Every year at Christmas time my family has an ornament exchange. We draw names ahead of time and then we get an ornament for the person whose name we drew. Each year it is fun to try to find an ornament that is perfect for the person you drew.
Sometimes we buy ornaments and sometimes we make them but I like to find ornaments that are a little on the less traditional side, maybe something to do with a character that person likes, or a favorite animal, or sports team.
When I give handmade ornaments I often use my Cricut to make them and with the Cricut Maker and the tools that you can use with it (the rotary blade, knife blade, engraving tool, wavy blade, etc) there are so many materials you can cut. In addition to things like vinyl, iron on, and paper, you can also cut felt, fabric, chipboard, and thin wood. This really opens up the possibilities of what you can make.
I thought it would be fun to make a few really simple personalized ornaments using felt, but you could use a similar concept with other materials like wood or chipboard. I cut one of the ornaments out of basswood to show an example.
Because these are personalized you probably won't make the same exact ornaments so I more just wanted to share the idea and the process of how I made them.
For this reason I came up with 3 ornaments to show 3 different ways you can make these personalized ornaments. First I made one completely non traditional design, a unicorn with a name cut out of it. For the second ornament I chose to go with a more traditional Christmas design but used the same cut out name technique, a stocking in Christmas colors. Last I wanted to show an option with the name added with iron on rather than cut out of the felt, for this one I chose a mitten with a snowflake cut out and I used glitter iron on to add the name to the cuff of the mitten.
How to Make Personalized Ornaments with the Cricut Maker
You will need:
- Cricut Maker
- Rotary Blade
- Felt
- Fabric Glue
- Crochet Thread (or other thick thread for hangers)
- Iron On
- EasyPress Mini
- EasyPress Mat
Instructions:
To start you will need to create your designs. You can see the designs that I made HERE.
There are a couple of things to keep in mind when creating your design. Both the rotary blade and the knife blade (if you are cutting a thicker material like wood or chipboard) can't cut really tiny pieces so you won't want to choose designs or fonts that have really thin pieces. That is why I chose a thick, bold font for the names that I actually cut out of the felt.
First you will need to choose the shape for your ornament. Cricut Access includes tons of designs that you can use. You will want to choose a shape that is simple but recognizable, not too intricate. I chose the unicorn shape because my daughter loves unicorns, the other two just because they are Christmas or Winter shapes.
Duplicate that shape so that you have 2 layers.
Choose the word of design that you want to cut out of the top layer. I chose to cut names out of two, using a bold font. The other I cut out a simple snowflake. Once you have the design you want to cut out, size and place it onto the ornament shape in the spot you want it. Select both and click slice. Delete the extra pieces.
If you are adding a name (or date) with iron on, type the name and adjust letters as needed. Resize to fit in the spot you want it to be.
Cut all of your pieces out of the right colors and materials. Be sure to select the right material on the cut screen, also use the right blade, fine point for iron on, rotary for felt. Don't forget to mirror your iron on.
Once all of the pieces are cut you will need to cut some small lengths of thread for hangers. Tie the ends together in a knot to make a loop.
Use fabric glue to glue the felt layers together, gluing the thread loops in between the layers.
If adding iron on place the iron on where you want it and press in place, the EasyPress Mini is perfect for this project because it is so small.
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