• Every year my husband and I get our kids an ornament for the Christmas tree. They usually get to pick one out. It is a family tradition. I love looking back at all of the ornaments as we decorate the tree. Remembering when my daughter was obsessed with Pooh Bear, then Tinker Bell. I can barely count the number of Toy Story ornaments we have. This year I wanted to try my hand at making their ornaments. For no other reason than I wanted to.

    I remember as a kid putting pictures into clear glass ornaments so I thought I would take that idea and make my kids their ornaments.

    The first thing I did was find the perfect clear ornaments to start with. My local craft store carried ones that were not completely spherical, but were instead more of the shape of a makeup compact. Skinny, but still round. My logic here, instead of buying the usual normal spheres was that the picture should be easier to see. Anyway, I bought a four pack for four dollars. Off to a great start so far.

    Next it was off to choose my pictures. This past fall my family and I went to Disney World. It was of course an amazing and magical time. For each of my kids I chose a picture of them at the parks with one of their favorite characters. Rapunzel for my daughter, Woody for my middle son, and Pooh for my youngest. All of them are in roughly the same pose, being hugged by the character and sporting a huge smile.

    My next step was to crop the photos to the right size. To do this, measure your ornaments. You need something that will fit inside. For my ornaments I needed the picture to be about 2.5 x 2.5 inches. When I had all the pictures cropped to the right size I printed them on velum paper. I chose velum because it would not wrinkle, or crease when I put it inside of the ornaments opening.

    When everything was printed I used my scissors to cut the pictures into a circle shape. Use your actual ornament as a guide.

    Slip your pictures inside and position to your liking.

    You can add other things inside your ornament as well. We added some glitter and Mickey shaped confetti. You could cose to add beach sand or shells if using a beach vacation photo, anything that will fit.

    Close off the ornaments and add some ribbon to add that finishing touch.

    There are so many fun options here too. Say your kids like a book or character that doesn’t have an ornament? Or maybe it’s really hard to find an ornament with their name on it. Your possibilities are endless.