10 of Our Favorite DIY Tree Ornament Projects

Craft & Design Furniture & Lighting Home

The Christmas tree and its decorations certainly offer the perfect opportunity for some holiday crafting and making. Since the tree is often the centerpiece of the festivities, anything that you make is going to get a lot of attention. Ornaments, tree toppers, and the tree skirt area all hold opportunities for creative makery.

Here are ten ornaments that we’ve featured here on Make:. If you’ve made any of your own ornaments that you’d like to show off, please post them in the comments below.

Industrial Christmas Ornament

diy-industrial-christmas-tree-ornament-using-basic-hardware-and-wooden-discs-sawdust-and-embr2Make these easy to put together and stylish wood and hardware ornaments.

Ugly Christmas Sweater Ornamments

craftsbyamanda_ugly_sweater_ornaments_01What is uglier than an ugly Christmas sweater? A tree filled with ugly Christmas sweater ornaments. You know, ugly in a good way.

Easy Ninja Turtle Ornmaments

dollarstorecrafts_ninja_turtle_ornaments_01These surprisingly cowabunga Ninja Turtle ornaments take little more than some paint, ribbon, and googly eyes to create. I know that when my son was small and obsessesed with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, he would have gone nuts to help create and hang these.

Invasion of the Christmas Robots

gort-chef-arnold_bigI made some of these solar-powered LED robots one Christmas and had a ball. It’s a perfect project for the electronics newbie, and for a family project. The results are these very characterful copper-based robot ornaments that soak up the sunshine during the day and then blink their LED eyes or other light elements when the sun goes down.

Paper Tree Ornaments

img_5853-e1448914862277-620x558One of our favorite crafty mavens, Julie Hudy, shows you how quick and easy it can be to create gorgeous paper tree ornaments.

Icicle Ornaments from a Plastic Bottle

full_eiszapfen2_1321205691Cut, heat, and twist strips of soda bottle plastic to create unique icicle ornaments.

Ornaments from Broken Ornaments

broken_ornaments_renewed_crop-691x367Resurrect shattered and unused ornaments using this simple method.

Quick and Easy Glitter Ornaments

img_0234-e1449865653943Julie Hudy shows you how easy it is to create these shiny-shiny ball ornaments with little more than clear plastic balls (available at any craft outlet), glitter, and floor wax. Floor wax? Yup.

Washi Tape Ornaments

diy-ornament-1Decorate clear plastic Christmas balls with your favorite washi tapes to create your own unique holiday ornaments.

Snowman Murder and Other 3DP Ornaments

snowmanConsider digitally designing your own ornaments and having them pro 3D printed (or printing them yourself if you have a decent printer). We did this years ago. My son, then a teen, designed and printed a character that had appeared to him in a dream. We got a bunch of them printed at Shapeways and gave them to our family as gifts. They couldn’t get over how cool they looked or the idea that the character was a vision from a dream made into a tangible object. Here is one of my favorite 3DP ornaments we’ve covered on the site, a melting snowman. Was is… murder? Here’s a round-up we did a few years ago of other 3DP ornaments.

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Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. His free weekly-ish maker tips newsletter can be found at garstipsandtools.com.

View more articles by Gareth Branwyn

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