Polka Dot Ornaments

One day last week when I went to grab the mail from the mailbox, lo and behold, I pulled out yet ANOTHER unsolicited and highly irritating computer CD of come sort (AOL anyone?). You must know the one I’m talking about… They send everyone on the planet Earth a CD promising a free months service and more popups than your eyes can possibly look at. It’s enough to make me NOT drink, as it leaves me feeling like I’ve already had a few too many as the popups ajust keep on coming until you are forced to improperly shut down your computer by hitting the off button to just stop all the insanity.

And I KNOW I am not the only person who has been suckered into their little free CD scheme either (in my defense, it was at least many years ago for me). But AOl aren’t the only ones who send these disks anymore. I seem to get them from all over.You know, companies using them as marketing told. If they only knew their marketing tools were headed straight to the trash can. But last Christmas, my sisters were saying that they were weeding through their CD collections and wanted to do something with the CD’s but just couldn’t come up with anything creative. I suppose this is when it’s handy to have monogram momma as your sister because they’ve got their own little go-to guru who can solve their decorating, crafting, and shopping dilemma. Well, let’s just say I try, anyway.

So this year I’d also decided to do a fun tree in the playroom/bonus room for the boys and the only catch was that I wanted all the ornaments on this tree to be homemade. And since I was determined to do something with these CD’s, and I also wanted to weed through my own CD collection and thin it out, this was the perfect opportunity. Let’s face it, the Greece soundtrack was great in college but now? Not so much. Enter today’s Christmas Craft project, CD ornaments.

You Will Need
-as many CD’s as you can find (or go buy a bunch of blank ones from your office supply store inexpensively)
-Mod Podge
-paint brush (I prefer a wide flat one for decoupage)
-decorative scrap booking paper or thick wrapping paper (fabric too, if you wanted)
-exacto knife
-ribbon for hanging

Step 1

Cut your paper into squares that are large enough to cover your CD’s. With a 12x12 piece of scrap booking paper, I was able to cut it into 4’s and get 2 cd ornaments from one sheet of paper.

Step 2

Liberally apply Mod Podge medium to each side of the CD, and affix a paper square that you’d previously cut to each side. Pres down and smooth out all wrinkles as best as you can (tip: If you use a thin paper you will get lots of wrinkles and creases. If you use a thick paper you won’t get any). Don’t forget to glue the center!

Step 3

Once you’ve affixed all the paper to the CD’s and they are completely dry, use your exacto knife to trim all edges off around your CD. Do the center also, since this is how you will hang your ornament. When you've finished with your trimming and they are round and trimmed and looking très cute, the final step is to lay out a throw-away plastic table cloth or a large plastic trash bag (this is what I like to use), and completely cover each side of your decoupaged CD with the mod podge. I like to use a lot so it will be extra protected.

Step 4

Let them dry, loop the ribbon of your choice through the center and you’ve got yourself the cutest polka-dot looking ornaments you’ve ever seen.

I have to say, I have gotten so many compliments on these fun ornaments. They are so eye catching and adorable in my preppy color pallette I chose to match this room. They aren’t something I’d put on my big tree downstairs, but they are really big and fun and kitschy for the kids tree and I love that. They are particularly great for a tree with lots of holes, such as an artificial tree. Now, another super simple and great twist on this project is to use photos. These CD ornaments would be a breeze to make into photo ornaments for your tree, but instead of cutting out the center hole, leave it in tact and glue gun your ribbon to the top of your ornament for hanging. Have fun!