super fun, super easy handmade ornaments....

every year for christmas i like make ornaments. i think that a handmade, personalized ornament is a great little gift. i just love using all kinds of ornaments, flat glass or ceramic (in different shapes) or glass ball ornaments or wooden shapes that you find in a craft store for pretty cheap! so,i thought i would share a few ideas that i have used over the years.

personalized glass balls...

i found the idea for these on several different blogs. they are so easy and are so cute! so last week i gave it a try. i am super pleased with how these turned out. here is how i made mine.

~ fill a glass ball (frosted or clear will work) with paper shred in whatever color you chose.
~ tie coordinating ribbon on the top
~ using letter stickers you can spell out a name or you can do initials or one letter for a last name

i made these for my girls, with each of their names in different color schemes. i also made a few more for some special gifts! jordyn did a great job helping me fill the balls with the paper shred. her fingers are smaller than mine and easier to push the paper in the little hole.

paint drip swirl balls...

for several years, i have used the clear glass balls to make these pretty ornaments. they are so fun and so pretty. the colors swirl around so nice. they are super easy also. here is how you can make these...


~using a clear glass ball, you drip a few colors of your choice of acrylic paint into the ball.
run the paint down the side of the ball.
~rotate the ball every 15 - 30 min. giving the paint a chance to drip and swirl inside the ball.
~tie ribbon on the top or through the little wire hanger.

our family ornaments...

a few years ago, amy and i started getting together to make ornaments. and each year we do something similar but with a different twist. we make between 10-15 ornaments that we give as gifts, primarily to our families. using different types of ornaments we create a "picture of our family" here are the ornaments we have made over the last few years.

2004

i think this is the first "family ornament" we made.
the snowmen were made out of jordyn and joshua's littl thumbprints placed onto a bell shaped glass ornament. at one time it was filled with fake snow,
but i think it "melted" with a little person's help :)

2005

here we used shrinky dinks (remember those?) to create this ornament. we had done a craft in our mops group with shrinky dinks and that gave us this idea. this is a little more complicated than the glass ornaments. but really cute. we cut the shrinky dinks in two shapes (tree & square) then we drew our family and wrote on the shrinky dinks. we punched wholes in the tree and on the square. we baked the shrinky dink paper. then using craft wire we hung the little ornament charms and bells from the holes. that was really quick directions, if you would like to give it a try, let me know, i can explain it better!

2006

using a flat glass ornament (circle) we used the kids fingerprint's again to make snowmen. this time we have three!! then on the back of the ornament we painted the tree. and used a sponge to create "snow" on the front.

2007

for this one we used wooden ornaments (snowflakes) first we painted it white. after it dried we used the kid's fingerprints to make reindeer!

2008

here we used a flat ceramic star ornament. we used the kids' fingerprints and made them into little angels. look at how little jaelyn's fingerprint is.


i love to look back at each year and see how their fingerprints have grown! and how we have added new fingerprints over the years! i give these to my family each year. it is like a tradition we have started. i was so excited this year, amy and i made ours on veteran's day (nov. 11) when her son and my kids had the day off of school. we were ahead of the game this year. i will post a picture of this years ornament later. if i post it now, it will not be a surprise to my family who reads my blog!

so, what about you? do you like to make ornaments? if you have any fun or different ways to create ornaments for the holidays, please feel free to share your ideas, if you posted an idea on your blog - please leave the link!