Easy DIY Christmas Ornaments

Homemade Holiday Gifts

Happy Holidays! We’ve made it to the most wonderful and giving time of the year! There are so many options for gifts these days, but I like to give my friends and family at least a few homemade presents each year. It shows that I took extra time to make something with my own hands for their enjoyment. For example, I gave my sister three homemade pumpkin desserts in a cute Halloween-themed gift box this year. Her birthday is in October, so I decorated the gift box with DIY yarn ghosts and pumpkins. And she loved it so much! And for Christmas this year, everyone is receiving one of my easy DIY Christmas ornaments!

These simple handmade holiday ornaments are so fun, so cute and soooo easy! If you are tight on time and want a super simple handmade gift, I’d suggest making some rainbow cloud ornaments. If you want to invest a little more time in creating gifts this year, polymer clay ornaments are an excellent choice. Keep reading for my tutorials to make both! And if you don’t celebrate Christmas, these ornaments can still be enjoyed by everyone, year-round. You can make them for any occasion. 💘

How to Make Rainbow Cloud Ornaments

This year, all my coworkers are getting these adorable DIY rainbow cloud ornaments! These ornaments are so easy to make and they are relatively inexpensive! All you need is popsicle sticks, a sheet of white poster board, some colored paint, a paintbrush, tape and glue. That’s it!

1. Paint the popsicle sticks

First, paint the popsicle sticks however you like. I painted each ornament of six popsicle sticks with a gradient of three colors. But you can paint each popsicle stick a different color, add splatter paint, glitter, whatever you like! Let them dry completely.

2. Cut out clouds from white poster board

Second, cut out cloud shapes from the poster board. Poster board is stronger than paper, but not as thick as cardboard, making it perfect for this project.
I drew one cloud shape with a pencil to get the perfect puffy shape. Then I cut out that one cloud and used it as a template to trace the other 15 clouds, so they were all the same shape and size.

3. Tape the popsicle sticks together

Third, use some strong tape like duct tape on the back of each group of popsicle sticks to secure them together. I staggered the popsicle sticks so they were all at different lengths. This made it look a little more reminiscent of falling rain drops.

4. Glue or tape the popsicle sticks to the clouds

Fourth, glue the poster board clouds onto the painted popsicle sticks. Let them dry completely.
I taped a second cloud on top of the first cloud, since the glue seeped through and warped the poster board a bit. But you may not have to worry about this, depending on the type of glue you use.

5. Add a loop of string to hang the ornaments

Finally, tape a loop of string to the back of the popsicle sticks so your friends and family can hang it up! Ta da! That’s it – you’ve created some gorgeous hand crafted gifts in no time!

How to Make Polymer Clay Ornaments

If you haven’t played with clay (or play-doh…) in years, then you may be missing out! It’s so relaxing and satisfying to squeeze the moldable clay between your fingers. I found this awesome tutorial online for junk food ornaments. They are so cute and funny! I already showed a few family members some of the easy DIY Christmas ornaments I made, and they can’t wait to receive them! 😊

I used an oven bake polymer clay from the local craft store. Clay is really versatile because it comes in tons of colors and you can mold it into any shape you want! I mainly used a rolling pin to roll out the clay. Once you create your shape, the clay gets baked in the oven for about 15 minutes. This allows the clay to harden, so your shape will last forever!

I used snowflake cookie cutters to cut out brown clay. Then after baking them, I decorated each snowflake with white puff paint to look like gingerbread cookies.

I also played around with creating different foods like sugar cookies with the same snowflake cookie cutters. And I made tacos, pizza, pop tarts, a lattice crust pie, and pretzels. I used a straw to poke a hole through each ornament before they went into the oven, to be able to loop the string through to hang it up.

Let me know which easy DIY Christmas ornaments you make!! 🎄🎅🎁