I know it’s August and half the planet is suffering under blazing heat, so talking about Christmas tree ornaments might feel a bit early… But the months will slip away fast, as they always do—you know it.
Many crafters, decorators, and DIY lovers start planning months ahead so they have time to make things by hand. If you’re one of them and you wait until November, your audience may already have bought or made what they need. Starting your Christmas preparations in August will help you organize your work and deliveries, and give you a far more relaxing pre-Christmas period than I ever manage each year.
So, here’s one of my money-saving Christmas tree scrapbook ornaments—easy to follow and guaranteed to turn out differently for everyone because of the materials and techniques you choose.
How to start
First, look through your stash of scrapbook materials. By “materials” I mean brown bags, old newspaper and magazine pages, coffee- and tea-dyed paper, dried flowers, buttons, ribbons, beads, lace, and tiny pieces of beautiful fabric. Look also for elements you’ve created yourself or with your children. If you use these decorations at home or give them as gifts to family members, they will carry enormous emotional value.
For mine, I chose to use my scrapbook elements made from shopping bags, plus some dried flower junk journal ephemera. The dried flower ones were prepared for a botanical journal, but since I made a whole box and never started the journal, I decided to use some here. This is actually a great tip—look at the pieces you’ve set aside or neglected and put them to use now.
As you can see from the photo, I also made some resin-moulded frames. For these, you can use many materials—resin, air-dried clay, air-dry playdough, cold porcelain… And my favourite: the salt, flour, and water mix.
I grew up in a society where there weren’t many craft materials. For moulding, as a child, I could only find this oily plasteline, which left ugly spots and colour crumbs everywhere. Yuck! Gross! The salt-flour-water mixture, however, is pure magic.
If you’ve never heard of it, the recipe is simple: mix 1:1 white wheat flour and powdered white salt. Mix well, then add water drop by drop, kneading until you have ivory-coloured clay that doesn’t stick to your fingers while you work. Too much water? Add more flour and salt. For ornaments, powdered salt is best, but for a stone-like texture, use the largest crystals you can find. You can also add colours. The only thing to remember is that once this clay dries, you mustn’t wash it or put it in water. Cheap, money-saving, chemical-free, and safe to use with kids (it’s so salty, they won’t want to eat it).
The construction of the ornaments
For each ornament, you’ll need two moulded frames, two scrapbook decoration pieces, some beautiful ribbon or golden thread for hanging, and universal gel glue to assemble it.
Glue your scrapbook decoration onto the back of each frame and attach the hanging thread to one of them as shown. Then glue the two pieces back-to-back and press them for a while to secure the connection. That’s it—your first ornament is ready.
I used recycled brown bag and magazine ephemera for mine, but imagine asking your children to draw a flower or a Christmas tree on a small piece of paper and framing their artwork. You could even ask them to make a little portrait of Grandma, Grandpa… or their favourite teacher! I’m sure such a gift would be treasured for years.
More leftover paper pieces to save
As you know, if you follow me, I always struggle with the enormous leftover paper pieces after cutting with Cricut. I keep collecting them, but they take up a lot of space. Still, since I make a large number of unique Christmas decorations (and gingerbread cookies 😊) every year, this is the perfect time to use those big leftover pieces.
After adding your scrapbook decoration to the moulded frame, while the glue dries…
…you can watercolour the paper pieces you’ve chosen. Let them air dry or speed it up in the microwave. Remember: you’ll need two identical pieces of paper for every ornament.
Adding subtle watercolor backgrounds to ornate resin frames, turning dried flowers and vintage text into delicate, one-of-a-kind collage ornaments.
Then glue them to the back of each frame as shown.
This is also a good time to add gold or silver acrylic highlights to your frames. I love the ivory colour, so I just added a little gold to each one.
I also attached the hanging thread—this time with a small knot at the top, and long enough to peek out from under the ornament.
One small trick for money-saving
The paper you see in the photo below comes from my oats packaging. The paper bag it comes in is an excellent source of free scrapbooking material.
I cut the paper into small squares and dipped them in coffee and blueberry juice. Once dry, this was the result. I stamped some and stored them for later.
So here’s the trick: look at every paper packaging and think about how you can use it. You’ve already paid for it—why throw it away? You can get so many colours and textures for free. Just brush them clean, dampen them with water, and microwave for 30–60 seconds to make sure nothing will grow in your stash.
In the photo, you’ll also see the paper towel I used as a soft base for colouring. I kept it too—the spots and patterns are so well connected, it will be perfect for a junk journal page or a vintage-style greeting card.
The last step in creating your second ornament is to add the hanging thread or ribbon and glue the two backs together.
Nothing difficult
As you can see, you can make these ornaments using only things you already have at home—no fancy tools or expensive materials. If you don’t have silicone frame moulds, borrow some from a friend or use cookie cutters. The salt-flour-water mix is safe for cookie moulds, too.
Look around, involve your family or friends, and create one of the best craft memories of the year!
Enjoy your craft time!
