One of my favorite holiday traditions is collecting ornaments. This year, I'm making wood block ornaments with my kids -- and you can, too!
Homemade Christmas ornaments have been on my shortlist of kid's holiday crafts for quite some time. And now that my children are getting older (four and six, to be exact) I'm excited to start incorporating Christmas crafts for kids into our family’s holiday traditions.
As a child, my very favorite Christmas ornament was a simple felt and fabric tree my mom made; apparently the year my parents got married they had little money, and my mom made most of the ornaments for their tree. I loved imagining my parents as young adults starting their life together, and that ornament always made me think of them. My mother-in-law has also made a yearly tradition of giving us a special ornament each year, and I’m proud to say we now have 16 of these gifts hanging on our tree. So making homemade Christmas ornaments topped my list of things to do with the kids this holiday season.
Wood Block Homemade Christmas Ornaments Materials
• 1 ¼” square Wood Blocks
• Decorative tape/electrical tape/washi tape
• Acrylic Paint
• Glue/Decoupage Medium
• Glitter
• Paintbrushes
• Drill/ Drill bit
• Small eyelets
• Ribbon/String
Instructions
• Step One Take a roughly 8” piece of tape and start wrapping your block. You can wrap diagonally or around the block. Burnish the edges of the tape as you wrap. When you meet the starting edge point, trim the tape end.
• Step Two Add a second and third layer of tape around the block. Use contrasting colors for visual appeal.
• Step Three Paint the visible wood sections of the block with paint OR decoupage medium /glitter. Let dry. If desired, paint a final coat of decoupage medium over the entire block to seal.
• Step Four Once dry, drill a small pilot hole into the edge of the block. I drilled it at a slight angle. Screw in an eyelet. You’re done! Tie a ribbon through the eyelet and hang it on the tree!
Tip: Using tape only makes for a very quick process.
Here's a few of ours drying…
My kids loved painting the blocks but I stuck with tape and glitter only to maximize the production time. My kids LOVED this project! Sometimes I have to “highly encourage” my kids to do a project but they both clamored to make one of these ornaments. I don’t know if it was the wood blocks or glitter or just the holiday spirit possessing them ,but they were hooked. My daughter made a total of seven ornaments over the course of two days.
Here is Clara's Step-by-Step Tutorial
Looks Like De Stijl
People that know me well, know I flip for the De Stijl movement. It was a design and art movement founded in 1917 in the Netherlands. The hallmarks of this movement are geometry mixed with primary colors. You are probably familiar with Piet Mondrian, who was a principal painter and one of the founders of the movement. Mondrian inspired artwork is a favorite of art teachers and students everywhere because of the linearity and focus on primary colors.
I personally love the work on another important member of the group, Gerrit Reitveld, and years ago made a design pilgrimage to see the Rietveld house in Utrecht! Our wood block ornaments depart from true De Stijl in that we have used many colors and diagonally oriented lines, however the exploration of pure geometry and juxtaposition of color blocks and lines are in sync with all things De Stijl.
More
If you loved working with wood blocks be sure to check out our tutorial for How to Make a Stamp. For more holiday fun visit our Tin Can Christmas Tree Activity and Mini Winter Terrariums. This was a huge hit as far as Christmas crafts for kids go at my house! And I’m so pleased to have started this sweet tradition of making homemade Christmas ornaments. We are gifting some of these and I hope that someday my kids will remember the joy of making them as they open up the boxes of decorations for the tree.
Don’t miss out on our holiday projects this month: “Like” us on FB to follow along! Your child’s inner Gerrit Reitveld thanks you!
This post is part of the Favorite Holiday Traditions series, sponsored by Betty Crocker Cookies.