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Fast, Easy, Inexpensive, Cute Photo Ornaments: A Tutorial

December 5, 2011 By crafterhours 16 Comments

I’ve taken on a fundraising task for K’s school. We’re making ornaments to sell at the upcoming Holiday Bazaar. I’ve spent a while trying to come up with a recipe for ornament-making that required little financial investment and a reasonable amount of time with awesome results. That’s the goal, anyway.

And while thinking about making ornaments of my kids for the year, I realized that the way I’m making ornaments for the school would work just as well for my personal project. I’ve gotten a trillion e-mails since Thanksgiving offering 50% off of ornaments, but even at half-price they feel expensive to me. And this is super, super inexpensive if you already have a few supplies on hand.

Supplies:
Card stock
Printer
Sewing machine/thread
Ribbon
Mod Podge
Double-sided tape

I did the layout with the Silhouette software. I’ve posted this before, but it’s worth repeating– the software is free and can be downloaded from the Silhouette site. You don’t have to buy anything to get it. You can print to your regular printer. Whether you’re planning to get a cutting machine or not, I think the software makes layout simple. You could also use PowerPoint, Gimp, Photoshop, Picnik… lots of ways to do it.

At the edge of each ornament I added a very thin grey line to use as a cutting guide at the end of the process. This line will help guide you to keep your stitched line straight and even.

Cut out your ornament and a matching back-side piece of card stock. Give yourself plenty of room to manipulate the ornament under the presser foot. Then cut three pieces of card stock that fit inside your ornament shape with at least 3/8″ all the way around. Your sewing machine can probably handle sewing through two layers of card stock and ribbon, but more card stock than that under the needle could be problematic. If you’re concerned about your machine, needle, try it first on some scraps by advancing the needle with your hand control.

Use double-sided tape or scrapbook adhesive to stick your 3 smaller card stock shapes together. Stick the ribbon in there too to make a hanging loop.

Put your back-side shape on. You’ve got a sandwich with a front and back, three pieces of card stock and a ribbon in the middle.

Put your ornament under the presser foot. On my machine, the general purpose foot has marks that make it easy to choose a guideline to follow. I haven’t studied other machine’s feet, but I’m guessing they’re similar. Or you could mark your foot with a bit of tape or something. You just want the distance between your stitch line and cut line to be consistent.

Now it looks like this.

Cut! Just be careful as you approach the ribbon. Don’t want to cut that. You’ll have to peel back the sides and cut them separately.

Mod Podge it! I thought glitter podge was appropriate here. But really, when is it not?

Not sure where to hang it to dry? How about on the tree! Once they’re dry they’re surprisingly rigid and sturdy.

These photos have captured the girls, I think. M is in full-time playful and silly mode, and K is in somewhat reserved thoughtful smirky mode. Daily. And now it’s Mod Podged for posterity.

Related

Filed Under: holiday, tutorial Tagged With: decor, gift, holiday, tutorial

« Holiday Notes
Ornament Factory »

Comments

  1. Katy @ Live Laugh Love Craft says

    December 5, 2011 at 1:13 pm

    Such a great idea! Thanks for sharing! :)

    Reply
  2. Kris @ everywhereorange.com says

    December 5, 2011 at 1:27 pm

    i love this!!! one day i want to have a tree that is all photos, i think this is a great way to do some of them. i especially love the glitter!!

    Reply
  3. Kelly's Korner says

    December 5, 2011 at 1:35 pm

    Thanks Susan! I did some digital silhouettes of my kids that I’ve been trying to decide what to do with. Now I know! :)

    Reply
  4. Katy Cameron says

    December 5, 2011 at 4:06 pm

    What a cute idea :o)

    Reply
  5. Heather says

    December 5, 2011 at 5:39 pm

    Great idea thanks for sharing! Grandparent gift :)

    Reply
  6. Jodie @ The Haby Goddess says

    December 5, 2011 at 6:05 pm

    Susan, the possibilities are endless with this tutorial – my mind is spinning now!

    Reply
  7. 112ea8b6-2077-11e1-8a9d-000bcdcb5194 says

    December 6, 2011 at 9:59 pm

    Love!

    Reply
  8. Manda says

    December 9, 2011 at 12:47 am

    This is awesome, and I think I have everything -‘cept ribbon- to make these!

    Reply
  9. Tiffany Whaley says

    December 9, 2011 at 3:39 pm

    I’m feeling quite ashamed that I didn’t know Glitter Podge existed. How have I missed this wonderful stuff?!

    Reply
  10. fern says

    December 11, 2011 at 11:34 pm

    These are fantastic! Definitely worth a virtual high-five! :-)

    Reply
  11. simplesew says

    July 19, 2012 at 11:07 am

    I love this thoughtful idea, this would work for me as a gma, I put pics on my tree every year and great tags too

    Reply
  12. Hilani Ellis says

    November 5, 2012 at 9:50 am

    This is absolutely fabulous!!! I can’t wait to do it! Thank you for sharing it with us so we can create such great keepsakes!

    Reply
  13. June says

    July 23, 2013 at 12:03 pm

    These ornaments are really nice. i am going to try some for my many kids and grand kids, Thanks.

    Reply
    • Susan Yates says

      July 23, 2013 at 6:13 pm

      Thanks, June! :)

      Reply
  14. Annie Pongpairoj says

    August 24, 2014 at 12:18 am

    Thank you and I love this!! Great to give along with Christmas cards. I also love the fact it’s combining my fav things, Christmas, sewing, Silhouette and Mod Podge!!! Thank you for the idea of painting printed craft paper with Mod Podge, the ink didn’t smudge? Must try this soon!

    Reply
    • Susan says

      August 25, 2014 at 1:53 pm

      Nope, no smudge!

      Reply

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