Make Your Own Unique Christmas Ornaments

If you’re after some really unique Christmas ornaments to hang on your tree these holidays then why not make your own? I have quite a few ideas for you on how to create your own ornaments which are not only fun to do, but can help save you money at the same time.

Making your own Christmas ornaments can also be a cool crafting activity to do with your children in the lead up to the holidays. I can remember my brother and I ‘decorating’ pine cones with our parents in the lead up to Christmas and I’ve enjoyed making a few ornaments with my own daughter over the years including the pictured One Direction ornament last year (how quickly they grow up!).

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Let’s have a look at how to make some unique ornaments for your tree from baubles to beads, wooden ornaments to paper…..

These clear plastic acrylic baubles can be used in lots of different ways to create your very own unique ornaments and they come in a range of different sizes.

Clear Plastic Acrylic Fillable Ball Ornament 80mm

My daughter and I used two of these ornaments last Christmas to create some One Direction Christmas ornaments for our tree (this made not only my daughter happy, but her cousin extremely jealous…..might have to make her one for Christmas next year!). I took some photos so that you could follow what we did step by step, you can actually use the same ideas as us for other ornaments to reflect your own personality.

Let’s have a look at how we started with the photo to the side and ended up with the two ornaments below –

How to Make 1D Christmas Ornaments

We made two different ornaments and the first step was choosing two images – one was of the band members together and the other was the band logo. We cut out the circles, got the two acrylic baubles and then had to think about what else we could use for the ornaments.

We had some red whistle, party blowers which I thought I could use for the logo ornament and some light blue tissue paper which looked good with the image of the boys. We were ready to put these ornaments together.

First 1D Christmas Ornament

The Logo Ornament

Step One – Take the tape off of these party blowers/whistles so that you’re left with the red ‘tinsel’ type material.

Step Two – Cut the tape part off of the bottom leaving just the red.

Step Three – After placing the logo into one side of the acrylic bauble push the red ‘tinsel’ type of material into the bauble half and then snap the other half into place.

Step Four – Voila! The completed 1D logo ornament for your tree.

2nd 1D Christmas Ornament

The One Direction Photo Ornament

Step One – Take the image/photo, the tissue paper and the bauble.

Step Two – Place the image in one half of the bauble.

Step Three – Crunch up the tissue paper to fill up the bauble.

Step Four – Snap the two sides together – this is the ‘back’ part of the ornament.

More Ideas for DIY Bauble Ornaments

Homemade Holiday Decorations for your Tree

You can adapt the ideas above to use images of your family pets, family members or other idols. There are other ideas that you can use these baubles to achieve however and they include –

• Adding a small figurine like one you’d get from a Happy Meal.
• Adding Lego blocks.
• Adding fabric scraps.
• Adding wool.
• One idea I saw recently was taking a spare wedding invitation and cutting it into fine strips and popping it into a bauble as a first Christmas as a married couple idea.

There really are lots of different ideas for filling these baubles and I’ve even found a few more ideas online which you can check out here –

• Christmas Ball Ornaments – this video shows how to use tape, a page from an old book and a clear glass or acrylic fillable ornament to create your very own unique ornament.
• Glitter Christmas Ornaments – this video shows how to make simple glitter ornaments that won’t leave glittery remains on the floor by the tree!
• DIY Disney Ornaments – this video shows how a lady made a few different Disney Princess ornaments, but you can adapt the ideas to include any of your favorite characters.

Personalizing Existing Christmas Ornaments

If you’re like me you have a lot of plain Christmas baubles to add to your tree alongside your more unique or personal ornaments. You can take some of these and personalize them in a number of different ways.

Our local school sell personalized Christmas ornaments as a fundraiser and they simply get plain colored ornaments and a couple of the parents use glass paint to ‘write’ the names onto the ornaments – this is very simple to do. Another way which is a better idea if you want your children to help is to use stickers to pop the name onto the ornaments.

If you have really young children who’s handprints will still fit on an ornament you could simply apply paint to their hand and get them to carefully hold onto an ornament – also a great gift idea for grandparents. If your children are a little older you could make fingerprint ornaments instead ….. boys particularly seem to like this idea for some reason (or that’s been my experience anyway!)

You can also add glitter to plain ornaments to bring them alive more (although you will find glitter around the tree when you’re putting all of the decorations away). Use glue in a pattern – like a Christmas tree – or a name and then sprinkle glitter onto the ornament so that it sticks to the glue – beautiful!

Make Your Own Glass Christmas Ornaments

Cool DIY Baubles for Your Christmas Tree!

Of course if you’re an aspiring artist you may want to try your hand at painting your own glass Christmas ornaments. Personally I’d probably use a stencil as I’m not confident of my artistic ability! I have seen some handmade marbled glass effect ornaments for sale and they are apparently really easy to do yourself (I’ve yet to try it myself however). If you’re interested here’s a helpful link for you –

• Faux Marble Painted Christmas Ornaments Tutorial

Here’s some plain glass ornaments that you can use, the round ones are quite easy to find, but this is the first time I’ve seen the teardrop ornaments available.

