Some of the best Christmas ornaments are those that are handcrafted by you and your children. This article will give the details on how to create three different Christmas ornaments. Each year as you decorate your tree, these ornaments will remind you of the time you spent together creating them.
For the first ornament, you will need pipe cleaners. They can be any color and any size. You will also need a package of multicolored beads. The beads need to have holes in them that are large enough to slide over the pipe cleaners.
Now, it is time to get creative. Decide what shape you want your ornament to take and form your pipe cleaner into that shape. Some shape ideas include candy canes, stars, balls, and Christmas trees. Be sure and leave the ends of your ornament’s shape open. You will need to slide beads onto the pipe cleaner. Once you have added all of the beads, connect the ends of your pipe cleaner together by twisting them. You can add ribbon to the top of your ornament to create a hanger.
The next ornament, which is a poinsettia flower, takes a little more time, but it really is very simple to do. You will need paper napkins or paper towels, acrylic paints, a paint brush, a package of rhinestones, and a hot glue gun and glue stick.
Your napkin or paper towel should form a perfect square. If one end is longer than the other, cut or tear off the excess paper. Fold each corner of the napkin into the middle and glue the corner tips to the center of the napkin. You should now have a smaller square.
Turn your napkin over so that the folded part is face down. Now, take the corners of the napkin and fold into the center again, and hot glue them down. Take your thumb and place it onto the corner of your napkin, and place your pointer finger and middle finger around the back of the napkin. Press the corner of the napkin in with your thumb as you pull the back flap of that corner out. This forms the petal of the poinsettia. You will need to continue to do this with each corner until you have four petals.
Place your flower on a paper plate, newspaper, or some other covered surface. You can now paint and decorate your flower any way you like. Once you have allowed the paint to dry, hot glue a rhinestone into the center of the flower, and hot glue a piece of ribbon at the top for a hanger.
The last ornament is made out of aluminum foil and thread. These are all of the supplies that you need. To make this ornament you will need to stack several sheets of aluminum foil together. You will probably want to use at last three sheets.
Next, decide what shapes you want your ornaments to take. You can draw the ornament shapes on the foil using a pencil and stencils, or you can just freehand the ornament. Christmas cookie cutters also make great ornament patterns. Just trace around the cookie cutter shape.
Once you have drawn your patterns, you can cut them out with scissors. Keeping your shapes stacked together, you will need to sew down the middle of each shape. You can sew by hand or use a sewing machine. Be sure and leave some extra thread at the top of your ornament. This will be your hanger after you tie the ends together. Now separate the different layers of the foil to form a 3-D shaped ornament. That’s all there is to it!
Have fun making these inexpensive and simple ornaments with family and friends. You’ll treasure the memories you have created for years to come.
