Handmade Christmas Photo Ornament By Jill Lambert

Christmas and sweet memories go hand-in-hand (most of the time) and I love pulling out my box of ornaments each December and seeing the ones I've collected through the years.  The ones my daughter has made through the years are my favorites.  I also love the personal ones that have photos of my family as well as ones given to me as gifts.  When my younger nieces and nephews were born I decided to make them homemade ornaments for each of their first Christmases.  I know how much new parents love to receive something made just for them with a sweet picture of their baby on it so my first Christmas ornament usually involves something with a super cute picture of their baby as well as the name and year. This July our niece Charlotte was born so I'm excited to create a first Christmas ornament just for her that she'll hopefully have as she grows through the years.

Materials needed:

• round wooden, flat circles (mine is 3 inches) - purchased from Michael's
• gesso
• acrylic paint, colors of your choice
• glitter (optional)
• stencil or stamp (optional)
• Mod Podge or Gel Medium (I used Mod Podge)
• photograph of person ornament is for 
• (I printed mine on Epson ultra premium presentation paper, but regular paper would work fine, but be a bit thinner)

• ribbon
• glue gun

1.  Cover the wooden circle with a layer of gesso.  I do this so the paint doesn't get sucked into the wood.  It just makes a nicer layer for the paint to adhere to.  Let it dry and gesso the back side as well.

2.  Paint a layer of color of your choice over the dried gesso.  You can paint both sides the same color or two different colors if you want.  To keep it simple, I did the same on both sides, a deep red.

3.  I'm into fun patterns lately, so after your base color dries, I painted a pattern with a contrasting color using a chevron stencil.  Using a stencil is optional.  Of course, you can paint any pattern freehand too!  As you can see depending on how big you make the photo, your original background pattern may not show so much.  Decide how much you want it to show when you choose how big to make your photo.

4.  Size and print your photo.  Let it dry!  After it dried I even sprayed it with Krylon varnish so the ink didn't smear when I put Mod podge over it.

5.  Cut your photo to shape and size you want then put Mod Podge (or Gel Medium) under it, pushing out any air bubbles so it's smooth and flat.  Then put Mod Podge ALSO on top of the photo.  This is very important to seal it and allow you to paint possibly over and around it without ruining the photo.

6.  I painted/outlined the photo with a deep red and then I painted some Mod Podge around the edge and sprinkled white glitter around it to make it sparkle.  As you can see my chevron pattern is no longer showing that much, so the glitter is optional if you want your background pattern to show.

7.  On the backside I hand-painted her name, the year 2014, "first Christmas" and added a snowflake.

8.  After all is dried, varnish both sides for protection.  After that is dry then you can hot glue your ribbon on the back side.  Unfortunately I wasn't thinking about where the ribbon was going to go when I painted "first Christmas" so be sure you know where you want your ribbon to go so it doesn't cover anything important up.

I hope this gives you a fun idea that you can make as a gift or do with your children.  Family pictures from the year, maybe a fun vacation you took or pictures of the kids make great gifts for aunts and grandparents!  

This could even be the start of a new tradition - making a yearly, personalized ornament!

Find Jill's wonderful, bright artwork in her shop.

More about Jill can be found on her blog.

How To Make Your Own Christmas Holiday Art Tag by Jill Lambert

Have you looked at your calendar lately? We are rapidly coming up on the holidays...rapidly!!

Here's a lovely Snowman project sure to bring a little sweet holiday cheer to your decorations!

I’m a Wisconsin native so I have lots of experience with snow in the winter. Not by choice I will admit though! However, I love snowmen, real ones and painted ones. Not sure why since I’m not a fan of snow or cold weather, other than the first beautiful snowfall or snow at Christmas time. Maybe they remind me of youth, whimsy and just having fun! Here’s one my daughter and I made a few years ago...As you might be able to guess it started melting, then froze again in this crazy yoga backbend.





Today I’m going to show you how to make a little Christmas holiday tag that you can use to give on a gift or as a little piece of handmade art as well. You could even keep it for yourself and hang it on a doorknob during the holidays if you love it so much you just can’t part with it!

Materials needed:

1. Cardboard Piece, cardstock OR pre-cut tag 
2. Scissors (if need to cut down a size) 
3. Hole Punch 
4. Gesso (optional) 
5. Paints of your Choice - maybe 3-5 colors (I use acrylic) 
6. Brushes, Water for Cleaning Brushes 
7. Tools for stamping (stamps, stencil, flat pencil eraser, wine cork, etc.) 
8. Ribbon 

1. Cut your cardboard/cardstock to a size you’d like. I made mine 3.5” by 4.75.”

2. Punch one hole in the top left corner or center. That’s where your ribbon for hanging will go when you’re all done creating.

3. If you want, cover the cardboard with a layer of white gesso or white paint. I only did this so I could start on a white background. You can paint right on the cardboard if you want, but you just may have to do more layers.



4. Using stamps and stencils, randomly create marks on your piece. It really can be in any pattern because much of this will be covered up by more paint. It’s nice to just see a few marks underneath your next layer - this gives your piece texture, interest and depth.

5. Cover your background stamps and marks with a solid color or two if you like. Some of your marks will show through which is what you want. First I used a soft turquoise, then I chose a deep magenta because I’m not much a neutral-color girl. Notice my white circle marks now look a bit red! I can’t really see many of my other marks - that’s okay though! If you want to be sure to see these earlier marks, use a darker paint. Mine clearly wasn't dark enough.

6. Then I hand-painted some white snowflakes - you can do as many or as little as you want.

7. Now dip your brush into the white paint, then your water and splatter all over to get the effect of snow falling. 

8. Now paint the three snowballs of a snowman. I did mine freehand with paint. You can do it in pencil first but I sort of like the look it takes on just doing it freehand first. A funky snowman is a cute snowman I say! I actually did two separate coats of white for the snowman, letting it dry about ten minutes in between.

9. Now it’s time to add some sweet details like eyes, mouth, carrot nose, twig arms and scarf. You can be as detailed or as simple as YOU want! Other ideas to add: a hat, ornaments hanging from the arms, buttons, a bird on its head, etc.

10. Next, either use stickers, stencils or hand-paint a festive word above your cute snowman. I used the word “JOY” from stickers I had. I used Mod Podge to attach them - I put the stickers down and put the Mod Podge ON TOP of them. 

11. Now you can tie your ribbon and call it finished! After the fact I sort of wish I put the hole in the center because it would hang straighter, but I still think its sweet! You could also punch holes on the left and right and thread the ribbon through both of them.

Other ideas/ways to use your sweet snowman tag:

• make a few with your kids and hang them from a tree branch from outside that you have in a vase inside for decorations 
• hang as an ornament 
• give as teacher gifts to your favorite teachers 
• use as a gift tag on a present; you can write “to and from” on the front or the back if you don’t want to cover up your art 
• hang on the corner of a bathroom mirror to add a little holiday decor every time you wash your hands 
• hang on the inside of a window from the lock so you can see it every time you do dishes at the kitchen sink 

You can see more of Jill's art and her process at:

Jill's Dream

or shop for her lovely creations at:

Jill's Etsy shop

And don't forget to come on over and join the cre8ive conversation at our Facebook group:

The Cre8ive Klatch