Easy Wood Ornaments to Make with Kids

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is to make ornaments with our kids throughout the month of December. I love having new ornaments made by little hands every year.

Kid-made ornaments are like mini time capsules that bring you back to a snapshot in time. I never understood why my mom kept using the "ugly", ratty ornaments we made as small children even into my teens - until I became a mom. I love those little sloppily painted, crooked, wonky ornaments so so so much. This year, we did personalized wood ornaments with the kids. These are easy enough that any baby big enough to scribble with crayons can make them but big kids will still have fun, too.

Make a few for your tree but don't forget the grandparents - they will love these sweet little scribbly ornaments, as well!

Supplies

Unfinished wood shape ornaments
Alphabet stickers
Crayola Slick Stix crayons
Martha Stewart Gloss Enamel Finish

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Directions

STEP 1: Masking

Use the alphabet stickers to spell out your child's name. Not enough room for their name on the ornament? Use larger stickers to do just a monogram.

STEP 2: Color

Let your child use the Crayola Slick Stix to color the front and back of the ornament (especially over the top of the stickers).

The reason I love these crayons specifically is because they are nontoxic AND super easy to color with. This is especially great for kids who have not yet mastered how much pressure to use with crayons to get saturated color. These crayons give really beautiful, highly pigmented color. Just be sure to cover your work area because they are not as washable as true "washable" crayons.

STEP 3: Peel

Use your finger nail or a toothpick to catch the edge of the stickers to peel them away. As long as the wood around the stickers was well colored, the raw wood will show beneath and stand out against the coloring.

STEP 4: Seal

The texture of colored surfaces with the slick stix is similar to an oil pastel, so you will want to seal it to be sure that it doesn't transfer color to everything it touches. To do this, I use Martha Stewart Gloss Enamel Finish. If you do not want to use an aerosol spray, Martha Stewart Decoupage Medium can be brushed on and will also give excellent results.

If you used an aerosol sealer, be sure to let it dry outside in your garage so it can air out. The brush-on decoupage medium has not small and won't off-gas so you can leave that inside to dry!

That's it!

Once your ornament is dry, hang it on your tree or give it to a loved one!

Lots more DIY Christmas ornament tutorials this way

About the Author:

Carissa is an award-winning green lifestyle writer and mom of two active boys. The owner and lead writer for Creative Green Living, she most recently won the "Best Green Lifestyle Blogger" award at ShiftCon 2019 in Atlanta.

Her goal is to empower families to make healthier, more sustainable choices that are beautiful and delicious!

She is also the author of Beautiful Smoothie Bowls (Skyhorse, 2017), Proven Techniques for Keeping Healthy Chickens (Skyhorse, 2018) and The Little Green Book of Mothers' Wisdom (Skyhorse, 2020).

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