Introduction: Mini Christmas Present Ornaments!

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This is the second Christmas in my first apartment, and I decided this year I wanted to have my own Christmas tree. But since I'm on a budget, I didn't want to go out a buy a whole bunch of ornaments, so instead I decided to make some of my own.

These are little ornaments that look like mini Christmas presents. This are quick, easy, and cheap. Use leftover wrapping paper and ribbon scraps, and these will be virtually free decorations. These are also ornaments that should be very easy for kids to make, once someone teaches them to wrap gifts.

Making these ornaments involves knowing how to wrap basic box-shaped gifts....if you don't yet know how to wrap presents, you may want to read an Instructable on THAT first. There are plenty of good ones.

Step 1: Materials

All you need to make these ornaments are:

-scrap wrapping paper (or other colored paper), a few inches wide and long depending how big you want your ornaments to be.

-corrugated cardboard scraps, cut into square or rectangle pieces about the same size.

-narrow ribbons or yarn

-tape

-scissors

-ornament hooks (optional)

Step 2: Step 1

Tape the squares of cardboard into a stack. Make it as thick as however big you want your mini gift to be.

You can also use small blocks or styrofoam, or little boxes. If you do have mini boxes, you might as well make these REAL gifts by putting candy or small toys inside.

Step 3:

Wrap the stack of cardboard as if it were a regular gift box.  Use smaller pieces of tape than normal, especially if you're using reflective paper, because the tape is very visible. You can also use glue, but tape is quicker.

Step 4:

Once the mini gift is wrapped, add a ribbon.

To curl the ends of your ribbon, use your thumb to hold the base of the ribbon (near the knot) against the blade of your scissors. Then, keeping light pressure with your thumb, pull upwards so that the scissors drag up the length of the ribbon. This should make the ribbon curl. Repeat to tighten the curl, and then curl the other ribbon end.  I often tie a second short piece of ribbon around the existing knot and curl those ends as well.

You can also decorate the gift with yarn, but you can't curl yarn. Instead, fluff up the ends of the yarn to make it look like a mini-bow.

Finally, add an ornament hook or a loop of ribbon to hang the final mini-gift with.

Step 5:

Make a bunch of these mini gifts, and then hang them up!

You can use matching wrapping paper and ribbons to accent your existing decorations, or you can mix and match to make each one unique!