by Natasa Shepherd

Created on: November 26, 2009

Christmas is a time of giving, being with your family, honoring old and creating new traditions. A perfect way of letting your children be a part of Christmas, and all of the fun that goes along with decorating, is to let them create a piece of their own to add to the tree, the mantle or the wall. Creating your own Christmas ornaments is a great way to spend some much needed family time together. Oh and don't forget to have the cookies handy! While any ornament your child makes will be special, photo ornaments add that extra something and are sure to bring the memories back in the years to come. Down the road you can turn them into a gift for your child, when they are all grown up and remind them of their childhood. Maybe they decide to do this with their own kid one day.

What you will need to create your own Christmas Photo Ornament:

- Craft foam sheets, you can get them in any arts and crafts store.

- Scissors, either child safe or regular but make sure you supervise your kid.

- Craft glue, Elmer's usually works great.

- Various photos of your children. If you have any holiday related ones that is even better, maybe next to a tree, in the winter gear, or with a Santa hat on.

- Markers.

- A pack of glitter pens, available anywhere you can get school supplies.

- A hole puncher.

- Festive string or ribbons.

How to create your own Christmas Photo Ornament:

- First cut out a shape you want your ornament to be, it can be anything from a plain old square to a Christmas tree. Now cut out the frame of the same shape and size as the first piece you cut out. Pretty much cut out two same pieces and then cute a hole in the middle of one through which the picture will be seen.

- Put the shape and the frame one on top of each other and punch a hole on the top through both of them.

- Cut a photo to the shape of the foam. Make sure it is not bigger than the foam backing, but bigger than the hole of the frame, and make sure the child's face is not covered by the frame. Once the photo is cut glue it down onto the foam shape.

- Now glue the frame down to the foam shape over the photo and let dry.

- If the photo shows through the hole you punched earlier align the hole puncher with the existing hole and remove the photo with it.

- Now tie your string or ribbon through the hole to make a hanging loop.

And you are all done!

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