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38 Homemade Christmas Ornament Projects

It’s Wednesday the 2nd… so it’s time to share this season’s (completely unofficial) Pinterest Challenge (not sponsored by Pinterest or anyone else, just dreamed up by Katie to make us stop pinning and start doing).

Fall Challenge

I actually tackled ornaments (since the winter edition of our little Pinterest Challenge won’t be until January), which I mentioned last Wednesday when Katie, Ana, Erin and I issued our little get-off-our-bums-and-make-something challenge.

I know, I know – it’s not even Thanksgiving yet. I’m one of those one-holiday-at-a-time peeps too. But it was actually oddly satisfying to feel so “prepared” for the upcoming holiday season. And I’m kind of in love with all the happy little ornaments I squeezed out. I actually ended up making 38 DIY ornaments! Here are just a few of the things that inspired them (all found thanks to Pinterest, but originally from here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here):

Pinterest Inspiration1

As are the rules, I took inspiration (or Pintspiration, har-har) from the above projects and then I did my own spin. Which added up to those 38 aforementioned ornaments that I whipped up. My method? Good ol’ trial and error. I just played around and made stuff up as I went along. Here’s what I ended up with:

  • 12 faux ceramic animal ornaments (inspired by the A stuff above)
  • 18 colorful swirl glass bulb ornaments (inspired by the B stuff above)
  • 3 patterned ceramic ornaments (inspired by the C stuff above)
  • 4 faux antler ornaments (inspired by the D stuff above)
  • 1 skeleton key ornament (inspired by the E stuff above)

Here they are now:

Ornament Grid1

And here’s how I made each type:

Faux Ceramic Animal Ornaments

Pinterest Three Animals

  • Purchased a pack of small plastic zoo animals from Michael’s for $4 (with coupon)
Pinterst Animal Toob

  • Primed them all with white spray primer
Pinterest Animals Primed

  • Use small drill bit to start a hole to screw small ring hooks into the top of each one so they could be hung
Pinterest Animal Screwing H

  • Painted 4 of them white, 4 of them lime green, and 4 of them navy (w/ acrylic craft paint from Michael’s)
  • Added colorful string (the kind used for friendship bracelets from Michael’s) for hanging

Colorful Swirl Glass Bulb Ornaments

Pinerest Three Painted Bulb

  • Purchased three six packs of glass ornaments (in small and large sizes) from Michael’s for $9 total (with coupons)
  • Removed the ornament cap and poured a decent amount of 99 cent craft paint in one of three colors into the ornament (exact colors I used: “Limeade” by Apple Barrel, “Metallic Emerald Green” by Folk Art, and “Magenta” by Folk Art Shiny)
  • Slowly swirled the ornament around to spread the paint and create a nice “spun” effect (I aimed to cover 50% of the glass with paint for a not-too-much-and-not-too-little effect). Here’s a video to show you just how easy these babies really are:
  • Allowed each ornament to dry overnight
  • Reattached the ornament caps in the morning after the craft paint dried
  • Added colorful string (the same kind used for friendship bracelets from Michael’s) for hanging

Patterned Ceramic Ornaments

Pinterest Three Ceramics

  • Purchased three ceramic ornaments from Michael’s (for $5 total with coupons) along with three Sharpie markers in navy, magenta, and plum (also from Michael’s for another $5 with coupons)
Pinterest Ceramic Orns Befo

  • Drew magenta and plum chevrons on one ornament, hot pink continents on another (for a modern globe effect), and nested starbursts on the third ornament (in navy, plum, and magenta)
  • Switched out the stock red ribbon for colorful string (yup, the friendship bracelet stuff from Michael’s)
  • Oh and I’m planning to paint the gold cap of the globe ornament someday (white or orange or navy or pink… not sure yet)

Faux Antler Ornaments

Pinterest Antlers Alone

  • Purchased one square of Premo Sculpey clay in lime green from Michael’s for $2
  • Sculpted two small shield shapes and two larger ones
  • Used a needle to create two holes for hanging and a stick to create two indents where each stick antler would be glued
  • Baked according to the Sculpey directions to permanently harden them
Pinterest Sculpe Baked

