2015 Children’s Christmas Ornament

Way back in November I posted about my tradition of making an Annual Ornament for the children as a non-crafty mom. It even comes with a video that I recorded.

I thought I’d share the ornament I made for 2015. And they’re on the tree before Christmas – win!

First, you should know that my mom made an ornament each year for us while we were growing up. I always wanted to do the same for any child(ren) I might have. She is very crafty.

Second, you should know that I don’t consider myself crafty. At all. So this has been a challenge to my abilities and creativity.

So, since my mom made us ornaments, I have favorites and some inspiration.

My very favorite ornament that she made was a white bell with holly and our names on it.

A photo posted by dawn (@ladydusk) on Dec 22, 2015 at 4:13pm PST

You’ll note that my name is prominently displayed. This was fantastic when there were 5 of the same thing on the tree, or even 1 when I was single. When I married, however, it became less so when my name was all over the tree and there was nothing which said, “Jason.”

So, I’ve worked hard to keep the children’s names off their ornaments.

Here are this year’s ornaments shortly after I finished them:

A photo posted by dawn (@ladydusk) on Dec 22, 2015 at 12:55pm PST

Often, they’ve been inspired by hymns or songs. This year is no different. I asked each child what their favorite “bell” related Christmas song was. M-girl wanted “Silver Bells.” The other two asked for the “Hungarian Bell Carol.” Happily, there are two lines that mention bells, so we have two ornaments inspired by that song.

I found these plain  white, porcelain bells at Michael’s. They were originally $1.99, but on sale for more than 60% off. Score.

I already had red and green sharpies. I homeschool. Of course I did.

I’ve been using Picmonkey all year for graphics and so  I played with the words I wanted to use and different fonts.

I printed it out. Then cut out the different words and images relatively closely.

I shaded the back of the words or images with a pencil, then taped the to the right bell where I wanted it at the proper angle. Then, I traced over the words or image. The shading on the reverse transferred lightly onto the bell. Perfect.

Then, I pulled out the Sharpies and traced over the words and images. I embellished the top and bottom of the bell. I colored in the holly leaves.

I wrote the child’s name and 2015 inside each bell. Because, it does matter which they get!

These bells didn’t have clappers in them, so I used a paperclip to hang a small jingle bell inside from the loop the ribbon was tied to.

The kids hung them and I think they look nice on the tree.

If you try this craft for the non-crafty mom, I’d love to see what you make!

Merry Christmas!