45 Easy Handmade Christmas Ornaments to Start Making Now

Replicate the look of ornate porcelain ornaments by stamping clay with cut glass plates, glasses, or bowls. Roll out air-dry clay to about ¼-inch thick. Carefully press or roll the patterned glass onto the clay to make an impression. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters and poke a hole in the top with a straw. Transfer to a wire rack lined with waxed paper so the lines of the rack don’t transfer to the clay; let dry faceup overnight. Flip them in the morning so the other side can dry. Tie a ribbon or string through the hole to hang.

These bright handmade ornaments—reminiscent of traditional Chinese paper lanterns—look complicated but are simpler than you might expect. They are essentially two overlapping felt cutouts threaded onto a skewer with a section of paper straw in the middle to hold the shape. A loop of metallic cord and colorful beads glued to the ends of the skewer finish them.

Tone-on-tone plaid felt ornaments look retro. Stamp the plaid onto felt shapes with a homemade striped stamp applied in opposite directions. Make the stamp by gluing strips of crafts foam to a woodblock. Cut out the ornament shapes freehand or use our templates.

These Scandinavian-inspired wood bead ornaments are the perfect finishing touch for your traditional Christmas tree theme. Make them in classic colors for a timeless holiday look.

Cleverly made from inexpensive wool dryer balls, these homemade ornaments instantly warm a tree. Lightly sketch snowflakes on the ball with a pencil, then backstitch along the lines with various colors of embroidery floss. Sew on a loop of floss as the hanger.

Buy It: Everspring 3ct Wool Dryer Balls, $9.49, Target

Turn wood slices into charming one of our Christmas ornament ideas. We started with wooden coasters, but you can also use slices found at crafts stores. Freehand-draw a snowflake design with a woodburning tool, or follow these easy steps. First, mark the center of the wood slice with a pencil. Use a ruler to draw a plus sign and then an X (like a compass). Trace the lines with a woodburning tool. Make short lines with a straight tip and press into wood. Use the same tip to burn lines around the edge of the wood slice. Use a round tip to make the dots. Twist a screw eye into the top of the ornament, tie with a ribbon bow, and hang.

Twirl cut cardstock to create this stunning handmade quilled paper Christmas ornament. It may look complicated but requires just one tool. Add wood beads to finish. It also makes a gorgeous Christmas gift tag.

With a cute deer pattern and a few simple supplies, you can make an adorable faux taxidermy homemade ornament. Download the pattern. Cut two pieces of white felt and a piece of cardstock, all slightly larger than the pattern. Glue the cardstock piece to one piece of felt. Trace the pattern onto the cardstock side; cut out with scissors. Glue the cardstock side of the head shape to the second piece of felt. Trim excess felt from around head shape. Fold the felt away from cardstock at the neck, and glue to a wood plaque cutout.

Your tree, your message. Pick a favorite carol lyric or holiday saying, and write it on a chalkboard tag. To make, spray unfished wooden shapes with chalkboard paint, then use a pencil to lightly plan your design. Finish with a chalk pen, jingling bells, and red-and-white hanging loops.

A little color gives inexpensive frosted glass balls richness. Clean the ornaments with rubbing alcohol; let dry. Meanwhile, mix two parts clear crafts glue and one-part water in a jar wide enough to dip your ornaments. Stir in 12-15 drops of gel food coloring. Tap the bottom of the jar on a table to force any air to the top; let stand 15 minutes to get rid of bubbles. Dip the ornament as deep as you want to color. Hang 20 minutes to dry.

Trim your tree with mini succulent wreath ornaments! These DIY succulent ornaments take just minutes to make and showcase the beauty of faux succulents.

Embrace a nature-inspired look with terrarium Christmas ornaments. To create, simply add faux snow to your succulent terrarium and pop in a pom-pom snowman. To make, simply glue three white pom-poms together and add felt details. Finish by using a marker to create eyes.

Think of these wreaths as miniature (and circular) versions of the midcentury tinsel tree. Twist metallic pipe cleaners around a small wooden crafts ring until covered. Cut a piece of felt into three pieces: 5- x ½-inch, 5- ×3/8-inch, and 1- x 3/8-inch. For the tails: Notch the ends of the ½-inch piece, fold to form a V (secure fold with glue), and glue to the wreath. For the classic bow: Glue the ends of the 3/8-inch piece together to form a loop. Press flat, pinch the middle, and wrap the middle with the remaining piece of felt. Glue bow to top of tails.

My, what big eyes you have! These hoot-worthy companions are a cozy addition to your Christmas tree. Make a pair of owl ornaments from wool roving and minimal hand-stitching. They're inexpensive to make and will look wise for many seasons.

Fill a whole tree with variations on these easy Christmas ornaments made from cardstock. Print the ornament pattern, and cut out the patterns. Trace the shapes onto heavy cardstock, and cut out with a crafts knife. Cover the cardstock cutouts with white transfer paper, and transfer the designs to the ornament. Fill in the designs with white and black markers. Punch a hole where indicated, and tie a ribbon through the hole.

Looking for more Christmas ornaments to make? Give the same look a go, this time with a snowflake pattern. You can trace the design on using transfer paper or freehand it. These ornaments also make great gift tags.

