This holiday season I decided to craft my own Christmas ornaments. I’ve always felt the best gifts are those that come from the heart. Meaning, Christmas is not about the quantity of the gift, but rather the quality of it. Does the gift mean anything to you or them? Did you put thought, time, or effort into it? Will the gift bring a smile to the recipient’s face? Is it something they will cherish and perhaps reuse in the coming years?
The holidays have looked a bit different for me, and many others, with working from home amidst a global pandemic. In fact, Evan and I will probably cozy up and hunker down at our place in Santa Barbara for Christmas this year (we are playing it by ear if we will visit Tahoe, our hometown, or not). With the continuous, and what seems to be never ending, stay at home orders, this has allowed countless individuals greater free time to pick up hobbies and/or netflix and chill. Consequently, this brings me to the topic of my post- is there a better way to fill that free time than with a bit of holiday cheer (aka sending loved ones DYI ornaments)? I think not.
So what are the benefits of creating your own ornaments and how can these be made? DYI ornaments do not take up a bunch of space, they are easy to ship, they are more cost efficient than a Christmas shopping splurge, and they are fun to make! Note all materials can be acquired at Michaels if you want a one-stop-shop. Keep reading for instructions and how-to’s for various ornament designs:
VINTAGE GUMBALL MACHINE
Materials: Clear plastic or glass ornaments, mini flower pot, red and black acrylic paint & paintbrush, soda can tab, small pom poms, and hot glue gun.
Instructions: Paint the flower pot red, and while you are letting this dry, pour the pom poms into the clear ornament and seal the top. Once the flower pot is dry, apply some hot glue to the front of this and quickly stick on the soda can tab. Paint the bottom hole of the soda can tab black. Next, place the flower pot upside down and apply hot glue so you can stick the ornament on top. Voilà, your very own vintage gumball machine!
Reindeer Necessities
Materials for Rudolph ornament: Colored round ornament (I used a white ornament), red pom poms, craft foam, scissors, and hot glue gun.
Instructions for Rudolph ornament: Using the hot glue gun, glue a dot on the red pom pom and place it on the center of one side of the ornament. Next, cut out antler shapes from the craft foam (I printed out antler stencils I found on Google and traced their outline on the craft foam before I cut out the shapes). Run a line of hot glue along the bottom of each antler cut out and position on the top of the ornament (hold into place until glue sets). Because I made this special for my dog, I used letter stickers to create: Comet est 2020.
Materials for bone ornament: Wood bone ornament, brown paint, fake leaves, fake berries, hot glue, and letter stickers.
Instructions for bone ornament: Really you are just painting the bone ornament the color you wish. I didn’t have brown pain, so I mixed the colors orange and blue together. I then hot glued the fake leaves on, and I hot glued the fake berries onto those leaves. I added my family dogs name in letter stickers thereafter. Of course, you can get creative as you want with your ornaments!
Christmas Tree Farm
Materials: Clear plastic or glass ornaments, bottlebrush mini trees, mini bells (optional), tweezers, clear glue, faux snow and/or white glitter, and a box or something to stabilize ornament while glue drys.
Instructions: Take off ornament top and stabilize the ornament. Next, carefully add glue to the inside bottom center of the ornament (use more glue if you plan to use additional embellishments). Push the mini tree through the ornament opening and once the tip of the tree is still sticking out, use the tweezers to squeeze the mini tree top so you can press the base onto the glue. Thoughtfully remove the tweezers and let the glue dry. *If you want to add other embellishments like mini bells, you can carefully drop these into place where you applied access glue. Once all the glue is dried, add as much faux snow or white glitter as you want! Finally, glue the ornament holder back on top. If you want to add ribbon or twine, go for it!!
Glitter Bomb
Materials: Clear plastic or glass ornaments, fine glitter, clear glue, and funnel or rolled up pice of paper into a funnel shape. Optional items include stickers.
Instructions: Pour a good amount of clear glue into ornament and swirl around so the whole inside ornament is coated. Turn ornament upside down into clear glue container or plastic/paper cup so access glue can drip out. After allowing 10-15 minutes for access glue to drip out, use the funnel to add ~1 tablespoon of glitter, then swirl glitter around to coat all sides. Once all sides are coated, cover ornament opening with paper towel and shake ornament. Glue the ornament top back on. Feel free to add clear stickers to the outside for a merry message!
Holiday Sparkle
Materials: Clear plastic or glass ornaments, all types of glitter, sequins, beads, and other embellishments, and funnel or rolled up pice of paper into a funnel shape.
Instructions: Using the funnel, pour as much glitter and sequins as you would like! If you want to use beads and other embellishments, just make sure they can fit through the top part of the ornament. This is a great basic ornament design for all those “non crafty” people. This ornament is simple, yet special.
Mrs. Claus’s Cupcakes
Materials: Baking cups, plastic or glass ornaments (I used clear ones, in which case the “glitter bomb” ornament instructions applied), paint (I choose to use pink and white to represent strawberry and vanilla frosting) and paint brush, wreath pick with berries, glue gun, clear glue, and glitter.
Instructions: If you use clear plastic or glass ornaments, you will want to follow instructions for the “glitter bomb” ornament so the inside is coated with glitter. Otherwise, if you find colored ornaments, then it’s less work on your end. That said, the first step is to glue the ornament ball into the baking cup (I used clear glue). Now you can paint the frosting on (red, pink, white, and brown tend to look the most realistic in terms of frosting flavors). While the paint is wet, sprinkle on your glitter. Lastly, trim off a berry and super glue it to the frosting. This is literally the cherry on top (pun intended)! These cupcakes look so good, but remember they are non-edible.
A Partridge in a Pear Tree
Materials: Clear plastic or glass ornament, white feathers, and stickers if you’d like.
Instructions: Insert feathers into the ornament (I did more, because, well, I’m extra). Then if you’d like to add letters or other stickers, I think this makes a nice final touch. This is definitely another great easy design if you are balling on a budget but want your ornament to have a chic appeal.
