Time for some Christmas tutorials! We are working hard on focusing less on presents this year and more on service, so this little baby Jesus in a wooden manger was a fun craft to do with my kids! You can add pieces of hay for doing kind things throughout the season to make it soft for the baby’s head!
I have been so nervous to try Cricut’s new WOOD sheets but it was so easy – the sheets are 1/16″ thick Basswood. The manger is only 4 pieces and you can glue them together easily. The first time I made these, I used Cricut chipboard and a hot glue gun. Chipboard also worked great!
I wanted to make a wooden one so I tried out the basswood and used wood glue – hot glue doesn’t work very well. The baby is made from a vintage clothespin “swaddled” in felt!
Materials for DIY Baby Jesus Manger
-
- 1/16″ Basswood OR Chipboard
- Cricut Maker
- Knife Blade
- Wooden Laundry Pins or Unfinished Wooden Peg Dolls
- White Felt
- Craft Hay/Raffia
- Glue Gun
- Wood Glue
- Download, see below
Instructions to make DIY Baby Jesus Manger + Swaddled Babe
To make the “swaddled” baby, cut a piece of felt 4″ square. Fold the top down and glue with a glue gun. Then fold the bottom up and glue. Fold the sides in and glue.
To cut the manger pieces, download the SVG file above. (I also provided a PDF file if you want to cut by hand!) Cut the manger pieces out with your cutting machine.
The Cricut uses the knife blade to cut bass wood. The Knife Blade is sold separately.
Pop out the pieces.
Use wood glue to glue the pieces to the manger. One of the side pieces is a little shorter than the other so they will fit perfectly. Glue the bigger one down first, along the lines of the side piece, which looks like an ‘M’. Then nest the other side piece and glue down both side and the bottom. Finish with the last ‘M’ piece and let dry.
Fill up your manger with hay and lay the baby down!
