DIY ornaments + printable templates
It seems ever year around December, retail establishments want us to all spend just a bit more than the year previously. Christmas has gone commercial. Become expensive. Instead of being excited, adults fret and worry when Christmas comes around. How are we suppose to pay for all it? The reason for the season gets lost amidst Black Friday and Cyber Monday. And while I love a good discount and enjoy standing in line the Friday after Thanksgiving. (did I really just type that?) I’m also trying to pull back from throwing my credit card all over the place. Instead I’m attempting to put more focus on memories, traditions, and how we as a family can be resourceful while bonding this season. This brings me to DIY ornaments!
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Customize and create
Making decor for your tree allows you to decide just what you want your theme and colors to be, without spending $8 per ornament to get it Pinterest perfect. Your family can cut and glue together, not only saving money but also making so many memories throughout the process.
There are DIY ornaments made with felt, popsicle sticks, and paper. You can add glitter, use multicolored card-stock, and mini pom poms. Heck, you can gather pinecones from your yard, glitter them, and throw those on the tree! There are endless ways to spend less and create more. Thinking ahead is also a great way to get supplies cheap. Not only have you saved money on materials, you’re also prepared and not scrambling to make ornaments the day of setting up the tree. But hey, even if you end up making ornaments and hanging them right up, that’s just fine too. We want to take the pressure off of ourselves to do something how others think we should. What works best for your family? What are you just going to roll with this year, letting go of the guilt of “doing it wrong”?
DIY ornaments
Paper ornaments are some of the easiest, most inexpensive ways to dec the tree. I perused Pinterest and all the sites I found had templates that were for members or part of a service. So, I went to WordPress and on attempt three, finally got it right. I suggest using card-stock so the ornaments hold their shape better. I also used a glue gun to put them together but a glue stick and holding it for a few seconds works as well if kids are involved. Or you can leave the gluing to the parents or teenagers.
I simply made two kinds of ornaments and made a lot of them. Using multiples of the same ornaments creates more of a themed look, so it simply depends on what you’re going for.
Templates
FREE Printable: Christmas ornament long
For the long ornaments, I cut out six of them, folded each in half and glued the sides to the other sides until lastly, I glued the starting side to the ending. Hang up to dry so it doesn’t lose its shape.
FREE Printable Christmas Ornament
Take the ends and glue them all together at the top. Once it’s in a ball shape place a dot of hot glue on the top and place the rope ends in it, holding until it dries. Hand up so it can maintain its shape.
I purchased some glitter spray at Michaels and went ahead and sprayed all my ornaments with gold glitter. It was a nice finishing touch and also seemed to add some strength to the ornaments as well!
Enjoy getting creative and DIYing your tree beautiful this year!