  • Used crazy glue and sticks from the front yard to create faux antler trophy
  • Added colorful string for hanging (more of that friendship bracelet stuff from Michael’s)

Skeleton Key Ornament

Pinterest Key Alone

  • Grabbed rusty old skeleton key (a sweet gift from a friend)
Pinterest Key Before

  • Used spray primer and white craft paint leftover from faux ceramic animals to paint it white
  • Added the friendship bracelet string for hanging

As for where I’ll display the not-so-Clara-friendly ornaments (well, they’re all super friendly for looking, especially all the zoo animals – just not so friendly for touching when it comes to the glass and ceramic ones), I’ve always loved the idea of a half-height tree on a round pedestal table like this – so we might get a real tree for that (and plant it in the backyard when the holidays are over). But on to the money stuff – here’s the budget breakdown:

  • $4 for plastic zoo animals (from Michael’s)
  • $2 for ring hooks for animals (from Lowe’s)
  • $3 for spray primer for animals (from Lowe’s)
  • $3 for acrylic paint in navy, white, and lime (from Michael’s)
  • $2 for friendship bracelet string for hanging (from Michael’s)
  • $9 for 18 clear glass ornaments (from Michael’s)
  • $2 for magenta & teal acrylic paint (reused lime paint from animals)
  • $2 for Primo Sculpey clay for faux antlers (from Michael’s)
  • Total: $27 (so each of the 38 ornaments was 71 cents on average)

Oh and don’t forget to check in on Katie, Ana, and Erin to see what amaaaaazing projects they whipped up (they’ll be sharing theirs sometime today as well)!

Pinterest Challenge Peeps

And now here’s the part where we invite you to share all of the fun Pinterest Challenge projects that you guys have tackled in the last week (right along with us, well at least virtually with us). If you’ve already blogged about it, just:

  1. click on the blue “Add Your Link” button with the odd cartoon head at the bottom of this post (you might have to do some scrolling, depending how many projects are added)
  2. add a link to your specific blog post about your project in the url field (not your home page)
  3. where it says “name” write a descriptive name for your project (ex: “38 DIY Ornaments”) as opposed to your actual name
  4. we’d also love if you could quickly link back over to our project posts within your own (here’s Katie’s, Ana’s, Erin’s, and ours) – it’s also nice to link to your inspiration project on Pinterest as well as to directly link to the original project/site, just so they get some love too.

And if you’d rather just link over to your project in the comment section, feel free to do that – or even add a link to a free photo sharing site like Flickr with your pics if you don’t have a blog (remember to set the gallery to public so we can all see it). We can’t wait to see what you’ve been up to! Geeked out doesn’t even begin to describe it.

Update: You can check out all of our favorite holiday decor finds here – many of which are under $15! 

Comments

  1. Catherine says

    My parents and I dug up our Christmas trees for six years and planted them in the backyard after every Christmas. It was very special growing up knowing that those huge trees in the backyard used to be our Christmas trees! I highly recommend digging up your tree and then planting it! Clara will love it, especially in years to come!

    Reply

  4. angel p says

    Love the paint ornaments! The colors match my theme this year so perhaps I’ll make a few. I made a project this weekend as well but don’t have a way to post a pic. I made the giant ruler that you can hang on the wall to measure your kiddos. It turned out awesome!!! I am going to make a few more for Christmas gifts.

    Reply

  8. Liz says

    I LOVE them all!! My favorite, though, is the alligator ornament. What an awesome idea! I’m definitely going to try this!

    Reply

  9. Jessica says

    Yay! I got started a little late on my Pinterest Challenge this time around and only made a small thing (last night actually), but it has jumpstarted my holiday crafting. Thanks again ladies!

