Children's Project - Keepsake Christmas Ornaments

I wanted to give my family something special from the entire family this year. We decided that ornaments would be a great way to show off each of our unique talents. I hope you enjoy and if you decide to make some of your own I would love to see them!

Below are links to tools and materials I used in this build. It is either the exact tool/supply or something very close.

Paper

Scissors

Pencil

Wood - I used some scrap wood (walnut, maple and cherry) and baltic birch plywood

Bandsaw (or Jigsaw/Scrollsaw)

Drill Press

Files - https://amzn.to/34MWqyI

Flexible Sanding Pad - https://amzn.to/3962PZj

Sanding Discs - https://amzn.to/35W9anX

Kid Safe Paint - https://amzn.to/2PSQKyJ

Paintbrushes - https://amzn.to/2PS0jhu

Very small drill bit

Mini Eye Hooks - https://amzn.to/2EP1gkj

Pocket Knife - https://amzn.to/2So7srr

Pyrography Kit -

Note: The links above are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

My wife is a good artist, so I asked her to design the ornaments. She drew up 4 different types, two stars, a Christmas tree and a traditional Christmas ball.

I then cut the paper templates out.

I used the paper templates to trace the designs onto some scrap wood. The multi-coloured wood is walnut, maple and cherry that was a cut off from another project and the other wood is 1/2" baltic birch.

I used templates as I was planning on making a few of the same designs, but you could just draw directly onto the wood if you wanted.

Using my bandsaw I followed the lines I had drawn and cut out the ornaments.

You could also use a scroll saw or a jigsaw for this task.

One of the designs had an inside part that needed to be cut out. This meant that I had to drill a hole on the inside and then cut that out.

I used my scroll saw (with a jigsaw blade in it) to cut this part, but you could also use a jigsaw.

Now the fun part of every project, the sanding!

I put a small needle file into my scrollsaw and used it as a power file in order to cut down on the amount of time I needed to spend sanding this project. You could just use a regular file or simply use sandpaper.

For the faces, I used a sanding disc that I attached to a flexible sanding pad.

Now the real fun part! My wife and I set up my son in his painting smock and let him go to town on the ornaments.

We gave him gold, silver, red, green and white. In retrospect green was a bad choice as it really makes the ornaments blend in with our Christmas tree. So keep that in mind if you are making some of these.

In order to hang these on the tree, I needed to add an eye hook. I got these very small ones from amazon and drilled some 3/64 pilot holes.

On the more pointy designs I had to use my pocket knife to make a flat spot in order for the drill bit to not wander.

I found that when using these very small drill bits that it helps to have them in the drill press. That way to can concentrate on getting the work-piece in the right place and not worry about it sliding all over the place.

My wife used her pyrography skills to add a special holiday message to the backs of each of the ornaments. It says:

Merry Christmas

From: Fletcher

2019

Now you get to hang the ornaments and enjoy them in your tree.

As I said earlier we made these ones as gifts for family members and I think they will really appreciate them!

I your family gets together and makes some I would love to see pictures in the comments below. I think any age group could help out, and the older your children are, the more steps you can include them in!

Merry Christmas to all!