 Clear Glass Christmas Ornaments Glass Teardrop Christmas Ornaments 66mm Glass Disc Christmas Ornaments

 

• • Character Christmas Ornaments

My daughter just loves Minions for some reason so when I saw someone had made Minion glass Christmas ornaments I just had to check them out. These are fun and easy to make and can be adapted to any number of characters – the ones featured are a Minion, Elmo & Mike from Monsters Inc.

I do love some of the beaded Christmas ornaments you can get, some of them can be quite ornate and incorporated into Victorian themed Christmas trees.

Here’s some links for how you can make some homemade beaded ornaments this holiday season –

• • • Video on making a beaded ornament that’s ideal for adding to a Victorian tree or even a modern tree.
    • Simple beaded angel ornament – this is another video that shows a very easy ornament to make.
    • Beaded Snowflake Ornament – step by step instructions.
    • Perler Fuse Beads Ornaments – step by step instructions and a free downloadable pattern to follow.
    • Red & Gold Glitter Holiday Ornaments – step by step instructions using flat back beads and glitter.
    • Candy Cane, Gift & Wreath Holiday Ornaments – step by step instructions for making three different beaded ornaments.

Of course another option when it comes to making Christmas ornaments with beads is simply to buy a kit and I just so happen to have some available for you below.

This beautiful set includes all the beads you need to make 6 different snowflake ornaments. I don’t know about you, but I love the look of snowflake ornaments on my tree so this kit is one that I definitely recommend!

Beaded Snowflake Ornaments

I would suggest this as a crafting activity for kids from about 7 upwards as these beads can be a little fiddly.

These ornaments also end up looking really nice so you could get your children to make them as gifts for aunts and uncles, grandparents etc.

If you’re a beader with some weaving experience then you might like to try your hand at some of the Miyuki Beading kits and there are quite a few available to make Christmas ornaments from Santa to Angels – here’s a few that I thought you might like –

 

Miyuki Bead Kit Miyuki Christmas AngelMiyuki Bead Kit Miyuki Christmas TreeMiyuki Bead Kit Miyuki Christmas Santa

The very first Christmas ornaments I got my daughter to help me make were a diy kit I brought with wooden cut out stars and little mirrors. My daughter was two and a half and decided that out of all the paint colors we had the stars should be purple!

We painted the stars and then I stuck the mirrors on to them and (although they’re very faded now) they still get hung up on our Christmas tree.

Here’s a few kits that you can decorate and then hang onto your Christmas tree this holiday season –

 Unfinished Round Wood Christmas Ornaments Unfinished Wood Lace Snowflake Xmas Ornament Unfinished Wood X-Mas Tree Cutout Ornament

 

Of course you could always get some plywood or balsa wood and cut out your own shapes to make your own ornaments if you want to.

One of my dad’s friends is a whittler and makes some amazing ornaments, spoons, citrus squeezers etc and I’m sure if you know how to whittle you won’t need any help designing your very own ornaments. If you do whittle I’d suggest making extra ornaments as they could make some very personal and gorgeous gift ideas for friends and family as well!

It’s almost impossible to list all of the different ways in which you can make your own Christmas ornaments. If you know how to cross-stitch or your do embroidery then you can use both of these crafts to stitch your own ornaments. If you have fun with felt then this can also be turned into a Christmas ornament – my daughter actually brought home a felt star she made for our tree one year at school, she was very proud to hang that on the tree!

I’ve added a few ideas here for Christmas ornaments, but I will be adding more to the list in the future so be sure to bookmark this page for when you want some homemade Christmas decorating inspiration.

• Scrabble Tile Christmas Ornaments
  I think this idea is absolutely gorgeous and would look perfect on our Christmas tree, I just don’t want to use up our scrabble tiles!
• Wooden Spool Ornament
  I used to save up all of the spools from thread and make things with them when I was younger, but I’d never thought of making Christmas ornaments with them until I saw this page.
• Almond Bird Christmas Ornament
  This is such a cute looking Christmas ornament that you use a whole almond to make – definitely on my ‘I want to make this’ list of Christmas crafts!
• Heart Shaped Snowman Ornament
  Another very cute looking Christmas ornament that looks easy to make.
• Origami Christmas Ornaments
  My daughter learned how to make origami last year and has promised to show me how to make some Christmas ornaments this year, but for now I’ve found this site which has lots of instructions for you.
• Bottle Cap Snowman Ornament
  At last a way to use up those bottle caps and at the same time create a fun looking snowman Christmas ornament!
• Yarn Ball Christmas Ornaments
  Using yarn and water balloons can not only be a lot of fun, but also produces some pretty cool homemade Christmas ornaments.

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