    Reply

  10. Andy @ Stay at Home Who says

    They are all very fun and festive! We did the ceramic ornaments and glass writing sharpie thing last year. We bought 3, 1 for each grandparent’s tree and 1 for ours. We have 2 kiddos so I let them draw and decorate 1 side of each ornament. Then I throw the year, their names, and Merry Christmas along the side edge. I plan on doing it again year after year. Not sure what I’ll do if we have a third kid though, LOL.

    Reply

  12. Kim @ Yellow Brick Home says

    Oh, good gracious, I am in LOVE with those animal ornaments! Totally pinning and totally doing. Thank you for the inspiration!

    Also, I’ve had that dino planter pinned for months now – another thing on my must do list! How fun are those?!

    Reply

    • [email protected] says

      oh my heavens, thank you for the WONDERFUL idea! i’m suddenly giddy with excitement! i have two little girls and they want a small christmas tree of their very own this year. i was at a loss as to what to decorate it with (with the exception of their homemade ornaments, of course – it will be filled with them!)

      but tiny white ceramic animals. oh.my.gosh. best idea for their little tree ever.

  19. Katharine says

    I love the colors! I want to see your tree with all these on – do I even need to beg for photos? ;-P

    Also, unless they make friendship bracelets a lot differently than when I was a kid, that stuff is called embroidery floss. FYI.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha, you know we’ll share pics as soon as we get a tree going on (probably a week or two after Thanksgiving). Oh and thanks for the embroidery floss term! Never knew that.

      xo,
      s

    • r8chel says

      Katharine, I think you’re right that Sherry used embroidery floss, but there are actually friendship bracelet kits out there that use some other kind of string. But then you’re limited to the colors in your kit — and picking out the floss from those little bins is always so fun.

  20. Megan says

    We made the paint ornaments when I was a kid. You can also do multiple colors – ours were a color like blue or pink combined with a metallic. They’re still some of my favorites on my parents’ tree…and that’s proof that they should last you a long, long time. ;)

    Reply

  24. Nessa@{CasaBraaflat} says

    love them all but especially the spun painted glass bulbs. fabulous!
    also totally unrelated but have you done a post about your favorite things to do/see/eat in NYC? i know you have done Richmond. taking a trip to NYC and would love an insiders tips. thanks!

    Reply

  27. Laura Beth says

    Oh my goodness. Those ornaments are AWESOME!! Thanks for hosting this FABULOUS party :o) I love the encouragement to follow through on some long overdue projects.

    Reply

  30. Jackie says

    The animal ornaments are brilliant! I am definitely making these for my tree. I love how I can make them any color!!!

    Thank you for hosting the link party too! Looking forward to the next challenge in January. I better get pinning (like any of us need an excuse to linger on pinterest)!

    Reply

  32. Madison@TheSeidlerFamily says

    Thanks for the awesome challenge and making me stop pinning and start spinning! I loved being able to start my projects and can’t wait to share what else I’ve accomplished since randomly stumbling across your blog (for example, just painted all our brass chandeliers and sconces!). This was my first Pinterest try, though, before I started getting even crazier!
    http://www.theseidlerfamily.com/a-pinteresting-challenge

    Thanks again for all inspiration.
    Madison

    Reply

  33. Kaleigh says

    Wow! So I wasn’t as busy completing the amount of pinterest projects that you were able to accomplish, especially with the power outages across our state but I did get to tackle one Pinterest Project. Its called the Proposal Pillow – it’s a pillow that I found on lacefield designs which I wanted to make because it had personal meaning from the day that my hubby proposed to me. Check it out here http://www.ih3art.blogspot.com/ . Thanks so much for hosting this challenge!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      That’s true! I think I love that ornament on its own but all the glass ones have a silver top so it looks sort of odd-man-out. Maybe I just need more gold touches so it looks a bit more intentional!

      xo,
      s

  36. Sarah @ Redhead in Ruffled Flats says

    I had a feeling you were going to do some DIY ornaments when I saw you pinning them like crazy. I’ve been thinking about ornaments lately, too, since it’s my first Christmas with my hubby of almost three months and we are (okay I am) pining after a vintage/retro look, which is not easy to find in stores and very hard to find affordably online, since vintage ornaments are collector’s items now. I’m hoping to do some DIY-ing of ornaments of my own!

