So my online friend, Margot Potter put in her post on Tuesday that a group of bloggers were having a “Virtual Ornament Gathering”, so I got inspired and whipped this one up…

The idea was that I wanted to create something one part kitsch + one part digital mixed in with a little whimsy and this was the result.

I used my own personal image, but this idea could be transformed into funny ornaments for the entire family or a gift for a special friend with a message that relates to them. Here’s how I made it:

SEASON OF SWELL PHOTO ORNAMENT

Surface
1 wooden shape – 2.5″ x 3.5″

Supplies
– Computer with printer and photo-editing software program (I used Photoshop 7)
– red paint
– foam brush
– small craft brush
– textured white printer paper
– pop dot
– tacky glue
– silver craft wire
– variety of small beads
– 1 small pom pom
– 12″ piece of green glitter sequins
– green fine glitter
– glue gun and glue stick
– scissors
– Preserve Your Memories II Spray sealer

Instructions
1. Paint your ornament with red paint using foam brush. Let dry.
2. Open up your photo editing program and layout a new page 2.5″w x 3.5″h.
3. Fill in background with a solid color. I added a shape layer to mine with a psychedelic starburst background for added pop in a slighly lighter shade than my background image.
4. Layout text over top of background. I used the “warp text” tool using the font, Magnum (downloaded from the internet), to achieve my look.
5. Open up the image you want in the center of your ornament. Using the magnetic lasso tool, I went around my image to define it. Make this selection active and copy>paste this into your ornament document (note: I modified this image slightly by making it look that I had “flipped ends” on my hair for fun).
6. Transform this image to fit just inside you text.
7. Open up a new layer and draw a cartoonish santa hat. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just fun and whimsical. Also add any other embellishents over your photos (I added faux earrings).
8. Now open up a new 8.5″w x 11″h document. Go back to your ornament and click off the background layers and words to just reveal the face and hat. Flatten the image. Cut and copy this image into your 8.5″w x 11″h document. Go back to your ornament image and select edit>undo to unflatten the file and show the layers once again. Now click off all the face and hat and make the background and words active. Flatten this image. Also cut and copy this image into your 8.5 x 11″ document.
9. Load your printer with lightly textured cardstock paper. Print your images onto the cardstock and carefully cut out around ornament and image.
10. Use tacky glue to glue paper to ornament. Let dry.
11. Lightly brush glue onto areas you want glitter to cover on image (I chose the hat). Over paper plate, lightly sprinkle glitter. Shake off excess onto plate.
12. Place pop dot in center of ornament and position image on top.
13. Carefully glue gun sequin trim around edge.
14. Take craft wire and wrap around pencil to form wire coil. String beads and pom pom randomly onto wire. Glue ends of wire to back of ornament with glue gun.
15. Spray ornament with Preserve Your Memories II Spray sealer (it keeps glitter from getting on everything and gives a nice matte sheen). Let dry.

That’s it. Enjoy!