Everybody wants great design for a steal. For Day #15 of 30 Days of DIY Designer Ornaments, we have a thrifty solution.

Like me, if you’ve shopped for nice-looking photo frame ornaments, you’ll find the least expensive are still a few dollars apiece. The cost adds up if you want to send your offsprings’ adorable mugs to the grandparents and all the aunts and uncles.

Instead, crank out some of these cuties for only cents each. The secret? Acrylic shower curtain rings that you can snap up for a song at many home and hardware stores. I found a pack of a dozen for $1.19 at Target.

Your kiddos (or puppies or kittie’s) pictures make the most treasured gifts, so let’s
get crackin’….

Materials and Tools:

• Photos of your loved ones (or pets!)
• Acrylic shower curtain rings
• Photo-safe cardboard (I used the cardboard with a nice white side,
  that came in the photo paper package.)
• Stiff felt for ornament back
• Natural jute twine
• Detail-cutting scissors
• Pencil
• Tacky craft glue
• Paint brush to apply glue
• Glitter glue (I used silver)
• Toothpick

Instructions:
1. Choose and print your photos. Closeups of faces work the best. I wanted my ornaments to have coordinating, neutral colors. So using photo-editing software, I converted my photos to warm sepia tones. Black and white is another great choice (but do what you like).

2. Close each curtain ring. Mine came “open” in the package and I needed to “pop” each closed, to form a firm ring for the ornaments.

3. Trace and cut out the photos. With a sharp pencil, trace the inside shape of your closed curtain ring on each photo. Then follow this line (move the photo around and you’ll see it in the light) and cut out each photo.

4. Trace and cut out the backing cardboard. These pieces will be larger than your photos, and will be glued to the outside back of the curtain ring (holding the photo at the back of
the frame).

With a sharp pencil, trace the outside shape of your closed curtain ring on the cardboard, then cut out your circles.

5. Apply glue to the back of each photo, center it on the white side of the cardboard, and glue it down. Then sandwich the photo/cardboard circles in waxed paper, and press to keep flat under a stack of heavy books. Leave for at least an hour, until your glue sets up.

6. Make the jute ornament hanger. Cut 12-inch long piece of jute twine. Fold it in half, and holding the cut ends together, tie a knot about one inch from the end. Then loop the hanger through itself and around the joined part of the shower curtain ring (refer to photos). Pull it tight, and it nicely fills the void in the ring frame.

7. Now it’s time to glue the cardboard/photo assembly to the curtain ring. Apply glue just to the exposed white cardboard rind around the front of the photo, and carefully align your ring & hanger on top. You can carefully press this under your heavy books to set up too.

8. After the frame glue has dried for a bit, apply a bead of glitter glue . Try to get it as close to the bottom of the inner edge as possible. Once applied, you can even out the glitter glue with a toothpick.

9. Now back the ornament with stiff felt. Trace around the outside of the ornament, cut out the felt and glue it to the back. Then trim any cardboard excess cardboard and felt, as close as possible to the ring.

Press the finished ornaments under that heavy book for a little while, so the backing glue sets up. Then leave the ornaments exposed to the air on a flat surface overnight (until the glitter glue dries).

That’s it! Grandma and Grandpa will love you for it! And these photo frame ornaments are a fantastic “bonus gift” to adorn your holiday gift tags too!

Thanks for bargain-hunting with us on Day #15 of 30 Days of DIY Designer Ornaments.

Next time, we’ll cozy up with a warm and tasty treat….