Parent Gift- Snowman Ornament!

Our holiday gift making is in full swing!

When I left school on Friday we had 7 completely done!

Next week the rest will finish up...then we will add our tags and make gift bags!

In the past I have always done the '5 Little Snowmen' handprint/poem on a blue glass (and sometimes plastic) ornament:

But this year I was seeking an alternative so that when they traveled home with students there would be less risk of damage!

Most of the ornaments went home with parents after our annual Kindergarten Holiday Sing, but I have many parents that cannot make it this year, so I didn't want to have to send a lot of precious ornaments home in backpacks and risk them getting crushed broken by excitable innocent kids sitting on the bus on the day before Christmas break (and this year that is December 23rd!).

So I sought out an alternative!

I started using my Silhouette Cameo this year and became part of a few Facebook groups of people who use their machines for the most incredible and creative crafts!

Many were talking about how they were using Lowes and Home Depot tiles to make ornaments:

(aren't they CUTE?!)

This got me thinking....

So I purchased 2 different size tile sheets from Home Depot (my Lowes was OUT- and the salesman was SHOCKED when he couldn't find them in any Lowes stores in the area...I told him they were used for crafting and were all over Pinterest and he looked at me as if I was just dropped from Santa's sleigh!)

The top tile is good for 1 finger (and is the one used in the pin above).

It comes with 18 to a sheet for $7.98

The bottom tile (that my hand is on) is what I decided to go with.

There are 12 to a sheet for $12.98.

The cost basically came out to about $1 per ornament!

My younger son is in kindergarten this year, so I used him as a guinea pig model to see how it would go, if I liked it as much as the ball ornament and if it was something I wanted to tackle with my 20 students!

Using white acylic paint, I brushed 3 of his fingers and a part of his palm and pressed it on the tile:

Once it was dry I had him use Sharpie markers to decorate!

First 'draw a line and a square' on each snowman as a hat:

Add black 'coal' eyes and mouth:

And then use orange to give each one a 'carrot' nose:

Then he added brown 'stick' arms:

and completed the snowmen with scarves and buttons:

Finally I had him add his name to the bottom:

I learned from his, that I needed to make the snowman a tad 'lower' on the tile to allow for space to put the year, so I made sure I did that with my students!

My husband had bought special drill bits and was going to drill holes for me but that was a FAIL, so I was advised by the group that made a bazillion of the ornaments seen above to use D-ring hooks and E6000 glue.  So last weekend we set the tiles up outside (thanks Mother Nature for the mild December!) and glued them all on!  The glue is a bit stinky, but it sure holds well!

I got some thin holiday ribbon from Michaels (the roll has red, white and green polka dot print on one roll) and let them choose the color, cut a piece and tied it on!

I haven't decided yet if I am going to modge podge their holiday picture onto the back of the ornament or glue and laminate onto the back of the tag.

These tags will be printed on cardstock and they will be writing their name and the year on it:

that will go with the ornament.

You can click to download it for free!  I also have the Spanish version included (I translated via Google Translate) because I have many Spanish-speaking families this year.

I only have it in color, but you can always print in 'grayscale' if you wanted to conserve ink.

We'll probably be wrapping them up in these reindeer gift bags:

which is just a brown paper bag that they decorate with a reindeer face.  Trace their hands/have them cut.  They wrap their ornament in tissue paper and place it in the bag.  I then fold the bag down and staple it closed while attaching the handprint 'antlers!'

(Make sure you have them put their name on the bottom/back of the bag first!)

But I also saw this cute idea to make wrapping paper using a sponge:

from I Heart Arts and Crafts!

I think it will all depend on how hectic the week gets!

If you need some other holiday craft ideas, be sure to check out my TPT store for both free and paid resources:

Happy Crafting!

Until next post,