Rustic Crow Tutorial

We are going to make the cutest little crow! You’re going to want to use some scrap wood for this awesome project. If you don’t have any, you can find pre-cut wood blanks perfect for this little crow in my shop HERE. You can grab a pack of three or five.

Materials You’ll Need:

A wooden block (approximately 7 inches tall. You Can find them HERE)
Natural twine
Plaid or striped homespun fabric scraps
Paint: Black for body, yellow for the nose
Paintbrushes (various sizes)
Sharpie paint effect markers ( You can find them HERE on my affiliate link)
A wood button
Hot glue gun and glue sticks
Sandpaper (optional for distressing)
Scissors
Paper to create a name tag
Brown antique wax

Step 1: Paint & Sand Your Block

First, we’re going to paint the block with some black paint. I’m using black chalk paint. Give that a good dry. QUICK TIP: I like to use a hair dryer to help the paint dry faster.

Take some sand paper and, if you’re like me and like the rustic look, sand off some of the paint along the edges and a few strokes in the center of your project.

Step 2: Add The Hat

Next we’re going to add a little hat. You’ll need a piece of scrap fabric that will wrap all the way around your project with a slight overlap and about 10-12 inches tall. I’m using a scrap piece of stripped cotton that I ripped along the grainline to give it that worn look. Trim off any excess.

With the pattern side up, fold back the bottom about 1.5-2 inches and give it a good crease. Unfold it and add a line of hot glue near the top of the fold line, fold your fabric back over, then back fold the fabric again to create a rim. Next, add another line of hot glue on the wrong side of the fabric under the new fold to tack it in place.

Next, wrap the folded fabric around your wood block near the top. Flip it over and and add hot glue between the fabric and block to tack it in place on the backside.

Step 3: Tie The Hat With Twine

We will cut a piece of cord about 8-12 inches and tie that around the loose fabric at the top to create the hat’s shape. I like to double knot it and add a bow. Trim the top of the hat if the fabric is too long for your liking.

Step 4: Paint The Crow’s Beak

Next we’re going to come in with some yellow acrylic paint, I like to use Kings Gold (Apple Barrel) on a triangle piece to create a beak for our crow. I’m using a candy corn cut out from our Fall Fun Box (you can get that HERE). If you haven’t checked out our Fall Fun Box, you’re going to want to because it is full of fun fall cutouts you can use for your fall crafts. After the paint is dry, you’ll want to sand it good around the edges and some in the middle to get that cute rustic look.

Step 5: Paint Eyes & Draw Nares

When the beak is painted, lay it on your block to get an idea of where you would like to place it for the crow’s face. I like to add the eyes first with some white acrylic paint and add some black lines for the the nares on the yellow beak shown below too. Next, add some black dots on the eyes —you can get extra creative here and make your crow looking in any direction you like!

Next, hot glue the beak in place.

Step 6: Tie a Scarf

To add another cute detail, I used a narrow strip of the same fabric I just used for the hat, again ripping the fabric along the grainline for that warm rustic feel. Wrap that around a couple times and create a little bow. You can tack it down with hot glue to keep it in place.

Step 7: Add Spanish Moss, Greenery, & Button

Next, we’re going to come up to the bottom of his hat and add a little bit of Spanish moss. I added some little greenery in the moss, taking it all down with hot glue.

I added a button to cover where the two ends of the greenery meet.

Step 8: Add a Cute Little Tag

Once we get that done, I took a little paper tag and wrote “Crow” on it with an extra fine sharpy marker. I like to put little dots on the ends of my letters, I feel like it makes my hand writing look better.

Next, I crinkled it up and added little antique wax just to make it extra rustic looking. Then I tacked it down with some hot glue tucked under the bow.

Step 9: Display Your Crow

This project turned out so cute! Let me know what you think and if you plan to try this out yourself!