DIY Christmas Ornaments

Not your everyday ornaments...

Last week held more emotions than I knew what to do with and trembling hands aren’t terribly advantageous to typing. Although I still managed to do some of that. So while I have a draft on the sidelines it needs some work…

and since Halloween has passed and we are big fans of the holidays over here I thought it might be a good time to share some handmade Christmas ornaments. In part because they take time and in part because it’s a good jumpstart to get your brain going on what you may want to create this year (even if you’re decidedly not a maker). These are all relatively accessible, they don’t require crazy skills and winging it is highly encouraged. It’s not about perfection. For us it’s about having meaningful bits and bobs to hand down to our kids that are filled with our time, love and creativity. Highlighting different things throughout the year and our time spent together.

Now, I’ve been making ornaments for about the last five years. I didn’t just whip up this batch over the weekend to share, so if you decide to try some out, don’t let yourself get discouraged, it’s a busy time of year…

There’s no tutorials because I was pretty much winging it the whole time but I will share a few links for supplies if your finding yourself wanting to give something a try.

Kicking things off with the absolute least amount of supplies-

Cereal Box Ornaments!

A few years back we started doing a book advent that included an ornament to hang up for each day leading up to Christmas. I started saving old cereal and cracker boxes to use because they were readily available and every evening I sat down with paint pens and some gel pens to make an ornament. I cut the ornaments so they could be folded in half, cut some twine and hot glued them together with the twine in the middle.

Some cardboard held up better to the wet ink of the paint pens. Do some experimenting to see what boxes work best for you.

These have held up remarkably well over the years and are still some of my favorite ornaments to unwrap.

(Scroll to the bottom for paint pen and gel pen recommendations)

Take a lot of photos? This one’s for you…

Some felt, some printable fabric, hot glue, twine and scissors are the basics for this one. I use Canva to prep my photos to be printed and I try to cut the felt about a 1/4” bigger on all sides than the photo. I use either a giant needle to punch some thread through the felt for hanging and there ya have it.

Photo ornaments that will last a lifetime and aren’t $20 a piece. I like to do a photo on both sides of these and sometimes I double up the felt and sandwich the thread in between when they get glued together. It makes them feel a bit more substantial.

You’ll notice that bottom left photo isn’t felt, it’s actually one of the cereal box ornaments but I put in a family photo above the fireplace. It’s fun finding little ways to incorporate photos where I can and it’s one of my favorites.

If you do this, run a test print of your photos before you put in the printable fabric. Also, take a look at the fabric, one side tends to be a bit smoother than the other and your photos will look better on the smoother side.

(links at the bottom)

More Supplies Required (but not too bad)

(The link for There’s A Ghost In This House is an affiliate link so if you purchase it through the link I will receive a small commission)

One of my kids favorite books is There’s A Ghost In This House by Oliver Jeffers. I talked about some of their other favorites here.

This little ghost ornament was inspired by that book. The books are made up from air dry clay that I scored to resemble book pages and the little ghost is air dry clay too. I used felt to cover the outside of the books and attached them to a Christmas Tree candle clip that I flattened.

The butterfly ornament is inspired by their love for the garden and all the creatures it brings. It’s just a piece of copper wire with a glass bead at the base and I found the butterflies on Etsy. (link at the bottom)

These tiny bottles are super simple and a good one to do alongside kids. It’s bits of dried flowers, moss and some glitter. They couldn’t be simpler to make but they add a lot of magic to the season.

The flower ornament is a plastic ornament I covered in coffee filters and applied an image transfer of some Cosmos flowers from my garden. These look really pretty with light shining through them and some light layers of watered down acrylic could be really pretty too, or maybe some bits of gold leaf.

Felt, Embroidery, Play

(The link for Creepy Carrots is an affiliate link so if you purchase it through the link I will receive a small commission)

If you’ve never read Creepy Carrots, you don’t know what you’re missing. It’s spooky and fun and the carrots will stick with you long after you’ve read the book...

No really though, you’ll start seeing creepy carrots everywhere. Just like Jasper Rabbit.

I’ve read this book a lot, so it was only fitting it be memorialized in ornament form (and it’s adorable).

We have a professional baker in the making, Juner can very nearly make chocolate chip cookies entirely on her own and regularly talks about maybe one day being the principal (her words not mine) of a bakery/ ice cream shop. My youngest loves penguins and trains and then there’s that one on the green embroidery hoop…

That one is based on a story Juner came up with after watching the Strawberry Moon rise up over the Atlantic Ocean with her brother and I. It was one of the most magical nights I’ve ever experienced. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the moon so big and bright, or so perfectly peach. The kind of night that left us all completely enchanted and one we still talk about often. It may end up being one of Juner’s earliest memories and that little rocket ship landing on it’s own strawberry moon takes me right back.

That’s it. They aren’t terribly traditional but they hold a lot of memories and every year they make my kids light up.

Christmas ornaments can be whatever you want, there’s no limits, just a lot of places to begin dreaming up new ideas.

Good luck this week, don’t spend too much time doom-scrolling. Maybe sketch out some of your own ornament ideas…

Links (not affiliated, just what I use)

Felt (I’ve been buying my felt from this shop forever)
Dried Flowers (Etsy in general is great for dried flowers but I like this shop a lot)
Paint Pens
Gel Pens
Butterflies
Printable Fabric
Christmas Tree Candle Holders

xoxo,
Bec

If you have any questions or want to share things you’ve made drop a comment!

Also, I will be getting back to work this week and I’m aiming to have so progress to share again soon…