Christmas in July: Baby Jesus Shutter

I always have so many Christmas post in December/November....I have to set them to post for the next year....this year when I started on a few projects in -cough- April -cough-....I decided to go on the Hallmark schedule and post a few of those projects in July...right after I go and pick this year's ornament from the collection.  ;o)  I found some old shutters at a garage sale a few years back, and I've saved them for just the right project.  The shutters were free.  I bought some really thin wood and had my friend Terry cut out a little oval to make baby Jesus...

I painted his face flesh colored, and then I did my favorite painting technique (my friend Terry taught me about this, and it really does make the wood projects look better for some reason).  Basically, take an old (duh) tooth brush and white or black (or both) colored paint.  

 Put a little bit on the brush (not too much or it will drip)-you want it to 'flick'...you can practice on paper first but basically you just take the paint covered ends of the toothbrush and run your thumb down it to make it 'flick' paint.  I repeated this on the shutter after I sprayed it navy to make it look like a 'starry' night.

 I added eyes with the end of of a brush, and I took some strips of fabric I ripped so they looked ragged.  I wrapped it around the body of my baby and glued it into place to look like swaddling clothes.....

I decided to add one of these little wooden buttons for a nose.  I glued it down with wood glue.  That'll teach my brother to leave his woodworking stuff at my house.  

I added some Spanish Moss to the back with hot glue as well for the bed of hay.  

 Here is is....little Baby Jesus, away in a manger.

I also added a star.  I bought this in the unfinished wood section at JoAnne (If you can't find your jig saw and you don't have a friend who will cut out your shapes for you-you can also find all sorts of shapes and be creative about making your own baby.  I saw these ovals at Michael's.)

 I wrote the saying with permanent marker after two attempts with painting the words.  I nailed it to the shutter and added rope to the back to hang it up.