made a small and shiny nativity decoration for the wall or bookshelf.
These are actually pretty easy signs to make and I used everything I had on hand so essentially it was free!!
I have both tutorials below, the first one will be the large Wise Men Seeking wood sign and the second will be the nativity sign using foil on kraft board.
I hope you get inspired from this nativity light up Christmas decor tutorial.
Materials Needed for Nativity Light Up Christmas Decor
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- any type of large piece of wood, MDF, etc… I had mine in my garage. I don’t even remember what project I had it leftover from or what kind of board it was!
- paint – I just used some paint I had on hand. Gray spray paint for the bottom and white chalk paint for the rest
- vinyl or contact paper to make a stencil with
- Cricut Explore or another cutting machine (A Cricut can make so many cool Christmas and everyday decor! Check out my Cricut guide here!)
- transfer tape
- paintbrushes
- string of lights – I had one short string from the dollar store
- drill
Prepping Large Wall Decor
Let’s get started. I had this large piece of something (not even sure what material it is), but it worked perfectly!
I spray painted the whole thing with Rustoleum granite spray paint found here!
While it is drying I cut out my design from Cricut Design Space. There are designs you can purchase from within design space or you can google and find a design you like.
That is one of the great things about Cricut and Design Space, you can upload almost anything you want and convert into a file to cut.
Also, if you are new to CDS, make sure to check out my series of Cricut Design Space 101 tutorials to get started.
Silhouettes are really easy since there are no layers to them.
Since I am using it for a stencil, I used contact paper for most of it since it’s much cheaper. I cut out with just whatever I have on hand. I had to slice the image in half in CDS since it was so big.
Weed out the images and letters leaving all of the surround for the nativity stencil.
Apply transfer paper to the top of it and then align it on the board. I put blue tape on the edge of mine to keep it aligned where I want it.
Pull up the transfer paper along with the vinyl. I did half at a time. I cut the paper, placed half down, and then took the paper off the other half.
Scrape it all down well and then pull off the transfer tape. This is mine all ready to paint!
I painted mine with a cream chalk paint and added a little sparkling paint to the star and the wording.
Once it’s dry, peel off the contact paper/vinyl and voila, you have a nativity DIY sign!
Adding Lights to DIY Three Wisemen Sign
Now to add the lights, just drill some holes the same size as your lights wherever you want the lights to poke through.
You don’t want them too big where the lights will fall out, then need to fit snugly.
You might have to try a couple of different drill bits. Start small and work up till it fits snug!!
Then stick the lights through the backside and you’re done!
If you need even more inspiration for Christmas decor, click here to read my post on DIY Christmas decor and gifts.
There my O Come Let Us Adore Him Sign is up on my mantel.
We used some velcro and hinges to hold it up. I love having the lights on at night and staring at the nativity DIY scene!
The DIY stocking hangers are really easy to make out of scrap wood.
Some years I put the large nativity scene decoration on a table in my living room. You can check out my full Christmas home tour here.
On to the second Christian Christmas decoration tutorial…
Christmas Decorations Jesus Nativity Foil Sign
I have been loving the Cricut foil lately and been making a ton of stuff! I love how shiny images come out on a black background so I knew it would be perfect to make an easy nativity decoration.
If you love the Cricut foil as much as I do, make sure to check out my other tutorials on making personalized address labels, shiny printable vinyl decor, and using foil on a reverse canvas.
Materials Needed for Elegant Nativity Decoration
- Cricut foil transfer kit
- Cricut 12×12 foil transfer sheets
- Black kraft board or cardstock
- Cricut Maker or Cricut Explore Air 2
You can access the file I made in Cricut Design Space by clicking here. If you have Cricut Access, it should be free to use.
I searched images and found a nativity image that I wanted to use and changed the Operation Linetype to Foil and then Medium.
Then I inserted a text box and chose a writing font (Anna’s fancy letters) and typed in Oh, Holy Night. I also changed all of the words to Foil and Medium.
Then I changed it all to silver foil color.
You can add a 8×10 rectangle if you want the Cricut to cut out a size to fit a frame. Center everything and then select everything and click on Attach.
As with all foil projects make sure to move the image in and down a bit to allow room for the tape.
I am using Kraft Board so I used the drop down menu on selected it in the settings.
Then I placed a piece of black kraft board on a mat and taped a full 12 x 12 silver foil transfer sheet on top of it.
I pushed the rollers to the side and inserted the foil housing with the medium tip. I loaded the mat when I was prompted by CDS and pushed the blinking light to let it do it’s thing!
This large foil nativity design took a while. I was able to make breakfast while it foiled away.
Once it’s all done, remove the foil. I love peeling it off and seeing all the shininess!
I love how it came out! There were a few spots that ripped up a little on the star. Not sure if there was some dust or something in between the foil and the kraft board or if the transfer sheet wasn’t quite tight enough in the middle.
I took the glass out of a frame (because it was too glary and I couldn’t see the foil as well) and it’s ready to be displayed with all my other Cricut Christian projects.
If you’d like to save this Christian Cricut idea for later or share you can PIN It now! If you are on a desktop hover over the top left of the image below and if you are on a phone simply tap on the image and a PIN It button will pop up to click on!
Thank you for checking out my post on how to make a DIY light up Christmas sign and nativity foiled decoration. I hope you got some inspiration today!
Have a creative day,
