Burlap Photo Ornament

I’m sad that it’s our last day of the 12 Days of Handmade Ornaments: however I am so happy and honored to introduce to you Maggie from Midwestern {Sewing} Girl. She is amazing, and I love her blog. Her projects never seize to amaze me–including these awesome handmade ornaments she is sharing with us today!

Hi everybody! I am so excited to be here with the darling Katie (aka Mrs. Woodsy)! And I’m thrilled that she asked me to share a handmade ornament with you all for her 12 Days of Handmade Ornaments party!

Let me just give you a quick run-down on me…

My name is Maggie and I blog at Midwestern {Sewing} Girl…

There you will find a little bit everything…sewing, cooking, baking, diy-ing, crafting, family stuff, you name it. I would love love love for you to come by to see me!

Now, on to the good stuff…

I got the inspiration for my ornaments when I was taking out my Christmas decor…I came across some old ornaments that the kids had made in preschool…you know the kind…the teacher takes one of the kids’ school photos and puts it in as the face of a snowman or reindeer or something equally cute?

Well, I thought it would be neat to do sort-of the same thing…minus the snowman or reindeer or something equally cute…

I started searching through my photos and came across a couple of cute ones I wanted to use…specifically one of my niece, Ellie, at Thanksgiving, & one of my nephew, Grahm, last summer…I popped these into Photoshop and…

1. …printed them out onto matte photo paper…I really like this type of paper…it’s thicker than most cardstock, but not so thick you can’t work with it.

2. Then I cut the photos out and found some fabric scraps I thought would look good with them.

3. Next, I sewed all of the layers together (sewing over paper is just as easy as sewing over fabric – but you may want to use a needle made for denim or canvas in your machine…and it’s kinda hard to pin to the fabric you are using without bending the paper & leaving pin-holes, so forgo the pinning & just make sure you have a good hold on your layers…go more slowly if you need to),

4. …and added a little ribbon hanger…

Now, wasn’t that easy? And I love all of the variations you can create…

For example:

With Ellie’s ornament, I frayed the edges a little to it a more whimsical look…then I used a random zigzag stitch – twice – around the photo & added a little gem to the flower on her headband…

The burlap I used on the back provided a nice heavy base for the photo…it makes the whole thing feel a bit more substantial…

With Grahm’s, I embroidered a couple of borders & added a scrapbook sticker…small details with what I hope is big impact…

I used 2 layers of decorator-weight fabric with Grahm’s (right sides out on both pieces so that the back is finished, too)…I also added a piece of firm stabilizer between the layers to make them a little more resistant to wear & bending…

Then I thought it would be fun to just use my sister- and brother-in-law’s last name…I printed out the year in this awesome font and then filled in the empty circles with little brown rhinestones…the houndstooth print is 2 layers of decorator-weight fabric…

Don’t have a sewing machine? You can try hand-stitching or even hot glue!

The possibilites are endless with these little beauties…truly. I think I’m going to use these ornaments as the tags on the pictured person’s gift…wouldn’t that be fun? To get a gift with your photo on it instead of just a plain old “to: from:?” Ooooh, I would love that…

I hope you’ve all enjoyed my project! I can’t wait to make some more of these…

Thank you so much for having me today, Katie!