Four Simple Homemade Christmas Ornament Ideas

For both adults and children, making homemade Christmas ornaments is a lot of fun. Sure, more expensive store bought ornaments are nice to look at, but everyone has a great sense of satisfaction when they see their own creations displayed proudly on the tree, for everyone to see. This is a guide to creating homemade Christmas ornaments that everyone, even those of us who aren't very crafty, can make.

Styrofoam Christmas Balls

What you'll need:

Styrofoam balls, any size

Tubes of acrylic paint, any color

Glue gun

Ribbon, any color

Plastic decorative jewels or pearls (optional)

This is one of my favorite crafts to make, as I think these balls look a lot more creative than regular glass Christmas balls. You simply paint the Styrofoam balls in any color and wait for them to dry. Then, attach a small portion of ribbon with a glue gun and it will act as your hook. You can get more creative by gluing on decorative jewels, pearls, and more ribbon around the base of the ball in different patterns. The more creative and "fancy" you make your ornaments, the more they will look like little Faberge eggs on your Christmas tree.

Felt Shape Picture Frames

What you'll need:

Copies of your favorite photographs (can be made at any photo counter or printed right at home)

Squares of felt, any color

Christmas ornament hooks

Glue gun

Christmas traceables in your favorite shapes, examples of which can be found here.

Magic marker

Scissors

It's a true testament to the longevity of these ornaments that the one I made at age five is still around at almost age twenty four. First, with a marker, trace around your favorite Christmas design (such as a bell, angel, or star) on a piece of felt. Then, cut the shape out. Next, glue a favorite photo (though perhaps not the original copy!) in the middle of your felt design. Attach a wire Christmas ornament hook and your felt photo design is ready for the tree!

Salt Dough Ornaments

What you'll need:

1 cup flour

½ cup salt

½ cup water

Rolling pin

Baking Sheet

Tubes of acrylic paint, any color

Cookie cutters in Christmas shapes (such as bells, stars, trees, and angels)

Straw or toothpick

Ribbon

This is such a great project for kids because it seems like it would be really complicated, but is actually quite simple. Mix your flour, salt, and water together to create dough. Make sure your dough is a little wet since if it's too dry it'll crack in the oven. If it's too wet, add a little flour. Roll it out on a floured surface and cut out designs with your cookie cutters. If you don't have Christmas cookie cutters, that's fine -a regular round biscuit cutter will still work. Place the dough cut-outs on a non-greased baking sheet and, with your straw or toothpick, poke a hole near the top of each shape. Place the sheet in the over and bake for two hours at 250 degrees Fahrenheit.

After two hours take your shapes out of the oven and allow them to cool down completely. Once they have, the fun begins. Use acrylic paints to paint your shapes. Once they've dried you can use glitter paint to add a shiny top coat or go back over your shapes and add more paint designs, but that's optional. Once your shapes have been painted on both sides and are completely dry, thread a piece of ribbon through the hole at the top and then tie a knot. You can hang them on a tree or attach them to a gift, but just remember not to eat them!

The Bookworm's Dream

What you'll need:

Small copies of your favorite book covers

Christmas ornament hooks

Decoupage glue

Scissors

Poster board

I call this the book lover's dream because what book lover doesn't want to decorate with their favorite book? To get the book cover copies, either scan the covers of books you own into a computer or do an image search for a particular book. Once you've found what you were looking for, save the image and open it up in Microsoft Paint where you can resize it until it is of a smaller size of your choosing (usually three inches tall by two inches wide is a good fit). Once you have done this with several pictures, copy and paste them all into the same Paint file, side by side, so that they may all be printed off at once (saving ink, paper, and money). Whether you use regular paper or photo paper is up to you.

Next, cut out the photos and use them to trace around the poster board so that you know how big your squares should be once they've been cut out -the poster board squares and book cover copies should be the same size. Once the poster board squares have been cut out, decoupage glue one book cover copy to each poster board square. Once they're attached securely, remember to go back over the top of your book cover photo with decoupage glue. This not only makes your ornament look shinier, but it also keeps it more secure. After your ornament is completely dry, poke an ornament hook through the top center of it. However, because the decoupage glue is so secure, you might have to use a hole punch to do it. In addition, if you don't want to use book cover copies, this also works well by cutting out a small portion of an old Christmas card.