Christmas Ornaments Tutorial

Today I am back with a crafty tutorial to show you how you can make some unique Christmas tree ornaments. As usual, they are CHEAP, FAST, and EASY! The only catch is that you need one unique piece of equipment that can be purchased for ten dollars on Amazon. Some of you already have it. It is a woodburner.

If you are doing this activity with children, you DO have to monitor them closely, but I did it last year with my five and eleven years old kids with no incidents. Just be careful.

You can buy various kinds of unfinished wood pieces at Michael's and Hobby Lobby, but I asked my uncle to slice these from a dried tree limb that was about three inches in diameter. The only other thing I had to do was drill a small hole in the top to hang it. Also, they make adorable gift tags. Put a cute image on the front, and write to/from on the back. Then the recipient has an ornament to keep as a reminder of your gift.

Once you have your woodburner and something to burn, all you need to do is decide on a design. Snowflakes and trees are easy for beginners. There are a couple of ways to get started. If  you have rubber stamps, you could stamp an image onto your disc and simply trace it with the woodburner. You can lightly draw your design in pencil and trace that, OR, if you are feeling froggy, you can go freestyle on it!

The first one is a snowman. I hope that is obvious. I had the best results with the finest point tip. Put your tip in first, THEN plug in your woodburner and wait about five minutes for it to heat up. Some models allow you to adjust the temperature. I found that the hotter it was, the better. Make sure you have something to set it on, like a wooden cutting board so you don't accidentally burn your counter tops if they are laminate.

I did the same thing with this little cup of coffee which was a stamp. I used a light colored ink and just traced over the lines. This is a great way to get started for beginners. Don't worry if its not perfect, that is part of the charm. 

A quick search on Amazon found THESE wooden discs. 

I also found the tree slices on Etsy HERE.

I found THIS great idea as I was looking for some more examples to show you. At the end of the season, when you are discarding your (once) live tree, slice a piece from the trunk and make an ornament from it, like this one. 

To see other examples for inspiration, you can click HERE to see some that others have made. 

I have two more ornaments I want to show you next week. For one of them you might want to start looking for your button stash! 

Kristy