handmade braided trim christmas ornament | DIY

I just got back from vacation in Costa Rica, which was absolutely awesome, but my mind never completely escaped Christmas. It didn’t help that even the resort was all decked out in Christmas decorations. (You should have heard my squeals of delight when I saw lighted reindeer surrounding the pools….EEEEEE!)

a rare and elusive Costa Rican reindeer

So, with Christmas inspiration even on a beach, I had an idea for December. I am going to attempt to do a 12 Days of Christmas (ornaments!) blog project…12 posts of handmade ornament DIY’s. This is going to be tough, because these things can get really time consuming, but I’m going to try my very best. I am positive that I will not be able to manage these 12 days to be all in a row…but still, I will try to do them all before Dec 24th.

So…it’s December 1st… the perfect day to start!

And today, I have something really simple: an ornament wrapped in braided trim. So easy to do, but such pretty results:

What you’ll need:

• styrofoam ball (I used a 3″ ball)
• a pretty trim. The candy swirled trim I used for my ornament turned out awesome. (But then again, a solid color, like gold or silver, would be incredibly elegant! Okay…future blog post idea.) The amount you will need depends on the size of the ball and the size of the trim…for my ornament, I used 1/8″ trim and it took just under 10 yards to cover the ball.
• clear glue. My favorite craft glue is Beacon’s 3-in-1 Advanced Craft Glue. It grabs quickly, and dries perfectly clear and permanent. (Just don’t wipe your glued up fingertips across your jeans like my spacey self keeps doing, because when I say permanent, I mean nothing seems to be able to take this stuff out.)
• a couple of pretty beads for the top and bottom of the ornament.
• a couple of straight pins
• some ribbon for the hanger and embellishments

Add glue here and there as you go to secure the trim.

If you do not have a continuous piece of trim, no worries…just make sure the end is glued securely, and start with a new piece. It will be hard to see where the pieces start and end once the ball is covered entirely.

It took me a good 25 minutes to wrap this…when you get to the other end, be sure to use a generous amount of glue so that the trim will stay put:

And go until the whole thing is covered:

Honestly, it looks really cool just like it is now. Wouldn’t a few of these grouped together make awesome bowl fillers?

But I wanted to make it into an ornament, so I cut a few pieces of coordinating ribbons into varying lengths, between about 3 to 4 inches each, angling the edges:

I also used an 8″ piece of ribbon for a hanger. Just thread a second bead onto a pin, and form a loop with your hanger ribbon right after the bead:

Then pin right through the centers of each of your pieces of ribbon:

Put some glue where your trim ended:

…and stick in your hanger.

A little dab of glue right under the bead doesn’t hurt either:

All done!

Isn’t that so easy and cute?

Tagged as: Christmas crafts, Christmas ornaments, ornament crafts, ornament DIY, ornament ideas, ornaments to make