How to Make Homemade Christmas Ornaments

My mother-in-law Renee taught me how to make these beautiful homemade Christmas ornaments many years ago. My daughter and I have made many of these over the years and it is a great holiday tradition to keep coming back to. Be creative and have fun with the process – turn on some holiday music to enjoy as you create. These are beautiful to hang on the Christmas tree, fill a big glass bowl with, or to attach to the handle of a gift bag.

Homemade Christmas Ornament Supplies:

Sequins
- Gold in 10 mm
- Multi-colored and in 3 different sizes
1/8″ diameter head and 1/2″ length pins
- Push pins in metalic colors
- Push pins in many colors
- You can also use sewing pins as pictured below but since they are 1.5″ in length they can run into other pins if you are making a ball, just adjust the placement of the pin as needed.
Styrofoam balls or tree
- Balls – I use 2″
- Trees
Ribbon
- Optional – you will only use this if you want to hang your ornament

Step One: Choose the type of ornament you are going to make – a ball or a tree. For the purposes of this post I will provide step by step instructions on how to make a ball. Once you understand the process you can easily apply the same steps for the tree (starting at the top and working your way down).

Step Two: Take a pin (with the color of head you want to use) and pick up one small sequin (1mm or 4 mm) first followed by a large sequin (10mm) so there are two sequins on your pin. The sequins have a hole in the middle of each one so you are simply putting your pin through the hole in the middle. I like to use a colorful small sequin and a gold or silver large sequin but feel free to do whatever you like best! Place the pin into the styrofoam ball. Slightly overlap the pins as you place them in so you do not see the styrofoam at all (see below photo). Repeat this same process until your ornament is 80% complete.

Step Three: If you’d like to be able to hang your ornament cut a 8″ piece of ribbon. Tie the ends of the ribbon together and make a knot. Trim the loose ends (see photo below). Push a pin through the knot and then into the styrofoam ball to secure the ribbon to your ornament (see photo below).