Handmade Christmas Ornaments Made From Felt

Making Christmas-tree ornaments is an inexpensive way to make gifts for friends and family. These homemade, stuffed-felt ornaments are simple to make, and they don't require a lot of materials and are customizable. Felt, the matted wool fabric most crafters are familiar with, is easy for kids to work with and lends itself well to decorating with other craft supplies. Supervise children while working with scissors and glue.

Things You'll Need

• Felt
• Scissors
• Craft glue or hot glue gun
• Assorted craft supplies for decoration
• Pencil
• Cinnamon oil
• Yarn

Instructions

1. Cut a double thickness of felt in the shape of a Christmas tree, a snowman, a ball ornament, a holiday light, a gingerbread man, a candy cane, a bird or another shape of your choice. Remember that more basic shapes are easier to stuff than intricate ones.

2. Squeeze a thin line of craft glue or hot glue around the perimeter of one thickness of felt, excluding a small section where you will push the stuffing in, and place the second thickness of felt on top to glue the two sides together. Let the glue dry.

3. Decorate the ornament with pieces of felt, craft jewels, fabric paint, glitter glue, pompoms, feathers, yarn, beads and any other embellishments you like. Decorating the ornament before you stuff it makes it easier because it's a flat surface. Let your decorations dry.

4. Stuff the ornament with batting, using the opening you left when gluing the felt pieces together. Use a pencil to help you push the batting all the way into the edges of the ornament and into tight, hard-to-reach spots.

5. Add a drop of cinnamon oil to the batting inside the ornament to give it a holiday scent.

6. Squeeze a line of glue into the opening where you stuffed the batting in and squeeze the felt layers together to seal the ornament shut.

7. Make a loop of yarn to hang the ornament by and glue it to the top.

Tips & Warnings

• Use a disappearing ink pen, available at sewing and craft stores, to draw your design on the felt before cutting it out.