Unique Homemade Christmas Ornaments That Will Evoke Nostalgic Memories

Supplies Needed:

To create these unique handmade Christmas ornaments you’ll need:

• arabesque tile
• laser copies, black & white or color
• paper punch, scissors, paper trimmer
• photo transfer medium
• paint brush
• sponge
• E6000 adhesive
• paperclips
• ribbon

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If you’ve been following along for a while now, you know that we like to use things we already have on hand.

These arabesque ceramic tiles were left over from another project and we thought they’d be a darling base for our personalized Christmas ornaments!

In order to have plenty of ornaments, we bought a couple more sheets of tiles at Lowe’s.

In fact, the tiles come 15 to a sheet for $6, so that’s pretty reasonable per ornament.

First, pull each tile from the mesh tile backing.

To create a warm and cozy nostalgic feel this Christmas season, we gathered many old family photos from Christmases past.

Using a digital program, to scan the images and sized them each to a 2 1/2″ square.

Once sized, print them black and white with a laser printer on regular printer paper.

It should be noted, the images can then be cut to any shape or size.

Most of ours were cut in a circle with a paper punch.

NOTE: The images must be printed with toner for the photo transfer medium to work properly. If you don’t have access to a laser printer, you can have your photos copied at your local print shop. Images can be black & white OR color.

After each of the images have been cut to size, we used photo transfer medium by Mod Podge to apply the images to the ceramic tile.

First, apply a layer of photo transfer medium onto the front surface of an image.

Then press it into place onto the ceramic tile with the printed image against the tile.

Rub the surface to release any air bubbles and wipe off any excess product that may squish out.

Then allow to sit for 24 hours.

These personalized Christmas ornaments really start to come to life with this next step.

After they have dried for 24 hours, take a wet sponge and ring out as much water as you can.

Then firmly press the sponge in a dabbing motion to penetrate the paper.

Allow to sit for 2 minutes.

Then take the sponge, again removing any excess water, gently rub the paper surface in a circular motion.

The paper will start to pull up and peel off of the ceramic tile.

For best results, this step may need to be repeated a few times, removing thin layers of paper at a time.

After working on the first layer, we’d let ours sit for another minute or so.

Then again dab the tile with the sponge, using our fingers, we were able to rub the excess paper off of the tile surface.

NOTE: This process may be easier to see in our video tutorial.

Through trial and error we found that the less wet the paper is in this step we achieved better results.

If the paper was too wet, some of our ornaments resulted in a few torn looking edges.

Which in our case does look kind of cool seeing that we’re going for a vintage feel.

Attach Hanger to Personalized Christmas Ornaments

After each image has been revealed, the hanger for each personalized Christmas ornament can be attached.

We used a large paperclip cut in half to create a loop on the top edge for ribbon. Initially we used gorilla glue to attach each paperclip, but that didn’t adhere well enough to hold the weight of the tile.

So then we used E6000, which worked much better! Finally, allow it each to dry for 24 hours.

Another option for creating a hanger for your personalized Christmas ornament would be to drill a small hole at the top of the tile with a ceramic tile bit.

Then a small cord or monofilament line can be threaded through the hole.

Embellish Personalized Christmas Ornament

Last but not least, we embellished our personalized Christmas ornaments.

First we looped a piece of white satin cord through the paperclip to create a hanging loop.

Then we embellished each with a little red ribbon.

Overall creating these personalized Christmas ornaments are really pretty simple.

However, they do require a bit of wait time because of the cure time for the photo transfer medium and glue. 

Overall, I must say I LOVE the way they turned out.

Not to mention the fact, that they’ve become quite a conversation piece around my Christmas tree.

They looks so beautiful on my Christmas tree and would also be great package topper.

And who wouldn’t love to receive a few of these heirloom personalized Christmas ornaments as a gift this year.

Certainly these personalized sentimental Christmas ornaments are a treasured keepsake!

You’ll find more ideas for decorating your Christmas tree with a cozy traditional feel  here.

And for more decorating ideas for your home this Christmas see my Christmas home tour.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial for making these personalized Christmas ornaments. 

Please comment below and share how you would like to use them this Christmas.

We’d love to know if you have other ideas using tiles for Christmas ornaments too.

Of course, we are always look for new and creative ideas to decorate our homes for Christmas.

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WE HOPE TO BRING YOUR HOME TO THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET!

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