Tin Can Lid Ornaments

Wondering what to do with those tin can lids after you take them off of the cans?  I wondered the same thing as well and came up with these Christmas ornaments.  I would suggest running out and buying a smooth edge can opener, so you or someone handling the ornaments doesn't get cut.

First, I primed each lid with Gesso, which you can find in any Craft or Art store.  I let this dry and then broke out my acrylic paints.  I chose a paint that would compliment the colors in the die-cuts that I used for the main piece of each ornament.  I gave each lid a good coating and then let that dry over night.

Next, I broke out my Cricut machine and cut some circles out of scrapbook paper that fit just inside each lid.  Since my Cricut only cuts out certain sizes I went ahead and cut out larger circles and then trimmed them until they fit.  I then glued each circle onto the colored side of the lid that it went with and let the dry for about an hour.

Finally, I took the Christmas die-cuts and put clear glue dots around the centers and then centered them on each lid.  Some of the die-cuts were bigger than the circle, but I like that.  I didn't want to cut the edges, but that is your preference.

Here are the finished ornaments:

  Have fun making your own and Happy Holidays!

Memorable Christmas Ornaments

It took me two days, but I figured out what to do with those can tops that I saved up and asked my sister-in-law to save up for me.  I found a tutorial that used the frozen juice metal lids and kind of followed that.  Instead of using some "template" that someone else was selling; I broke out my Cricket and made circles out of my pretty Christmas paper and I used Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 to manipulate some of my favorite artwork and pictures of the girls.

I spray painted the metal lids with black spray paint.  When those were dry I looped some velvet and glued that on the back and then covered the entire back with a felt cirlce.

Finally when they were all dried I brushed on some Glossy Mod Podge and beaded them with Diamond Glitter Fabric Paint.

I'm really proud of how these turned out and can't wait to see them on the Christmas tree.

These paper ball ornaments were based on another tutorial I found and was easy enough that my youngest helped me make all ten of them.  The tutorial can be found here.

Homemade Christmas Ornaments

I've been busy making Christmas ornaments since we lost about half of the ones we had out in the shed.  The shed we use to store our boxes is in the backyard and leaks.  Needless to say, the owners won't clean the shed so we can move our boxes to the other side where it doesn't leak.

My box of ornaments filled half way with water and it ruined most of them.  I'm not sure how long they suffered, but when I got to them it was too late.

Because I have an ample amount of crafting supplies I decided that I wasn't going to buy any Christmas ornaments, but rather I was going to set out to make them.  I found this awesome list of 101 Handmade Christmas Ornaments put out by Everything Etsy and saved my favorites for inspiration.  I've also decided that I would like to make tutorials for the ones I did make and am happy with.

I used FREE Collage images from Retro Cafe Art Gallery for their Christmas Contest.   The Santa and two girls were from the collage sheet.

"A Joyous Time" and "Merry Christmas Santa"

Vintage Girls

Styrofoam Ball Snow-girl Fairies

Washi Tape Ornaments