    I love yours! The animals are so cute and everything else is so you, which is great since it will be on your tree. I love you two always personalize everything!

    I covered a lampshade in fabric, which was kind of a boring Pinterest-inspired craft, but we were doing it on the extreme cheap and I had about half an hour of time to get something done.

    Thanks for keeping this challenge going! I can’t wait for December!

    Reply

  37. Lizi says

    I can not even begin to tell yow how absolutely ecstatic I am about this Pinterest challenge. This is the first one I have participated in and I am just loving how it has really brought together the DIY blogging community! It is so fun to be able to check out other bloggers that love your blog as much as I do. We all have you guys in common and you to thank for this fun Pinterest experience! Love it!

    Reply

  38. KLL says

    I would just like to call party foul. I was unable to complete a project from my pinterest site this week and all this post has done for me is adding about a DOZEN NEW PINS. No fair.

    Reply

  39. Elizabeth says

    This is seriously an amazing post! I love how interactive it is with your readers. I love the painted animal decorations. They are lovely coloured, but I liked them painted white as well! I think the glass ornaments are my favourite. They are so simple and fun! Good job :)

    Reply

  43. Meredith says

    I don’t have a blog… but you can check out this map I made with inspiration from Pinterest on my friend (and professional blogger) Kath’s site: http://www.katheats.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/CvilleBlog.jpg

    Original Pinspiration found here: http://pinterest.com/pin/325667972/

    I have ArcGIS (a mapping and data analysis software) so this was super easy since I already had the city and road data, but others could probably create something similar in PowerPoint!

    Reply

  44. Betsy says

    So cute! I’m especially in love with the skeleton key!
    And FYI, not pinterest related, but an idea to keep in mind as Clara gets older – when I was little I loved to play with the ornaments on the tree (especially the antique ones!). So my mom sewed a bunch of felt ornaments and got a little baby tree for my room, and I could rearrange the ornaments as much as I liked, so long as I left the big tree alone. Every year as I got older I received more ornaments for my own tree, and when I moved out as an adult I had almost a whole tree worth of ornaments from the course of my life. Now I can’t wait to get started on a baby tree for our little one when he arrives next year!

    Reply

    • Amanda says

      My mom did something similar for me, she’d give me and my brother one or more ornaments a year so when we moved out I had a huge wack of ornaments for my tree! Didn’t quite cover the whole thing (I bought a really big tree! haha) but it was a great start, and some of them have meaning (things I was really liking that year, or a extracurricular I was doing that year, etc. etc)

    • Serena says

      My mom did the same thing Amanda. Every year we would make a few homemade ornaments (different ones every year) and she would also buy us each an ornament. Her “rule” for the store bought ones was that they had to remind her of us somehow (a hobby we were in to, an accomplishment or major milestone from that year etc). On Christmas Eve we got to open the store bought ornaments and hang them on the tree right before we put out the cookies and milk and went to bed. Her other “rule” was that the boxes and boxes of store bough ornaments got to go with us when we moved out but the homemade ones had to stay with her. She actually still buys us ornaments but now they are for the couples and my husband and I exchange ornaments every Christmas Eve too. We keep joking that if the tradition continues much longer we’re going to need a bigger house just so we can have more than one Christmas tree!

  45. Erika says

    Love how your DIY ornaments turned out! So much in fact I just had to “pin” them. Thanks so much for sharing and for allowing everyone to link up their amazing Pinterest projects.

    Reply

  49. jacquie says

    Love your ornaments! My son and daughter each have a small 3 foot tree in their rooms that they can decorate to their style and taste. I think we’ll try making the animal decorations for my son, maybe we’ll use plastic dinosaurs instead. Happy Pinterest Day! :)

    Reply

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