Easy-to-Make Christmas Ornaments

These ornaments are easy to make and recycle last year Christmas cards. Most of this project can be done by fairly young children, so you can share this activity. After the cutting is done it is fairly portable too. The finished ornament can look spectacular. The only drawback is that it is time consuming.

What you need:
Last year's Christmas Cards
Pinking shears
A Pencil
A Marker
Card stock (optional)
A glue stick (not pictured)
A circular template ( a set of graduated small glass bowls is ideal)
Yarn or tatting thread

What you do:
Lay your template over the Christmas Card. Be sure to leave extra room around the picture that you have chosen. The thread will cover ¼ to ½ inch around the outside of the ornament. After you have chosen and centered the picture, draw around the template with a pencil

If you are using colored card stock for the back, place the back side of the card stock against the back side of the card and use the glue stick at the center (not around the outside) to hold it in place. You can also use a second card, but the added stiffness of a second card or cardstock gives the ornament added stiffness and makes things easier. Be careful not to include the personal messages that were written to you on the card. Cut your pencil line off with the pinking shears. Be careful to try to align the shears so that you have nice ridges all around the circle. You should now have two evenly matched circles with teeth or ridges around the outside.

Experiment to decide how many ridges to include in each wrap. If it is too few, the thread will fall off the card. If it is too many, the picture will be hidden beneath the thread. For the tatting cotton I used 12 and for the yarn 16. The thicker thread is actually harder to use. Place the end of the thread between the two circles a little to the right of the center top, so that the end of the first wrap is very near the center of the top. Secure the beginning of the thread with the glue stick, but hold it with your finger until you have done a few wraps. Proceed to wrap around the entire ornament going forward one tooth at the beginning and end each time until you come back to your first wrap. With the tatting cotton you can then jump forward 3 or 4 ridges and repeat the process, but it is harder since there is already thread there and you will have to count the ridges.

This part is a bit tricky. You need to get a loop of thread to the top beneath the loops, so that your ornament will have a hanger. A very fine crochet hook can be used to pull it up, or a needle can be used to push it up under the threads. Make a loop at the top and tie a hard knot with the loop and the end of the thread. Cut the thread off and tuck it between the card and cardstock. You might want to use the glue stick again before you poke it inside. Turn the ornament over to the back where your colored card stock is visible and write a holiday message of sign your name.

These ornaments are neat, because you can choose pictures that fit the person that you are giving it to and write your own personal message on the back. If done with tatting thread they will fit inside a Christmas Card. This activity can provide hours of activity for kids as well as gifts that they can give which are actually from the child itself. To find tatting cotton, check out yard sales. There seems to almost always be a box of thread that can be purchased for next to nothing. If you didn't save your cards from last year, your neighbor might have done so, or you can do this activity next year. The cutting should be done by a teen or grown since the two layers and the alignment can be tough, but the wrapping can be done by almost anyone.