self portrait ornaments

We love when our kids make special ornaments at school. but it seems like these days, once they're out of kindergarten, we don't get them anymore. So, we've started a new tradition and we make our own at home. The kids had a blast making last year's ornaments and they were pretty excited for this year's too. 

Self Portrait Ornaments

SUPPLIES:

• 4" - 5" embroidery hoop
• muslin (half a yard should be plenty)
• variety of martha stewart acrylic paints
• martha stewart stencil brushes
• fine black sharpie
• spray paint (optional)
• glue gun
• twine

STEP ONE: trace the inside of the embroidery hoop onto the muslin. 

STEP TWO: have your child draw their self-portrait with a pencil inside the circle.

STEP THREE: using a larger stencil brush, fill in the background color. tip: dip your stencil brush in the paint and then use a paper towel to brush most of it off. you'll want a very dry brush with a soft touch.

STEP FOUR: using a smaller stencil brush, fill in the other colors. you'll want to go out of the lines a little bit, but make sure your paint is light enough that you can still see the lines. (we mixed two colors to get a good skin color.)

STEP FIVE: trace your pencil lines with the sharpie marker then add your child's name and year.

STEP SIX: you can spray paint your embroidery hoop now, if you choose to. and once that is dry, insert the self portrait.

STEP SEVEN: trim off some of the excess muslin, leaving just a little bit that you can hot glue onto the hoop.

STEP EIGHT: tie some twine (or other thin ribbon) onto the top and your ready to hang!

we just LOVE how each one turned out.

and as the years go by, these little treasures will be so fun to pull out of the box and hang onto the tree.


we recently shared this post on design dazzle's 100 ideas of christmas wonderful 


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