Last Minute DIY Christmas Ornament Gift Idea:

The "Ruby Cube" is going to make a great
present for the grandparents this year!

Is everyone done with their Christmas gift shopping for this year? If not, you may be feeling the pressure with only today and tomorrow left as shopping days! However, I am here to offer a somewhat easy DIY gift idea that I think anyone would love to receive!

We are new parents this year and so Christmas presents were not at the top of the expense list in the end of year budget... Therefore, I decided to get a little crafty and make some memory ornaments that everyone will love! I thought this would be perfect, because in my family, we have always had more of a memory tree than a traditional Christmas tree! We hung baby shoes, old sports medals, ornaments we made as kids with fruit loops (some of which now appear to have been eaten off...), and even things like old eye glasses! So I headed to Hobby Lobby and grabbed some inexpensive items, had a few pictures developed and spent an afternoon crafting ornaments for all the new grandparents and some other family members as well while the baby napped!

Once I had all of my supplies, it only took me a couple of hours to put together some "Ruby Cubes" for the grandparents, some birch wood remnant family ornaments for other family members, and a set of yearly cubes for my husband that feature pictures from each of the 3 years we have been married! I also used my extra supplies to make an ornament for each of our puppies!

Take a look at how these super cute, easy to make ornaments came together-

We also made some Jones Family Ornaments
for loved ones this year!

Supplies from the craft store include Mod Podge (I used the matte finish), wooden shapes (I used the birch cut outs and cubes pictured), screw eyes, card stock, and ribbon for hanging.

The most time consuming part of making these ornaments was figuring out how to get the pictures in a small enough dimension to fit on the ornaments... Lucky for you I figured this out! Using my smart phone and an app called pic collage, I was able to place 4 pictures in a grid with no border. I then sent the collage over to Walgreens for 1 hour photo service and had them printed in their 4"x 4" size. Then I used an exacto knife and voila! Perfectly cropped 2"x 2" photos for your ornaments!

"Christmasy" Card Stock booklet

Packs of 4 Wooden Cubes at craft store

Birch Cutout bought from craft store.

Matte finish mod podge

Sample of photo collage created using

smart phone app

Screw Eyes for hanging attaching
ribbon to hang ornaments.

Once you have all of your supplies collected, it's time to get creative! I cut out my pictures and cut the Card Stock into shapes that would fit the sides of the ornaments. Using an exacto knife allowed me to make precise cuts and even trim along the edges after I had attached the photo to the ornament. Using Mod Podge and an old paint brush, I brushed a thin coat onto the ornament and adhered the photo. I then brushed a few coats on top of the photo to seal it to the ornament and to add a textured finish. I used the card stock to decorate the tops and bottoms of my cube ornaments and as back grounds for my family ornaments. The card stock was adhered to the ornaments in the same fashion using the mod podge. After all the sides were decorated, I simply screwed the screw eyes into the tops of the ornaments and added a thin neutral ribbon for hanging on the trees!

This project allows for all kinds of personalizing and creativity! You can really make it the perfect gift for anyone on your list!

Here's how some of my ornaments turned out-

So if you are frantically trying to come up with last minute gift ideas, don't panic! Just put on your creative cap, run out to the craft store and whip up some personal gifts that your loved ones will cherish!

Happy crafting and Merry Christmas!

~Ashley~