Intro to Wood Burning: Boho Napkin Rings

Get started in pyrography (sounds fun, right?!) with our easy intro to wood burning! We’ll show you how easy it is to use a wood burning tool to make these Boho Chic wood burned napkin rings.

We love the look of wood burning. It’s so Boho Chic! So we decided to make a set of Boho Napkin Rings using our wood burning tool. We love wood burning and can’t wait to show you how easy it is! For the pattern, we will show you how to use stickers as stencils. (You just trace them.) We’ll show you how we hold the wood burning tool and how much pressure to use. We like the natural wood colors, but for these Boho Napkin Rings we decided to add some bold color. You won’t believe how easy that is, too!

Here’s a video tutorial that is our Intro To Wood Burning. Follow along with the video, then use the steps below to get started wood burning yourself! Remember if you have any questions about wood burning, leave us a comment and we’ll reply. We’re here to help!

Video How-to: Introduction to Wood Burning

Disclosure: This post has some affiliate links for products we think you’ll like. Even if you don’t want to buy the items online, we think it’s helpful to see what they look like, so you can buy them at your local craft store. If you make a purchase from one of these links, we’ll make a small commission. There is no additional cost to you at all, but it helps us a little so we can pay for our web hosting and the tools and materials we use in these videos and blog posts. All opinions are our own from our own personal experience. Also, we are Plaid Ambassadors and get all kind of wonderful paint and other craft materials from Plaid. We love their products and used their Ultra Dyes for this project.

Intro to Wood Burning: Boho Napkin Rings

Materials & Tools

4 wooden napkin rings (from the natural wood section at the craft store)
Woodburning tool, universal tip
Plaid Ultra Dye: Hot Pink, Tantalizing Teal, Lady Marmalade, and Rendezvous (Purple)
Border stickers
Pencil & eraser
Scissors
Foam paintbrush
Paper towels
Disposable plate
Gloves

Steps For One Boho Napkin Ring

1. To get started, get a woodburning tool. Ours is from the craft store and it cost $14.99. It came with several tips, but we like the “universal point” tip for this and most projects.

2. To create the Boho pattern on the wooden napkin ring, find a fun border sticker the right size and scale for you napkin rings. You will wrap this sticker around the napkin ring and trim it with scissors.

Trace the border sticker on the wooden napkin ring with a pencil to create an outline for your wood burning. Remove the sticker.

3. Let the woodburning tool heat up for 5 minutes. Be careful. This thing gets hot!! We like to hold the wood burning tool like we hold a pen. Then use we the hot tip to “draw” on the wood. Start by outlining the design.

Use a light touch with the wood burning tool. That way you can learn how much pressure to use. Too much pressure can gouge the wood. Also, keep the tip moving. Staying in one spot too long can create a burned divot.

Start with light strokes, then darken the line by going over it a few times.

4. When you have part of the patterned outline, you can start filling it in. This is like coloring. You can try “drawing” in one direction, then going back over in a different direction. Color in the design, making repeated passes, until you like the color of the burned wood.

5. After you have finished woodburning the pattern, let the wooden napkin ring cool. Erase the pencil lines from your original design.

6. If you love the natural color of the wood, you are finished! (At least with one napkin ring!) If you want more color like we do, get ready to dye! Don your gloves. Pour a quarter size puddle of Ultra Dye onto a disposable plate. Use the foam paintbrush to stroke the dye onto the napkin ring right over the wood burning.

Immediately wipe the excess dye off the napkin ring with a paper towel. Ta-da! Amazing color!

We love these Boho woodburned napkin rings. They turned out so cool! Have you tried wood burning? Are you interested in learning it? What would you like to wood burn? Let us know in the comments!
Happy Crafting,
Jennifer & Kitty

We love getting Pinned!