How to: Make your Own Personalized Ornaments

Christmas is a cheery time for everyone. I love getting gifts almost as much as giving gifts. I love seeing the look on everyone's face when they open the gift from me. Personalized gifts are the greatest. They're cheap and meaningful. If you're trying to save money this year like I am then making things to give is the perfect way to go.
 

I have a big family; three older sisters who are all married and have kids, which means Christmas time, I have to buy gifts for about 15 people and that's just my immediate family. Then I have to buy something for my fiance and his family. It just keeps going and going. Every year is getting harder to buy since our family keeps growing. This year I've decided to do something different. I'm making my gifts.
 

I went to Michael's the other day and of course with my coupons I bought a bunch of crafting materials. The one thing I'm making for my sisters are scarves, but that's a whole different story. I'm also making them personalized ornaments. I haven't started making them yet, but I have some ideas. Some materials you can use to make homemade ornaments are:

• Ribbon
• Glitter
• Glitter or Paint Writing Pen
• Glue
• Stickers
• Stick-on Designs
• Plain ornament of your choice

With these materials you can use your imagination and create anything you like. I'm going to base my ornaments off of the beaded green ornament and the leaves and berries ornament. I absolutely love the glitter designs on this. You can do loops and swirls or polka dots. Whatever you wish, you can do because it's yours to create. I'm going to:

1. Take my clear ornament and go at it.
    
2. Put some glue on the back side of my ribbon and carefully place it diagonally on the ornament. I'll use two or three pieces to put around the whole ornament.
    
3. Use a paint pen to write out the person's name.
    
4. Using a glitter pen I can make swirls all over, but I like to do little dots on the end of each letter in their name.

If you're making a personalized ornament for a child then you can use cute little stickers. I know my niece likes Hannah Montana so if I can find some of those stickers she'll love me forever. If you use a bell-like ornament like the one listed above then you can tie the ribbon through the little whole. It adds a little color and flavor.

Other ways to personalize an ornament for someone:

1. Use their favorite color.
    
2. Add on little embellishments of their favorite things to do (soccer balls, ballerinas, dance shoes, music notes) anything at all.
    
3. If there is an old memorabilia like a lucky shoelace or something of the sort, you can tie it at the top of the ornament. Or if they have a favorite magazine you can use pieces of it to decorate.
    
4. There's some great ways you can decoupage an ornament as well.
    
5. You can also use beads and sequins to decorate.

If you really want to save money and create your own personalized ornaments then you can reuse old CD's and make beaded CD ornaments. The more creative you are the more appreciative and special the ornament is going to be. Merry Christmas!