As DIY ornaments or gift embellishments, little wintry trees add handmade flair.

Make the Triangle Tree Ornament:

Trace a triangular tree base onto medium-weight wood veneer paper; cut out. Punch holes in the tree shape using various-size hole punches. Glue the tree shape to a piece of felt; trim felt edges. Punch a hole in the top, and thread string through to hang.

Make the Scallop Tree Ornament:

Cut multiple-size triangles from felt and medium-weight wood veneer paper; use scallop-edge scissors to cut along the bottom of each triangle. Glue the scallop-edge triangles to each other, layering from bottom to top. Be sure to alternate between the wood veneer and felt. Use the wood veneer to create a tree base. Punch a hole in the top of the tree, and loop thread through for hanging.

Combine two Christmas favorites (stars and plaid) for one stunning and easy Christmas ornament. Start with a cardboard star, and for each spoke, fold plaid paper over the star and cut to fit. Fold-down the center to make aligning easy. To distress paper, lightly rub using medium-grit sandpaper. Adhere papers to the star using a glue stick. For a little sparkle, hot-glue oversize chenille-stem trim around the edges.

What's the secret to these geometric Christmas ornaments? Metallic tubing and a simple threading technique. Create your own in a variety of shapes.

Adorable handmade ornaments are in the bag this holiday season—quite literally! Craft these festive, button-embellished shapes from a simple paper sack using your everyday sewing supplies.

Kids will love to help create these easy Christmas ornaments. Trace a half-bell shape onto a piece of honeycomb paper; cut out. Unfold and glue the two end pieces together to form a bell (use a paper clip to hold the pieces together until the glue dries). Thread embroidery floss through a 3/4-inch-diameter wooden bead with a center hole, knotting one end. Thread the other end through the bell center and tie for a hanging loop.

Kraft paper goes luxe with the addition of gold leaf to create these shimmery holly handmade Christmas ornaments. To make the gold-leaf paper, unroll a section of kraft paper on a flat surface. Brush on random, imperfect strokes of crafts glue with a foam brush. Do not coat entire surface with glue. Allow glue to set until tacky. Apply gold-leaf sheets by gently rubbing onto the paper with your finger. Remove gold leaf from unglued areas by gently dusting with dry foam brush. For the holly ornament, download the template (link below) and use it to cut eight holly leaves from gold-leafed kraft paper. Fold each leaf in half lengthwise with a bone folder. Glue one side of a folded leaf to one side of another. Repeat, stopping short of gluing first and last leaves together. Sandwich a loop of ribbon inside leaves, and leave a 1-inch tail; glue first and last leaves. Tie a bead to each end of the ribbon.

Deck your Christmas tree with a color-happy flurry of snowflakes. To make these homemade Christmas decorations, paint one side of lightweight wood veneer paper with a bright color. Cut the paper into strips (you'll need 14-16 strips per snowflake). Glue the ends of each strip together with fast-drying crafts glue to form a loop. Glue the loops together at the tips to form the snowflake. Glue circles punched from scraps of the wood veneer to the center. Tie thread through a loop to hang.

Trim your tree with one of our adorable embroidered snowman ornaments. All you need to make these snowy friends is our free pattern, felt, and embroidery supplies.

Need a charming set of coordinating Christmas ornaments—and need them fast? Look no further than your baking stash! Just wrap cookie cutters with narrow fabric ribbon (try red-and-white gingham for an extra-festive touch), and secure the ribbon ends with tape. Hang your finished ornaments from loops of bakers twine or yarn.

Fall in love with the look of festive red and white poinsettias popping against your dark evergreen Christmas tree. Bonus: Make the poinsettia ornaments without hanging loops to use as Christmas present decorations.

Adorable? Very. Complicated? Not in the least! If you can cut fabric and do a running stitch, you can make this sweet-face snowman ornament. Gather some felt fabric scraps, and click below for a detailed how-to.

All you need is a fine-tip white paint pen and some jewel-tone ball ornaments to create these striking decorations. Follow the design in the photo, or search online for basic paisley designs to get your creative juices flowing.

Editor's Tip: Draw the overall pattern of loops and branches first, then add embellishments, such as dots and squiggles, after the base design has dried.

For a simply styled Christmas ornament, our two-tone tree will do the trick. Trace a tree onto stiff felt using a stencil; cut out. Trace an overlay tree onto a contrasting color of felt, cutting it slightly smaller than the foundation tree; glue the two trees together as shown. Finish by gluing on a star topper and hot-gluing a hanging loop to the back of the ornament.

Add a festive message to your Christmas tree with our fun-to-make three-dimensional paper star ornament. Pick patterned paper in bright colors to make your Christmas craft stand out against the tree branches.

Make Christmas cookies last throughout the season by creating a few decorative versions from clay. Soft modeling clay works with your cookie cutters just like dough; use a straw to create a hanging hole and bake according to package directions. We used paint in place of icing and added cookie-decorating essentials (such as sprinkles) as ornament embellishments.

Editor's Tip: If you use edible items, toss them at the end of the season.

Whip up a batch of these mini Christmas ornaments—hang some from the tree, and give a few as gifts, too. Simply trace a design onto a small piece of brightly colored linen or cotton. Embroider the design, then place in a miniature embroidery hoop (use hot glue to seal the edges).