Easy Christmas Ornament Craft

I saw a variation of this Christmas ornament by Claire over on Pillar Box Blue. She is so clever!!

I thought that this would be an awesome and easy craft to do with grandkids so I wanted to share it here.

Claire used maps to decorate her ornament. I thought that I would use Christmas wrapping paper since that is something that I think grandmothers have on hand.

Here’s a list of things that you will need:

• Christmas wrapping paper
• Scissors
• Glue
• Wooden spools
• Red and green buttons
• Thin beading craft wire

Lemme talk a wee bit about the wooden spools. I went to one craft store to buy some. Their spools were HUGE. Like they would make a tree branch bend clear down to the ground.

Then I went to Joann’s. Those spools were too small. Like you’d need a microscope to see them on the Christmas tree.

The ones from Amazon were just right. (Kinda sounds like the story of Goldilocks, huh?) They were 1 1/8 by 7/8 inches.

Now that I’ve discussed the size of the wooden spools, let’s get on to making these critters.

Cut out a strip of wrapping paper to go around your spool.

Hey! I need to pause to talk a moment about the wrapping paper.

Because the spools were smallish, not much of the design on the paper fit on the spool. That was okay by me. I was mainly going for the color.

By the way, I looked at scrap book paper while I was trudging to and fro between craft stores. Those designs were too big, too. (At least in my humble opinion.) And for some reason, the colors were muted. (Is that the in style this year for Christmas? Blech!) I wanted the bright red-Santa-suit color so I stuck with my wrapping paper.

Okay, now that we’ve covered the issue about the paper, we can move on.

Glue the paper on the wooden spool.

Cut a strip of the thin beading wire. Thread some buttons on it.

How many? you ask.

Whatever floats your boat. I went with 4 buttons alternating the colors of red and green.

Stick the wire through the spool and thread a couple of buttons on the wire.

Knot the wire to hold the buttons snug to the spool.

I had originally planned on using a red ribbon for the hanger part of the ornament. But the ribbon I had was too wide and I didn’t like it.

So I decided just to use the wire instead.

Figure how much wire you’ll need so you can hang your ornament on the tree and make a loop. Tie a knot in the wire at the top of the loop.

Ta da! You’re done. Wasn’t that easy?

I want to chat a moment now about using the thin beading wire.

(Boy howdy! We sure are having lots of chats today, aren’t we?)

That wire was rather hard for me to tie. Methinks that it would be difficult for grandchildren to tie, too.

So I rummaged through my craft supplies and found a red-and-white crafting string that worked great.

While I was rummaging around, I saw some craft beads that I had used with my granddaughters a year ago to make Christmas bracelets.

So I made another Christmas ornament using those beads.

Then I decided to use some green wrapping paper to make another ornament. (It had the words Merry Christmas on it. Only the word Merry fit on the spool. I thought that was fine.

Three is a nice number isn’t it??

I thought these little ornaments turned out pretty spiffy!

I’m going to make them with my granddaughters on Christmas Eve.

However, I wanted to share this idea with you, Dear Readers, before then so that you can make some of these little guys with your grandkids before Christmas.

This could be a super easy Christmas ornament craft to do at your family Christmas party. Minimal preparation and minimal mess as you’re making it. That’s the my kind of craft!