First Christmas Picture Ornament

Since I’m living the SAHM life now, we are ballin on a budget. SO that just means I get to notch my DIY skills up to the next level. Homemade Christmas presents are officially my go to for family presents!  We took some at home Christmas photos, so I decided to make a Christmas picture ornament in honor of E’s first Christmas!

I got the inspiration from Shutterfly when making our Christmas cards.  They had a Christmas picture ornament “card” option but it was a little pricey. I knew I could make eight of my own by printing of 4×6 prints at CVS for pretty the same price as one from them.  I’m all about cutesy gifts, but saving money & still accomplishing that? Even better!

I used the Photofy app to add text to my pictures.  “Easton’s First Christmas” on the front picture & “2016” on the back picture. I used the CVS app to print them for pick up the next day.  E screamed the whole way to CVS, so that was lovely. Luckily, we only live about 5 minutes away!
Once I got started, I realized I probably should have done two pictures on each 4×6 print so the ornaments were a little more sizable. But heck if I was going to try that again. So large ornaments is what they would get!  I thought about doing a cutesy cut out design, but the way the wording fell it just wasn’t happening.  So an octagon is as cutesy as it was going to get, lol.

I just hand drew the octagon, so they’re not extremely symmetrical but who has time for that anyway? Once I had cut one out, I used that as a template to trace the shape on all of the other pictures.  **Word of advice** Remember the pictures are going to be back to back.  So you have to flip your template backside up on the second picture in order for the corners to match if your template isn’t symmetrical.  I learned this the hard way the first time.

I wanted a border, so once I had all of the pictures cut into the desired shape I broke out the card stock.  So I freehand traced about 1/2 inch around the picture template on a piece of card stock.  Once I cut that out & confirmed that the angles & lines aligned *closely enough* I used that as a template to cut the remaining needed.

Next is the fun part.  I mod podged the first picture on the piece of card stock.  *Remember to check alignment if yours aren’t symmetrical like mine.* Once those dried, I did the same with the second picture on the other side.  I would place them under a heavy object to help ensure they dried evenly & flatly.  To ensure the pictures wouldn’t peel over time, I painted a layer of mod podge over the entire ornament (covering both card stock & picture).  Do this to both sides.  But learn from my mistakes.  Allow them to dry individually over night.  I let them dry for an hour or so & then stacked them away.  Well, the next morning two were stuck together & the mod podged peeled off both of them as I pried them apart…. Lucky it didn’t damage the ornament, but did lead to an extra unnecessary step.

The final steps are quite easy: a hole puncher & piece of ribbon finalize the details.  I used blue ribbon, just because.  Not ever sure why, I guess because he’s a boy? lol.  I tied the ribbon with a little bow just to up the cuteness factor.  & boy are they cute!!  Probably “larger” than the average Christmas picture ornament, but oh well.  Ultimately, I was able to make all of the family gifts this year for under $10 & you can’t beat that!  They might not be symmetrical, but can you even tell?? They’re heartfelt & made with love, & isn’t that what Christmas is all about?! Plus, who doesn’t love a Christmas picture ornament!

What DIY Christmas gifts have you made with your little one?!  I’d love to have some inspiration for years to come! 🙂