DIY Dollar Tree Keepsake Ornament

 

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DIY pieces are atypical for this blog. But it’s not everyday you come up with a budget friendly, ornament, for the DIY challenged that happens to also help you with decluttering your home. So once I came across one that was easy for even the most common Pinterest fail culprit and takes less than 15 minutes to do, I knew I had to share. This DIY Dollar Tree Keepsake ornament is the ultimate hack in decorating for Christmas.

So as many of you know, I’m on a quest to live a debt free life which means getting control of my money and everything in my life. What you don’t know is that lately I’m into home organization and keepsake ornaments. Unfortunately, I haven’t exactly gotten the hang of either one of them until now. As much as I love those pretty keepsake ornaments from Lenox and Hallmark, they can get kind of pricey. And decluttering your home isn’t exactly easy when you have some kind of emotional attachment to everything. So I figured why not combine the two?

 

 

Do you wanna make a keepsake ornament and organize at the same time?

Everyone I know who’s ever sent holiday cards, thrown a birthday party, gone to a wedding, or sent personalized thank you cards has this stuff in the form of paper clutter somewhere. You know you have no use for them, but don’t necessarily want to toss them out. Instead, make this keepsake ornament.

 

Here’s everything you need to make this DIY  Dollar Tree keepsake ornament

• paper keepsake item (ie photo, holiday card, etc. ) I used a wedding invitation
• shatter proof ball ornament
• scissors
• pencil
• ribbon

Directions

• cut the keepsake item into thin strips.
• Use the pencil to make the strips spiral by wrapping around the pencil
• Open the top of the ball ornament and place the spiraled pieces inside
• close and tie ribbon of your choice to the top

 

In this particular example, I used a friend’s wedding invitation and plan on giving it to her as part of their wedding gift. Eventually I’ll be doing this for my own Christmas card of 2013 and my wedding invitation.

I wish I could tell you, how thick to cut the strips but I didn’t measure. I’m thinking they should be no bigger than half an inch as to make sure they are small enough to fit in the ornament. When cutting, consider making sure the text on whatever you choose to cut is still legible even when in strips. Though it will be put in the ornament some words may still be visible such as the date, names, etc.

Next, wrap the strips tightly around a pencil to make for the pretty spirals in the ornament.

Pop the ornament open and put the strips inside arranging as neatly as possible. Since this is a wedding invitation, I did my best to strategically place the strips to make keywords like the bride and grooms name, date, etc.

 

Lastly, put the top back on the ornament and tie the ribbon on. Of course, you can skip the ribbon and just use ornament hooks. The ribbon just helps add another pop of color.

 

It’s really that simple and super cute! Plus, you’ll cherish it forever. And did I mention it’s perfect for those notorious at creating Pinterest fails? I can’t tell you how many Pinterest DIY crafts I’ve completely butchered. This ornament is absolutely fool proof though.

As mentioned before, I did this with a friend’s wedding invitation, but I plan on recreating this the thank you cards for my own wedding 5 years ago as well as left over invitations from my baby shower. I may even use a marker like this to write the year and occasion on it.