How to Make Decoupaged Victorian Christmas Decorations

When I first got married, we had little to no money. We had three small children and my husband was going to college full time., so I had to create ways to save money and make things from scratch especially during Christmas time.

I have always admired the style of the Victorian inspired Christmas trees. I love the look of the big gold ribbons, the pearl garlands and the handmade antique style ornaments. The Victorians loved to create individualized Christmas ornaments out of Fancy papers, pretty fabrics, lace and even jewelry.

When I toured the department stores and country decor centers, I fell in love with the look but not with the price of the ornaments. I decided to come up with a way that I could make these pretty little vintage ornaments for practically next to nothing.

If you look at how the Victorians used to decorate for Christmas, they seldom would take small "still life" like photos and postcards then they would create ornaments out of these items to hang on their tree.

If you scope out certain magazines and Catalogs for vintage style photos you can then buy the magazine and proceed to clip out the items that you feel would make nice ornaments. My favorite magazine to find these treasures is a magazine called Victoria. This magazine boasts stories and photos related to the Victorian inspired lifestyle.

Another way to find neat still life Victorian Items is from old post cards or new post cards with Victorian styled pictures on them.

Strolling down the Scrapbooking isle at your favorite craft store is also a way to pick up some nice stickers or scrap booking papers with Victorian images on them that you can cut out and then decoupage onto an ornament.

Here are my instructions for making some elegant Christmas Tree Ornaments for your tree.

Still life pictures (Gather around all of the still life pictures that you want to use to make your ornaments)

Large piece of White Poster Board.

Glue.

Gold or Silver Craft Paint.

Decoupage Medium Paste.

Popsicle sticks or photo peeler tool (used for scrap booking photos)

Assortment of thin Ribbons or pearl strings cut to six inches in diameter.

Find a spot on your work table to get started. Lay some newspaper down to protect your furnishings. This will get messy. Start cutting out the pictures that you want to use for your ornaments.

Once they are cut out, make sure to follow around the perimeter of the image. For example if you are cutting out a vintage Santa then cut out only the image of him and nothing surrounding him in the background.

Cut out a square of Poster Board and lay your image on top of the Poster Board. Cut out a silhouetted image of the still life picture, but make the poster board background just slightly larger than the image.

Paint the edges of the poster board silhouette a golden or silver color, depending on your preference of decor color.

Allow the paint to completely dry.

Apply a small amount of glue to the poster board and stick the image to the poster board.

Flip the ornament over and take a 6 inch piece of pearl string or lace and apply each end to the back of the ornament to make a hook or hanger.

Display your ornaments on your tree or Christmas Wreath.

Once on Display, combined with other color coordinated ribbons and lights, you will create a look that is stunning and the perfect Masterpiece to your Holiday Decorations.