How to Make Photo Ornaments with Glass Jar Lids

I love making special Christmas ornaments. The best kinds of ornaments are not the crystal ones from Waterford or fine china from Lenox.

To me, the ones that my kids made while in Pre-School or elementary schools are the best ones. There is a contortionist snowman made out of pipe cleaners with crooked googly eyes, toothless smiling face on a fade construction paper glued with colorful macaroni, warped and glittered-to- the-max angel and some that kids and I made that are inscribed with special dates.

Here are just a few that bring me memories of those treasured times we had making them. These are blank glass balls sold in any craft stores that we decorated and inserted special pictures inside.

Snowy 20002004 – the year kids started fencing
I inserted a photo of them in fencing gear
I dated this photo on the back before inserting it

This year, in addition to making another one of these balls, I decided to upcycle a bunch of glass jar lids that I’ve collected into Christmas Photo Ornaments. They are so simple to make and they will bring back great memories of our past for years to come.

How to Make Christmas Photo Ornaments with Glass Jar Lids

I save used glass jars to store foods or non-food items but there’s so many I can use. So I ended up recycling the jars but since the lids are not recyclable, I collected them to make Christmas Photo Ornaments! And refrigerator magnets. (I will show you how stupid simple it is to make these at the end of the tutorial)

First, you’ll need:

• Glass Jar Lids – any size.
• Photos that you can cut up
• Epoxy Glue
• Acrylic Paint in any color you want to decorate the lids with
• Paint brush
• Glitter and/or any holiday decorative embellishments
• Ribbons, cut to about 4″ long
• Pencils and Scissors
• Magnet discs for making refrigerator magnets

1. Paint the lids and decorate with embellishments and glitter.

2. Let the paint and the embellishments dry for a few hours.

3. Add ribbons.

4. Outline the lids on the photos by using the pencil and cut out the circle around the photo. You can always trim the excess once you’ve cut out the photo according to the size of the lid.

5. Insert the mug shots, I mean, photos. 6. Voila! you are done. Now drink some eggnog and hang them on the tree.

“Cool hair do Andrew”

Write the year on the back so that you’ll remember when that photo was taken. You’ll forget if you don’t. Trust me.

Decorated on the outside

Say, “Cheese”

Opera practice

These make great stocking stuffers, gifts for family members (grandparents LOVE these), and even as gift tags.

How to Make Refrigerator Magnets with Glass Jar Lids

One cool way I decorate my fridge is with photo magnets made with lids, inspired by my mom, of course.

All you do is glue some magnet discs on the outside and insert photos. That’s it! Of course, take the price labels off first, even if you can’t see them, it’s just not pretty to leave the tags still on. I just left these on to illustrate that point. Honest.

So now you can look at photos without the clutter.  Enjoy!